PBA Galleries

Original architectural plans, with additional hand-drawings and notations, for the Baghdad Opera House. Caption titled "Cross Section, Facing Mecca". Approximately 59x111 cm. (23¼x43¾") visible, matted and framed, overall 93.5x144 cm. (36¾x56¾"). Also two diazo print plans: "Plan at top of ziggurat and entrance to auditorium" 63.5x58.5 cm. (25x23") visible, matted 80.5x74 cm. (31¾x29¼") overall. "Elevation" 58x64.5 cm. (22¾x25½) visible, matted 75x80 cm. (29½x31½") overall.

The Baghdad Opera House was a part of the Frank Lloyd Wrights "Plan for Greater Baghdad" a project done by Wright for the development of a cultural center, opera house, and university on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, in 1957-58. The most thoroughly developed aspect of the plan was the opera house, which was to have been constructed on an island in the middle of the Tigris. Due to the 1958 collapse of the Hashemite monarchy, development of the project stopped, and it was never built. The opera house itself was intended to serve the Baghdad Symphony Orchestra. Wright's design was flexible enough to accommodate from 1600 to 7000 people. The plans show the building, atop a hill, approached by a road spiraling up from the base of the hill to the opera house at the top. A pool surrounds the theater and is itself surrounded by gardens. Provenance: From the collection of the Taliesin Foundation, sold in 2009 and acquired from the purchaser in 2010 by our consignor.