MADRID, Spain — Spain's Queen Sofia on Saturday [8 October] inaugurated the city of Valencia's dramatic new opera house — a graceful building named in her honor [el Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía] and intended to put Spain's third-largest city on the architectural map.
Designed by the renowned Valencia-born architect Santiago Calatrava, it looks like a blend of seagoing vessel and spacecraft, coated with gleaming tiles that give its outer surface a daytime and nighttime luminosity similar to that of Sydney's Opera House.
[The building is part of Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences (la Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències) complex, largely designed by Calatrava.]
Valencia has lagged behind Barcelona and the Spanish capital, Madrid, in terms of arts and architecture. The new building was built to vie with Bilbao's landmark Guggenheim Museum for architecturally attuned tourists.
The interior has four performance areas including a main, 1,700-seat, space that can act as symphony orchestra concert hall, ballet and theater stage as well as opera venue.
When fully operational, the building will be capable of seating 4,000 people.
Calatrava has spent 14 years on the project.
"Because of the time spent, its size and because it involves music, this project is the most intense; the one I've devoted most time on, so far," Calatrava said. "It represents a correlation between spectator, musician and artist," he said.
The regional government of Valencia said the project had cost $303 million, although opposition leaders have said the figure was more likely to be in the region of $442 million.
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Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía: www.lesarts.com
La Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències: www.cac.es
