MORE CHOIR SEATS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 10, 7 October 1943, Page 3

MORE CHOIR SEATS

Progress Of Work At Town Hall . Oue admirable new feature in the new platform layout in the Wellington Town Hull concerns eutrauces for artists and members of the chorus and orchestra. Being nearest to the spacious basement dressing or retiring room stairway, the entrance on the eastern side will be generally used Cor chorus and orchestra, while the soloists will be able to enter either from the entrance on the western side of tlie stage or the central oue beneath the organ console. The new feature is the provision of removable plat; form seats covering the whole space of the central entrance. Use will probably be made of these extra seats on the occasion of important choral concerts, when augmented choirs are engaged. t They make provision for about 16 or 18 more people directly iu front of the conductor’s rostrum. Ou such occasions it. would entail uo hardship ou the soloists to make their entrance from the western side, as the whole of the new floor at the rear of the platform is on the oue level. Plasterers are now busy covering the gaps iu the walls near the organ caused by the earthquake wrench last year. Ln the centre of the hull the huge travelling gantry of tubular steel, with its three parallel tracks, is now iu working order. Already a considerable section of the southern half of the ceiling has been painted. As repairs to the stamped steel ceiling have to be effected as the gantry moves northward, it will probably be the end of the month before the ceiling has been reconditioned. Most people, used to modern forms of building construction, are under the impression that this 75ft. span of the main hall roof of the Town Hall consists of steel girders. Such is not the case These girders actually consist of baulks of Oregon pine, strongly bolted together in sections. It is possible, in the opinion of some builders, that this provision may have prevented more serious damage being done to the structure than actually took place, as there would be a certain amount of give in Oregon pine girders that would be absent in rigid steel.

The special golden jubilee performance of Handel’s “Messiah” by the Royal Wellington Choral Union will definitely take place in the Town Hall on Saturday, December 18. Arrangements to that end are at present in hand.