The Star/Knelman on the Safdie project, as part of a series on the new house.
Fans pine for old opera house plans
Jun. 7, 2006. 01:00 AM
MARTIN KNELMAN
Jack Diamond, the architect the Canadian Opera Company chose to build a miraculously compact, no-frills, acoustically perfect jewel of an opera house for just $150 million — a price even Toronto could afford — has brought it in on time and on budget.
But somewhere in the smog just beyond the opera house that has actually been built looms the phantom of a more grandiose culture palace — the $320 million ballet opera house that had been planned for the corner of Bay and Wellesley Sts. (Adjusted for inflation, that would be around $500 million in today's funds.)
Designed by the acclaimed silver-haired Boston-based Canadian architect Moshe Safdie soon after he did Ottawa's National Gallery, it vanished from the horizon in late 1990 amid screams of anguish just as Bob Rae was taking over the premier's office at Queen's Park and Ontario was slipping into serious recession mode.
For many who had worked so hard for the dream of building this symbol of Toronto's artistic aspirations, that was a crushing defeat — maybe the worst thing that ever happened in the history of our town's cultural wars. Some people took years to get over the setback. And others never did get over it.
"I don't think I could bring myself to visit the new opera house," Safdie confided recently at the opening of his wife's photography show at the Drabinsky Gallery. "The memory of what happened is just too painful."
Also among the shell-shocked was H.N.R. (Hal) Jackman, one of Toronto's leading cultural philanthropists, who had led the fight for the ballet opera house, made the deal with the Ontario government to secure it, and invested more than $1 million of his own money in what turned out to be one of the great follies of the 1980s.
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Jackman and his ally A.E. Diamond had been campaigning since the late 1970s, responding to the needs of the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada. Both companies felt they had outgrown the O'Keefe (later Hummingbird) Centre, which was all-purpose performance space rather than a house designed for ballet and opera.
A breakthrough came on Dec. 10, 1984, when Diamond, in his capacity as president of the Ballet Opera House Corporation, received a letter from William Davis, in his finals days as premier, promising a large, choice piece of land.
Three years later, the Liberal government under David Peterson gave Jackman, who had taken over from Diamond at the Ballet Opera Corporation, a $950,000 grant to run an architectural competition. But there was still some question about the site; Peterson was toying with offering a piece of land elsewhere in the city instead of this one.
Three finalists — Safdie, Barton Myers and James Stirling — were chosen from a group of 20 architects invited to compete. In early 1988, Safdie was declared the winner of the competition. But not everyone was pleased by the selection process or by the Safdie design.
The Star's Christopher Hume questioned the choice of Safdie, suggesting his design had a strangely familiar look to it. "The hall bears a number of striking similarities to the National Gallery ... Safdie would have been better advised to steer clear of anything with the least resemblance to his Ottawa masterpiece."
It was certainly monumental, with sophisticated equipment that would allow repertory scheduling with quick changes of sets from one production to another. And it had luxurious office and rehearsal spaces for both companies and posh entertaining spaces.
The budget had climbed from $150 million to $230 million by 1988, and Jackman was asking the province to contribute $70 million as well as the large, choice piece of land (valued at $50 million to $60 million). Peterson wanted to see some evidence that Jackman could get another $70 million from Ottawa and $20 million from Metro Toronto and also would be able to raise $70 million privately.
Jackman strengthened his case by finding 23 arts patrons willing to put up $1 million each to have their own boxes at the ballet opera house. Peterson eventually made a commitment to the Bay/Wellesley site, and offered $65 million in cash as well.
By the fall of 1990, the budget had ballooned to $320 million, but the players were buoyant even as consultants veered out of control and the whole enterprise morphed into a bubble that was ready to burst.
At this point there were 130 people on staff at the Ballet Opera House Corporation, four years before the anticipated 1994 opening of the hall.
The greatest problem seemed to have been solved when Brian Mulroney's federal government, which had been slow to make a financial commitment, pledged $88 million.
But by then Bob Rae's New Democrats had swept the Peterson Liberals out of Queen's Park, and it was clear they had serious issues. The province was broke and headed for a recession. Besides, the ballet opera house, with its escalating price tag, was beginning to look suspiciously similar to the SkyDome — a preposterously inflated $550 million sports palace paid for by Ontario taxpayers.
Rae was reluctant to cancel the ballet opera house, but made it clear he wanted to see it scaled back. The province wanted to reduce its cash contribution from $65 million to $40 million.
However, some of the most passionate advocates of the project, including David Silcox, the soon-to-depart deputy minister of culture, felt sure the NDP could be persuaded to honour the Liberal commitment.
The board of the Ballet Opera House Corporation feared that if the province cut back its cash contribution, Ottawa would do the same. Jackman and Murray Frum thought it would be best to agree to Rae's request. But they were outnumbered, and the 20-member board voted overwhelmingly to send Rae a strong message: You must honour the commitment of your predecessor. Translation: It's all or nothing. The board was virtually daring the premier to cancel the opera house.
That turned out be a disastrous error, which would doom the Safdie plan and put a curse on all hopes of a Toronto opera house for years to come.
Ten years later, Rae told me: "I was surprised by their lack of flexibility. Frankly, I couldn't understand it. I would love to have seen something go forward. But this had reached a level way beyond what could be justified."
At a cabinet meeting in November, the government decided to withdraw the commitment of $65 million cash but was still willing to provide the site.
Discussions about possible ways to salvage the Safdie building continued for months, but in effect the project was dead — and in February, 1991, the federal government withdrew its funding offer. Never again would any Toronto arts project even dream of getting $88 million from Ottawa.
About $21 million had already been spent, including $11 million from the province and $5.5 million from the federal government. Also lost: $4.5 million from private benefactors, including $1.3 million out of Jackman's pocket.
In retrospect Jackman says: "Realistically there was no way this project was going to fly, but we were getting mixed signals, and we got so wrapped up in it that we couldn't see things clearly."
Years later, Frum explained: "To understand what happened, you have to see it in terms of the craziness of those times, when it was widely assumed governments should pour money down black holes."
Rae was blamed and angrily accused of being a Philistine, especially by Brian Dickie, who was then the general director of the opera company. (Dickie seemed unable to move forward after this setback; three years later, with its deficit climbing and subscriptions falling, the opera company fired him.)
The collapse of the Safdie house left such a bitter legacy that even five years later, when Bradshaw (Dickie's successor) suggested it would still be necessary to build an opera house, a lot of people concluded he must be out of his mind.
Eventually the Bay/Wellesley site that three Ontario premiers had designated as the site for Toronto's opera house was sold to a developer.
Today it's the site of a condominium complex known as Opera Place.
NEXT: Dream resurrected
AoD