Page 37 - Volume 8, Issue 1 Winter 2013

Books and Publications
Dick Stern
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Title: Site and Sound—The Architecture and Acoustics of New Opera Houses and Concert Halls
Author: Victoria Newhouse
Publisher: Monacelli Press
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Illustrations: 300
ISBN 978-1-58093-281-3 Publishing date: 10 April 2012
Site and Sound: The Architecture and Acoustics of New Opera Houses and Concert Halls
begins with a historic overview to contextualize the iconic theater architecture of the latter twentieth century up to the dramatic new prospects now underway. Victoria Newhouse examines the inextricable link between acoustics and architecture through the ages. For each new theater she asks, “Does the music serve the space? Does the space serve the music?” Woven through Newhouse’s multidimensional view of these grand spaces are the personal observations of a wide range of architects, acousticians, conductors, composers, and performers consulted in the innumerable theaters she vis- ited. Stunning transformations, such as the most recent one of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, by Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, exemplify for Newhouse the shift in atti- tudes about the arts she finds in the United States towards urban placement and the needs of contemporary audiences and musicians. The in-depth treatment of fifteen new houses and concert halls in North America and Europe—from Snøhetta’s hill-like Oslo Opera House to Zaha Hadid’s small and temporary JS Bach Chamber Music Hall to Rem Koolhaas’s Casa da Musica in Portugal—demonstrates current trends toward intimate and transparent interior spaces that fully integrate acoustics and toward a greater openness to the city. Newhouse devotes a separate chapter to the unprecedent- ed proliferation of multi-hall Grand Theaters in the People’s Republic of China. Along with the halls themselves, she critiques the cultural context and ideas behind these sur- prisingly idiosyncratic representatives of regional political power. The book concludes with a worldwide tour of the next generation of opera houses and concert halls includ- ing those just completed, currently under construction, planned, or merely hoped for. Evaluating her accumulated evidence and the variety opinions and studies about what lays in store for music and performance, Newhouse comes to surprising and optimistic projections of a vibrant future awaiting sites for sound.
Editor’s Note—The items printed in “Books and Publications” are reported for informational purposes only and are not nec- essarily endorsements by the Editor, Acoustics Today, or the Acoustical Society of America.
36 Acoustics Today, January 2012