Willard Spiegelman on Denyse Graves at the Winspear

D Magazine contributor and SMU professor Willard Spiegelman went to his first performance at the Winspear last night. Thomas Hampson and Denyse Graves performed. The good professor sends us this report:

The audience was all smiles and eagerness as its filed into the Winspear Opera House last night. Margaret McDermott was on the arm of Olivier Meslay of the DMA. Other local dignitaries and philanthropists were joined by ordinary people. A whole battalion of lanky women in spaghetti-strapped black dresses and headsets acted as ushers and crowd controllers.

The event was the kind of mixed bag that one often gets at fundraisers and celebrations. There were glitches. The streets were blocked off. The entrance to the theater is small and creates something of a bottleneck. Intimacy (a good thing) can blend into claustrophobia (a bad thing).

In the McDermott Hall itself, the new chandelier looked fabulous, the seats were comfortable, the sight lines excellent. Best of all, the acoustics made you realize as if for the first time how awful the Music Hall at Fair Park has been for the natural transmission of the human voice. Still, there were times when the orchestra (still getting used to the hall) overwhelmed Thomas Hampson and Denyse Graves; and poor Lord Foster, who tried to make his gracious remarks with a hand-held microphone, was less than audible and his words were garbled. He might have done better had he simply spoken with no amplification, in his street voice. Street voices are perfectly audible from the stage.

The stage proved itself capable of quick changes in backdrop and lighting, and equally hospitable to ballet (Christopher Wheeldon’s troupe, in various combinations), vocal solos and duets, and larger choral pieces.

The audience was delighted. The real test will be next week’s opening of Verdi’s Otello.