Slate Magazine: David Leventi Documents the Granduer of the World’s Great Opera Houses

posted by ThrHistoricalSociety on July 20, 2015 at 6:50 pm

Slate’s David Rosenberg brings photographer David Leventi’s work documenting the world’s great opera houses to readers. ‘Photographer David Leventi started out thinking he would be a reportage photographer. He admired Henri Cartier-Bresson and street photography, began his career interning in the archives at Magnum Photos, and shot with a Leica camera searching for the elusive “decisive moment.” But things started to change when he began working for photographer Robert Polidori…’

‘…Leventi used that experience beginning in 2007 when he began documenting some of the most famous opera houses around the world, creating the series “Opera.”

Leventi’s childhood memories are of his grandfather singing around the house. Leventi said he was good enough to have been a professional tenor but was interned in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp from 1942-1948. Leventi said “Opera” pays homage to the dreams of his grandfather.*

“In a way, taking a photograph with an 8x10 camera is like performance art, there’s an act to it, so this idea of light and sound being very similar the way they interact … the idea of standing on center stage and being in all these opera houses where he could have performed if there wasn’t the war and all these other circumstances, communism, etc. … I guess you can say I’m living out our dreams.”

The son of two architects, Leventi said he “learned over time to organize the chaotic world around me into a compositionally organized grid.”

Enjoy the Slate article and David Leventi’s amazing photographs here:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/06/24/david_leventi_opera_documents_the_great_opera_houses_around_the_world_photos.html

ABOUT THEATRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA: Founded by Ben Hall in 1969, the Theatre Historical Society of America (THS) celebrates, documents and promotes the architectural, cultural and social relevance of America’s historic theatres. Through its preservation of the collections in the American Theatre Architecture Archive, its signature publication Marquee™ and Conclave Theatre Tour, THS increases awareness, appreciation and scholarly study of America’s theatres. Learn more about historic theatres on our website at www.historictheatres.org