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From Heritage New Zealand, Autumn 2006

Extreme Makeover

by Shelly Howells

Hawke's Bay Opera House is re-opening to a chorus of enthusiasm.

Curtain up on a spectacular renovation. Photo: Hawkes Bay Opera House

Hawke's Bay Opera House has seen it all over the years: neglect, well-meaning repairs and renovations, amateur dramatics, boxing bouts, even the 1931 earthquake - its striking Spanish Mission-style facade survived the tremors that flattened most of Hastings and Napier. But it's not just staying power that's earned the "Grand Old Dame" a no-holds-barred $8.66 million extreme makeover. The building has the reputation of being one of the best lyric theatres of its type in Australasia. It is one of New Zealand's most significant examples of Spanish Mission architecture, and - more than anything - it holds a special place in the heart of a community wholeheartedly behind the project.

"Lavish" hardly begins to describe the new interior, especially its spectacular crowning glory, the painted auditorium ceiling, an opulent extravaganza of rich autumn tones and gold, featuring a dozen-odd figures striking artistic poses. It's a modern work, one that was intended to help bring together the old and new elements of the theatre complex (three buildings in all, each of a different era), to represent the arts and the community, to inspire and, above all give the "wow" factor.

Interior decoration is a highlight of the restored building. Photo: Hawkes Bay Opera House

The theatre's architect, Dunedin's Henry Eli White, was one of Australasia's most significant theatre designers at the turn of the last century - he built or altered more than 100 theatres in Australia, New Zealand and North America, including the St James in Wellington and Auckland, the Civic Theatre in Newcastle, NSW, and Sydney's State and Capitol Theatres.

Aside from his celebrated artistic vision, White delivered solid practicality, in the form of an engineering background, to his theatre projects, going so far as to create new structures to enhance the theatre experience for performers and audience.

The Hawke's Bay Opera House, built in 1915 for the princely sum of £12,000, for example, has only one column supporting the balcony instead of the usual view-blocking four or five, and the acoustics are legendary.

Photo: Hawkes Bay Opera House

Project manager Roger Shand, of Shand Shelton Architects, who specialise in theatres, says that the ceiling art was an opportunity to give the "not overly decorated" interior a touch of the distinctive enjoyed by the building's exterior, without any major structural changes.

Shand and artists Roz Paterson (whose major contribution was the design of the stunning windows) and Tina Carter's brief was to come up with a decorative concept "to connect the new and the heart of the heritage building", says Shand. "It was a great adventure to restore the building to its former glory, and to make the interior as interesting and memorable as the exterior."

The challenge was to unite modern, Art Nouveau and Spanish Mission exteriors, for starters. One element that pulls it all together are four coloured ribbons, representing drama (green), music (blue), dance (yellow) and community (red), that begin their journey outside the building, wrap and fold around and through the building in various media - sandblasted in glass, woven into carpet, integrated in metalwork, painted on to walls - culminating in the dome of the theatre. The job has involved specialist artists, designers and crafts people from all over the country.

The ceiling and overall colour-scheme were Carter's mission. The aim was a modern design, but within the Art Nouveau tradition. Eventually, the style of Gustav Klimt. who did his share of theatre decoration back in the day, was chosen for inspiration. "We were excited by his imagery," says Carter. "The colours, the style. So I used that to formulate my own representation." The figures, each representing an element of the arts, and observed by a mother and children and a pair of lovers representing the community, "personify the energy preceding a performance", she says.

She drew on local talent to use as models - one of the dancers has been earmarked for the New Zealand School of Dance, the lovers are a couple, the mother and babes are Carter and her twins. "They had to perform amazing feats of contortion to pose in that stylistic, head-on-side, angular-arms Klimt-style," she says, laughing.

Boxing complemented opera in the old theatre's repertoire. Photo: Hawkes Bay Opera House

Several feats of contortion were required to pull off the hands-on painting too, though the team of five artists(a maximum of three working at any one time) didn't have to spend years of their lives flat on their backs, noses pressed to the ceiling, like Charlton Heston's grumpy Michelangelo in The Agony and the Ecstasy.

Twenty-metre high scaffolding created a platform the artists walked on. "We stood while painting, bending right back," Carter explains. "But I had to visit the osteopath by the end!"

The dome took a mere three weeks of 10-hour days to complete. That includes breaks to take turns and stand on the stage to test those famous acoustics, which are "fantastic," confirms closet actor Carter.

Talk to anybody involved in the project, from the mayor to artist to fundraiser to the lowliest brush-hand, and they will say it is one of the most gratifying jobs they have worked on. "It has been so satisfying," says Hastings mayor Lawrence Yule, who has been involved in his share of community schemes. "This has had the greatest community support of all the projects I have done," he adds.

Old posters hung around for years. Photo: Hawkes Bay Opera House

Shand was also impressed by the support. "I haven't come across a community with so little opposition to a project,"he says. "It has always been a popular project. The building is so rich culturally for Hawke's Bay. It's been their prime performing arts centre for many years and the community is enormously enthusiastic about the building, there's a huge affection."

Millions of dollars have been raised by the locals for the project, via any and all means, from mums and dads adding $2 to their supermarket bill, to pub charities and corporate support. Even US Open Golf champ Michael Campbell did his bit by donating memorabilia to auction, and speaking, at a fund-raising dinner at Te Awa Farm in January.

The Hawke's Bay Opera House & Precinct project, which began as talk about upgrading a faded old theatre, will become "A significant piece of building infrastructure for the future growth of Hastings," says Shand. The brief was to restore the existing theatre and municipal buildings, add a connecting courtyard/plaza area and improve and update the existing facilities. It has been a three-stage project with which Shand has been involved for six years so far.

Stage three, due to begin this year, includes the Municipal Buildings, which house the Shakespeare Room that was originally the Hastings Council Chamber (the Mayor's office is now a bar) and The Assembly, which has done service as tea rooms, alcohol-free venue and ballroom in its lifetime. The completed complex will accommodate just about any function or production the punters can throw at it - from intimate wedding to musical spectaculars involving full orchestra in the new pit - for a good many years to come.

The future-proofing fits with the theatre's history. When it was first built, it seated 1100 people - just about more seats than theatre-going bums at that time, when the population was around 7000 - and it served the community in many ways, from movie theatre to boxing ring.

On the weekend beginning March 24, the community will get together to celebrate officially the completion of stages one and two of the project.

Details delight the eye at every turn. Photo: Hawkes Bay Opera House

There will be free performances, tours of the facilities and exhibitions and, presumably, a lot of well-deserved back-patting for a job that has gone very smoothly, from drawing board through to tradespeople and artists.

"I loved that team element," says Carter. "All the people involved in the project came together. It was amazing how it flowed. The beautiful thing for me is that feeling that that is how it might have been working on a project going back in time, with artists and labourers and architects all working together in a tradition that goes back in history. There's an integrity to that. You can feel the history doing something so big, for everybody. It's a heart thing."

Shand agrees. "This project has had wonderful moments. Everyone has been prepared to go the extra mile."

And the community responded with a festival of simultaneous jaw-dropping on their first chance to get an eyeful of the auditorium at last year's Royal New Zealand Ballet production of Dracula. "I must admit I was a little bit worried," says Yule. "I love the ceiling, but it is a bit 'out there'." He needn't have worried. "People were stunned."

"It was heart warming to watch people seeing our work," says Carter. "It filled me with gladness to see the beaming faces. The response has been phenomenal. People are thankful to have their theatre looking like that. They feel proud to show it off."