“Walking past a new-model vehicle with its showroom sticker affixed to the windshield to get into concert halls and opera houses is a common international phenomenon. Last time I was at the tony Salzburg Festival, a flashy Audi, if I remember correctly, was parked in front of the Grosses Festspielhaus. And now the pristine, white new Opera House in Oslo, a year-old and already a landmark, has a pristine, white Mercedes messing up the building’s sculptural minimalism.”