America's disposable society

In 1989 a new opera house opened in Paris on the site of the infamous Bastille, that fortress/prison stormed at the onset of the French Revolution some 200 years before.  This new house, called the Opéra de la Bastille, is now home to the French National Opera.  Seating some 3300 patrons, its programming also includes concerts and ballets.  The new house has been plagued by political intrigue over its artistic direction:  its first two artistic directors, Daniel Barenboim and Myung-whun Chung, were sacked, the former before he'd conducted a note.  The building itself has not been without distraction, with necessary internal and external retrofits: there was need for both acoustical improvement and replacement of parts of the building's facade.  For all of its problems, here it is:

I don't care....it really is atrociously ugly.

But what of the Palais Garnier, that showpiece with probably the most famous staircase (and chandelier) in the world?

Oh yeah, it's still there....to dazzle generations to come....

In Prague, one can still visit the "birthplace" of Don Giovanni.

Stavovske Divadlo, Prague

In Budapest, the 1884 Hungarian State Opera House still stands in all of its neo-Renaissance glory.

And in America, this:

has become this:

Detroit's amazing Michigan Theater is now a parking garage.
Yes, that's the upper balcony seating at the rear of the photo.

But an even greater architectural travesty took place in New York City in 1966.  Along with the Philharmonic, which formerly played at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera moved from its home at Broadway and 14th Street to Lincoln Center, trading this:

Last night at the "old" Met

For this:

The "new" Met....Lincoln Center...take your pick.

And what stands at 14th and Broadway?  An office tower, built after the management of the Met decided to raze the "Golden Horseshoe," a prime example of our disposable society.  Buildings go up and then come down.  While this might be appropriate for sporting venues (does anyone really care about the fate of the Houston Astrodome?), our cultural treasures deserve more for a society that refuses to preserve the important vestiges of its past ignores its history.  What do we know of the ancient Romans and Greeks but from the monuments left to us over the millennia?  What shall we pass on to future generations?  Or does anyone even care?

And that former home of the New York Philharmonic, which has been relegated to Avery Fischer Hall and its plethora of acoustical "improvements"?  (They'll never get it right.)  It's still there!

....and one has to think it's awaiting the orchestra's return.

I'm long past practicing enough....guess I'll just have to fly in for a concert.