2011 » Canada » Architecture Section

The Opéra-palette

The ephemeral and spectacular architecture of events is an architecture that can be rebuilt, revisited and rethought. One can take it apart and remove it, only to make it anew. Like the painted-over detail in an old canvas, it is something recreated and reborn. To an architect, it offers the exceedingly rare opportunity of working with the transient. The only permanence is that of an idea or spatial pretext that progresses and transforms itself in an ongoing process of research and creation, themes and materials. The Opéra-palette proposes the transformation of a banal, ubiquitous object – the shipping pallet – into a temporary open air performance space for opera. The pallet is envisioned as a total architectural artefact, serving as building material, structural system and stage set. Its use is a kind of journey: from factory to stage and back. The project is located in Quebec City, in the courtyard of the Conservatoire, next to the city’s principal theatre. The courtyard has remained underused since it and the Grand Théâtre were built in 1970, following an international design competition won by architect Victor Prus. The Opéra-palette will be built in the summer of 2011 for the first Quebec International Opera Festival to be inaugurated by tenor Placido Domingo.