After five years of cranes and construction dust, after shifting deadlines and swelling budgets, after all the noise from all the naysayers, there was The Light in the Piazza.
The $446.3 million Carnival Center for the Performing Arts finally opened its doors to a paying public Tuesday night, the gleaming architecture by Cesar Pelli, $4.2 million in artwork and production of the Tony Award-winning musical The Light in the Piazza upstaging all the drama involved in getting there.
A glittering downtown Miami welcomed its latest landmark with famously balmy weather as patrons dressed in finery befitting a historic first night streamed in by limo, SUV and Japanese sedan (Lexus owners got free valet parking under a sponsorship agreement with the Lexus South Florida Dealers Association).
After much pre-game chatter about whether parking and traffic around the Carnival Center would be a backed-up mess, the approach turned out to be trouble-free.
At least 11 police officers were stationed around the performing arts center to ensure a safe evening, said Miami police Cmdr. William Alvarez, who watched the easy flow of traffic at the valet line.
But then again, the 2,400-seat Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House wasn't full, with empty seats dotting the house. That didn't stop patrons from enjoying their night of theater.
The audience got a lot more than romantic song and dance. Yes, there was a Broadway musical. But there was also Cuban artist José Bedia's railings and terrazo floors featuring spirals, anhingas, palms and sea life. A few folks went in search of 93-year-old Cundo Bermúdez's Ways of Performing, the brightly colored floor-to-ceiling mosaic mural near the smaller Studio Theater at the east end of the Opera House.
''It's stunning. And I have to say that I'm proud that two of Cuba's most important artists are represented in the new center. That says a lot about Miami recognizing its own,'' said Cesar Rodriguez-Campo, a Cuban-American architecture student who attended the show with a group of friends. They said they were surprised they were able to walk up to the box office on Tuesday afternoon and buy six tickets.
As late as 30 minutes before curtain, as the pink glow of sunset settled over the Carnival Center and cars pulled up to the valet line, workers were still spraying silver paint on outside railings across the street at the John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall.
The vast stage of the Opera House became home to set designer Michael Yeargan's Tony Award-winning version of Florence in 1953, a place where statues glide on and off, where the Tuscan light glimmers gold and a young woman moves from eternal childhood to blissful love.
Like so many new musicals, The Light in the Piazza began its journey to the stage in another form: written as a New Yorker short story by Elizabeth Spencer, it was published as a novella in 1960, made into a 1962 movie and then, some 40 years later, slowly developed at regional theaters before landing on Broadway in 2005.
It was the perfect evening for Sarah Lopez, whose husband José, surprised her with tickets to celebrate her 47th birthday on their last night in Miami.
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