Frank Gehry designs a stage for singer Mariza

Los Angeles - Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, co-creator of the Dancing House in Prague, will design a stage for Portuguese singer Mariza, a leading figure in the fado music style, at the end of the year in Los Angeles, who recently performed in the Czech Republic. This was reported today by the AP agency.
    Gehry, who became famous for his bold urban visions, agreed to create a tavern-inspired set for Mariza's October performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, which is one of his works. He promised to combine the two arts for this unique evening.
    "I want the stage to support her, to make her even more beautiful," said the seventy-eight-year-old architect in an interview with AP. "It won't be a Frank Gehry stage. You won't recognize it," he declared.
    The architect noted that he met Mariza a few years ago in Lisbon and fell in love with fado, the Portuguese folk music with African roots, which often has melancholic lyrics. This music genre originated in working-class environments and was performed in taverns where people sat at tables, sang, and drank wine.
    "It’s a very intimate scene shrouded in darkness," said thirty-three-year-old Mariza, who is touring the United States this year. "It is a great privilege to have my own tavern overseen by Mr. Gehry."
    Gehry, known primarily as the designer of the Guggenheim Museum in the Spanish city of Bilbao (completed in 1997, a year after the Dancing House) and the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis (1990), has been quite busy lately. In June, he created his first playground in New York's historic Battery Park. He is also the designer of two skyscrapers in downtown Los Angeles. His other works include the American Center in Paris, Gehry's house in Santa Monica, California, and the Experience Music Project in Seattle.