Theatres
The Place des Arts includes six halls of various sizes:
- Montreal Symphony House
- Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier
- Théâtre Maisonneuve
- Théâtre Jean-Duceppe
- Studio-théâtre
- Cinquième salle
Construction of a new concert hall for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra was completed in 2011 at the cost of C$105 million and seats approximately 1,900 spectators.
This wealth of theatres permits the staging of opera, symphony, ballet and other dance, chamber music, choral music, theatre, film presentation, and various other presentations and ceremonies. In addition to the theatres, the complex hosts the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, a museum of contemporary art, as well as rehearsal halls, shops, services, and a large, popular esplanade decorated with original fountains and water cascades.
All the various facilities are connected by an underground mall, also linked to Place-des-Arts metro station and Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) to the north and the Complexe Desjardins to the south as part of the Underground City.
The site is decorated with several works of public art including L'artiste est celui qui fait voir l'autre côté des choses by Claude Bettinger, Comme si le temps… de la rue by Pierre Granche, and La voie lactée by Geneviève Cadieux. A bust of conductor Wilfrid Pelletier by sculptor Arto Tchakmaktchian is on permanent display in the entrance hall.
In the summer the esplanade and the street in front of it make up one of the important outdoor sites of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal.
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Famous quotes containing the word theatres:
“Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This city now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie
Open unto the fields and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
“Towns are full of people, houses full of tenants, hotels full of guests, trains full of travelers, cafés full of customers, parks full of promenaders, consulting-rooms of famous doctors full of patients, theatres full of spectators, and beaches full of bathers. What previously was, in general, no problem, now begins to be an everyday one, namely, to find room.”
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