I think it’s safe to say that George Steel and Peter Martins are probably two of the happiest men in New York today.

Last Thursday morning, Steel and Martins—the general director of New York City Opera and Ballet Master in Chief of the New York City Ballet—invited members of the press to a preview of the newly renovated David H. Koch Theater (a.k.a. the New York State Theater), which is finally set to re-open on November 5 with American Voices, a program of American music. The gala reopening will honor Koch, who gave a $100 million lead gift to the joint capital campaign of the two companies, which both perform at the theater. Also at this morning’s preview was New York City Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin—the city of New York also donated $26.9 million toward the rebuilding project. Steel joked that the opening-night gala will be an opportunity to hear “ballet, opera-theater, and Rufus Wainwright—all at one low price.” Martins quipped that the theater’s 40-foot legroom space would be maintained, and the theater’s changes meant that Tchaikovsky could now be heard “as he was meant to be heard.” After the jump, you can see some pictures of the newly renovated space.

The big changes that audiences will notice in theater are two aisles in the orchestra seating, where there were none before, and the absence of rugs. With the addition of aisles in the theater, there are approximately 200 fewer seats than before. Among the other major changes are an expanded orchestra pit, which is also flexible and can be made smaller or larger depending on the size of orchestra needed. The pit also can be raised up or down to change the amount of sound being projected out into the auditorium. Because of the removal of the rugs and other adjustments such as a new fire curtain with an acoustically reflective surface, the theater’s acoustic enhancement system (which opera fans had bickered over since its installation in 1999) has been disabled. Although there are other improvements—refurbished restrooms, systems for recording high-definition broadcasts, new back-stage dressing rooms—it is surely the acoustic changes that opera fans will be most eager to hear for themselves. (Ballet fans will have a chance to check out the theater on November 24, when the NYCB opens its season with a newly choreographed work by Peter Martins, to music by John Adams.)

The New York City Opera, after surviving a tough economic year when it was also in performance limbo with its home theater closed, opens its season proper on November 7 with Hugo Weisgall’s Esther, a work that requires a large orchestra that should be happier playing from the new, larger pit. For my part, I would very much like to hear the Madama Butterfly revival in March, with Shu-Ying Li in the title role (the same soprano who sang Cio-Cio San in 2008 for the same company, and aired on Live from Lincoln Center). As much as I liked that performance (Shu-Ying Li is one of the best Cio-Cio Sans out there today), I still felt, from an acoustic standpoint, that the theater prevented the singers’ sound from blooming the way it should, and that this detracted from the emotional connection with the audience that can happen in really top-notch performances of this Puccini work.

See some pictures of the newly renovated space below: