Le docteur Miracle/La tragédie de Carmen

...Royal Academy of Music, Marylebone Road

...'The Susie Sainsbury Theatre is a new performance space for England's oldest conservatoire. The new theatre, designed for both opera and musical theatre, provides over 300 seats, through the addition of a balcony. This is 40% more than in the auditorium's previous incarnation and, along with the addition of a large orchestra pit, stage wing and full fly tower, miraculously transforms the level of performance and teaching the Academy can provide.

The theatre has a warm sensual quality, its faces lined in meticulously detailed faceted cherry wood, into which Liverpool red seats are embedded. The architect explored how wood is transformed and tuned, as well as the role of varnish and pigments in Stradivarius' instruments. The timber lining has been manipulated to provide good sound reflection and diffusion, as well as warmth and light.'
RIBA