Music to your eyes

The world’s grand opera houses and concert halls strike aesthetic high notes of their own, and they’re still standing long after the fat lady sings.

Opera and orchestral performances are many things, but minimalist they are not, and neither are the buildings people visit to experience their passionate productions. The music and costumes are central, of course, but these are arts where the setting also matters—somehow Rigoletto or Pictures at an Exhibition wouldn’t be the same in an airplane hangar or a Home Depot. Thus the finest opera houses and concert halls regularly rate inclusion in a smart traveler’s destination list—these six, for instance:

Carnegie Hall, New York

On Seventh Avenue between 56th and 57th streets is this renowned structure, which has symbolized the dreams of generations of performers. Its construction was completed in 1891 by New York City’s William Burnet Tuthill, a professional cellist and architect who was handpicked for the project by Andrew Carnegie although he’d never built a concert hall before. Tuthill was inspired by Renaissance Revival architecture, characterized by its flat roofs and rounded arches. His emphasis in building Carnegie Hall, however, was on acoustics; the concert hall’s elliptical shape and domed ceiling help musical notes and singing voices richly permeate the entire theater. Currently, Carnegie Hall has three stages for live performances, as well as an updated wing devoted to music education. While you’re there: There are countless tourist attractions in or near Manhattan’s Midtown West neighborhood, including Times Square, Central Park, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, Lincoln Center, the Paley Center for Media, Broadway theaters and the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.