Dallas’s new opera house is beginning to take shape, more than two years before it will officially open, and already, the promise of the new facility is having an impact on the city’s cultural scene. “What’s already striking is how compact the audience chamber will be… Greater intimacy is a big part of the new building’s raison d’être, [and] the success of Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, which opened last fall, reinforces that promise.”