The House The Mouse Built: Walt Disney Concert Hall

1/2/2012

The one good thing about being called to serve on jury duty last week, just three days after holiday, was being allowed to park at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. (and NOT being selected; bringing the total to two, actually) After sitting in the jury selection room till nearly noon, before finally being released, I trudged back over to the Concert Hall and decided, since I had free parking for the day, to go inside and take advantage of their FREE audio tour. (a guided tour was also offered) Being a germaphobe, I was reluctant to don the provided headset, but I gave into my fear of death by microorganisms and put them on. And boy, am I glad I did. This iconic Frank Gehry designed structure is amazingly beautiful to say the least. The outside, while reminiscent of its predecessor, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilboa, Spain, is a gravity-defying, structural phenomenon. As expected, the audio tour (narrated by Walt Disney’s daughter, Diane and actor, John Lithgow) gives you the full background on how the house that the mouse built came to be.

I had not been inside the hall since it opened in the fall of 2003, when I attended a concert by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, so it was definitely a pleasure going inside today for the tour.