Robin Snell visits two finely crafted performance spaces by Ian Ritchie Architects at the Royal Academy of Music

Words
Robin Snell
Photos
Adam Scott

The aim of any new opera house, music room or theatre should be to raise the bar for the company, to challenge performers and audiences alike to search for a higher place, and create the ‘white heat’ of performing excellence, as Peter Hall described the premiere of ‘Yevgény Onégin’ in the opening season of the new Glyndebourne Opera House in 1994. And, at the opening of the pavilion for Garsington Opera (2011, Robin Snell & Partners), Daily Telegraph opera critic Rupert Christiansen kindly suggested it could be a candidate for the “most beautiful opera house in the world”. The design of our public performance spaces matters.

A new project at the Royal Academy of Music by Ian Ritchie Architects sets its standards very high, but it is useful to remind oneself that its two new performance spaces are intended primarily for students to learn their art and hone their skills. The foresight of the academy’s principal, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood (himself a trumpet player), its board and staff, the generous benefactors and the architect, is to be applauded.

Compared to the standards normally achieved in new educational and performance buildings, this project comes as a breath of fresh air. Founded in 1822, the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) moved in 1911 to its present location on Marylebone Road at the southern edge of Regents Park, immediately behind the Nash terrace of Park Gate East. Its building, designed by Ernest George & Yeates and now grade-II-listed, has been extended and adapted as needs arose.

Ian Ritchie Architects’ initial brief was to increase the capacity and improve the acoustics in the theatre, and provide five new percussion studios, a jazz room and an audiovisual control room. They later proposed exploring the potential of the roof space above the theatre. The principal suggested that a recital hall with recording facilities was desired, but doubted it could be achieved. Ritchie rose to the challenge. Everything had to be contained within the existing site and constructed while the academy was in full occupation, so considerable ingenuity was required by both architect and contractors – and an approach akin to keyhole surgery.

Tucked away behind the Edwardian facade and surrounded by other listed buildings, the new structure is positioned on the site of the Sir Jack Lyons Theatre, a 234-seat auditorium that opened in 1976. Everything in the Susie Sainsbury Theatre is new, though the rake of the old theatre has been reused to maintain the practice rooms below. This prevented the obvious move of turning the auditorium through 90 degrees, which would have enhanced connections with the foyers and entrances, but that doesn’t detract from the end result, and in fact probably improves its form. The new theatre has greater capacity, height and volume, and directly above the auditorium is a much needed new recital room and recording studio, and to the side, between the rear of the Ernest George building and the outer walls of the new auditorium, is a glass-topped foyer space. This allows space for the new facility to breathe, while exposing more of the original building’s elevation and permitting light to flood down to the lower levels.

This clever strategic move also brings into play the grand staircase of the Edwardian building and provides access to the foyers from the main building. One hopes that in the future RAM will press ahead with the restoration of the staircase to revitalise this key organising space, as well as enhancing the newly created anteroom entrance at ground-floor level. Both moves would significantly improve the experience of audience arrival and provide the opportunity to better reveal what the academy is all about.

The Susie Sainsbury Theatre, positioned at the heart of the Royal Academy and designed for both opera and musical theatre, is a gem. Reminiscent of some smaller-scale Italian opera houses, its proportions make a very intimate room, perfect for training young voices. Rather than a conventional ‘horseshoe’, the balcony describes more of a shallow U-shape, an elegant profile that has the effect of pushing the balcony front and audience closer to the stage, heightening the feeling of intimacy. This feels like a professional house, with a generous orchestra pit and a new flytower – like a mini-Glyndebourne perhaps, but for the urban dweller. It features painstakingly-detailed cherry wood linings throughout, elegantly designed seats with red leather upholstery, and 600 fibre-optic ‘crystal’ lamps, like a deconstructed chandelier, to provide the essential ‘sparkle’. 

Above, and largely invisible from the surrounding streets, the 100-seat Angela Burgess Recital Hall is acoustically isolated from the theatre. Lined in pale, lime-washed oak, it is flooded with natural light from a central oculus. This space, too, is a tour-de-force of joinery skills, with a real sense of being hand-crafted, and has a warm, rich acoustic that was evident during a rehearsal I watched. Adjoining the hall is a recording studio, which will be in high demand from professionals as well as students. 

This project had many complex aspects that required creativity and determination to navigate through planning, design and construction. The architect has exceeded all expectations, and the academy – and future generations of young musicians – are privileged to have two new venues of such high quality. The theatre provides London with an exceptional, intimate new music venue – part opera house, part front room – where I’m sure eminent conductors and directors will be queueing up to perform. The experience of working with the space promises to be memorable, and the students will be driven to step up to the mark. Book now to avoid disappointment.

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