It’s a curious truth that one of the few buildings in the world named after its architect is an opera house. Or at least that’s how Allan Greenberg sees it, referring of course to Charles Garnier’s Beaux-Arts Palais Garnier in Paris.

“The world of every opera is a fantasy world”, Greenberg explained over the phone just following the groundbreaking of his latest project, the Shepherd Opera House and Music Center on Rice University’s Houston campus. “A director may dress operas in contemporary clothing, and the opera may even tell a contemporary story, but still the world it creates is a fantasy world, and the opera house should stand out as an overture, a musical overture.”