Redesigning Music Hall

Lots has happened in Over-the-Rhine since my March 26 story, "Showdown at Music Hall," which raised the question of whether the symphony will remain there. Besides the crime issue, there is the dilemma of whether -- and how -- to redesign Music Hall.

Last week, during a Mozart concert with Jaime Laredo, the orchestra moved the shell closer to the audience, and had the reduced orchestra outside the proscenium, close to the edge of the stage.

I noted in my review that the sound was surprisingly good. One source believes that in fact, it was close to the original intention of architect Samuel Hannaford, when he renovated Music Hall in 1895 to make it suitable for the symphony. (You recall, it was built for the massive choral extravaganzas of the May Festival.)

The buzz is that several consultants have visited to look at the hall, invited by both symphony and opera, but there's no word yet to the public on what might be done. It's a tricky situation. As I sat there last week looking up into the vast space, I wondered how, in fact, anyone could make it "smaller" for symphony concerts. Sliding panels? Taking out seats? Closing off sections? Reducing the numbers of rows? Adding more boxes (perhaps with cupholders)? Bumping out the stage, like Avery Fisher Hall tried last summer for Mostly Mozart?

And if the hall were permanently reduced to say, 2,800 seats, how would that affect its other tenants?

I've visited a few remakes in our country, notably Severance Hall in Cleveland, which is spectacular, and Orchestra Hall in Chicago, which has had acoustical problems ever since.

What's the solution?