What’s Playing by the Bay?

While the horseshoe-shaped theatre is built to resemble a traditional Italian opera house, the concert hall designed by acclaimed acoustician Russell Johnson includes reverberation chambers, an acoustic canopy and acoustic curtains — so amplification is completely unnecessary.

People’s feelings about the Esplanade have certainly changed. The legends associated with the building — described as kitschy by some, distinctive by most — have found acceptance among Singaporeans. The guide on the hour-long ‘DuckTour’ around Singapore says the Esplanade was built to resemble the Sydney Opera House. A local photographer insists the design is based on two copulating aardvarks.

Vikas Gore, director of DP Architects (chief architects of the project), can keep shaking his head in amusement and say the Esplanade was not meant to resemble any of these, but the iconic structure has captured popular imagination. A headline in the most widely circulated newspaper heralded the opening day with ‘Durian season begins.’

‘‘Singapore builds a performing arts centre once in a lifetime,’’ says Gore, ‘‘so we took the opportunity to do something beyond the conventional, anything less would have been doing ourselves and the country injustice,’’ he says. He does not like the comparison with the Sydney Opera House. ‘‘It has a powerful exterior but the theatres are terrible, acoustically and functionally and it wasn’t any source of inspiration.’’

The philosophy behind the arts centre, points out the chief executive officer, was it should be a people’s performing centre — democratic rather than elitist. In Gore’s words, ‘‘We didn’t want people to wonder what the rich, all dressed up in their gowns and tailcoats, do after they disappear into this mysterious place.’’

Therefore, the glass domes at the Esplanade Theatre provide this transparency; those on the pavement can look straight into the foyer. The sun is kept away by a unique cladding system, the spiky shades adding to the fast-multiplying legends and likenings. ‘‘We want Singaporeans to embrace the arts as an intrinsic part of their daily lives,’’ says Puah, Gore’s partner, enthusiastically. But that perhaps depends on ticket prices, which were certainly beyond the reach of the average local during the inaugural festivities.