TEATRO NACIONAL DE SÃO CARLOS
Lisbon, Portugal
The Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisbon’s magnificent grand opera, was built in 1793. The upper grid of the opera is entirely made of wood and painted white*. The original upper stage machinery, consisting of wooden drums and rope, is for the most part still present under the peaked roof of the stage house. There are still several fly systems with direct-pull hand-ropes and hand pull with one, two, three stagehands (!). Several flybar systems are flown with counterweights, but date from a period from before extended counterweight tracks. The number of electromechanical winches can be counted on two hands – these are for the frequently used, and often heavy flybars for stage lighting.
All that remains of the stage-level machinery, once fitted with traps, streets and moving legs, is the free-standing wooden orchestra shell bearing witness of countless operas and performances. Today, it stands in the way of the operation of the opera, and probably always has.
The renovation targeted a re-organization of the backstage areas, increasing the space for performers, and improving working conditions for people working in the many workshops for props, costumes and stage sets. At the front of the theater, it included a revitalization of a former foyer that is used as an orchestra rehearsal space. Inside the opera hall, interventions targeted improved control and projection room spaces, and re-insertion of seating rows in the balcony at the very top.
On the technical side, the renovation included a drastic overhaul of the stage technology, bringing it in line with international standards. In the current situation, many traveling productions are obliged to make adaptations to their stage sets before they can be presented in Sao Carlos. Special attention was given to the proscenium area, as the users requested a reduction of the depth of the sequence of house curtain, fire curtain and portal bridge, in order to bring performers closer to the stage edge without formally breaking the fourth wall.
Another main part of the technical puzzle concerns the stage itself. The current stage has a slope of some 4 degrees. This slope was determined for the sightlines from the parterre. The new stage was asked to be flat, but with the possibility to slope it as needed for certain productions. As the delivery from the truck, the storage and workshops is via the rear of the stage, this was not a simple thing to solve without resorting to big, heavy and expensive stage elevators…
If walls could speak – what a remarkable building!
The Space Factory contributed to the re-organization proposals of the architects of the back and front of house areas, and the truck position, clamped between the building and the tramway passing through the side street, with the stage half a story below the street.
The other tasks consisted of designing a new overstage grid and the installation of modern flying systems with minimal disruption of the original wooden grid. The reduction of the depth of the proscenium allowed the original on-stage lighting niches to become usable again. The solutions for delivery and sloping stages consisted of a mix of modern and period-inspired stage machinery which made it possible to revive the space under the stage for its original use as a true understage for effects, appearances and disappearances, and other operatic ‘secrets’.
*) White grids help technicians see in the dark, especially during performances, when the lighting levels in these areas are at bare minimum. This certainly questions the vested conviction that grids and stage houses should always be dark. We are not aware of a single recorded complaint from a performer or audience member about lighting spill from the grid onto the stage
Client — City of Lisbon
Architects – Gonçalves Viera-Cruz with Jao Falcao de Campos
Acoustician – Arrau
Scenographer – The Space Factory
Competition, second prize
