Entering the Benedum while the center’s chandeliers are lowered to ground level for their annual polishing is like walking into a museum and seeing a piece of art you’ve observed only from the pages of books. Finally, you can get close enough to discover textures, to see the precision and imperfection that reveal a human hand behind the work’s creation.
The massive main chandelier suspended high over the theater balcony is adorned with more than 500,000 crystal pieces. It was installed in 1928 — when the theater was called “The Stanley” — and has soared above acts as varied as Laurel and Hardy, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, the Grateful Dead and Bob Marley. It’s now a signature part of the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts, home to the Pittsburgh Opera, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Pittsburgh CLO.
Next time you find yourself in one of the center’s 2,800 seats, glance up at that main chandelier and all of its glistening pieces and think of the workers behind its creation. We’re told they toiled for a thousand hours to string the crystal together. We’re guessing they had sore fingers.
This is house electrician Will Dennis inside the main chandelier, which was lowered to balcony level so workers could access the crystal pieces and light bulbs.Light passing through more than 500,000 crystal pieces gives the chandelier its brilliance.Light reflects off the edge of a crystal piece.This crystal globe hangs on the bottom portion of the main chandelier.Chrystal glistens in the work light.Perry Russell polishes crystal underneath the 4,700-pound main chandelier.This amber crystal is part of the main chandelier.The main chanderlier is suspended by cable powered by an electric motor and is lowered once a year for cleaning.More than 90 chandeliers, torchieres and sconces can be found in the theater. This bulb illuminates a chandelier in the Grand Lobby.Five chandeliers illuminate the Benedum’s Grand Lobby.Small pieces of wire hold crystal in place.During a 1987 restoration, each crystal was cleaned, restrung with wire and rehung.Missing or broken pieces were replaced, but matching pieces were hard to find. The Central Brass Co. conducted a worldwide search.Before restoration, the lobby chandeliers were the most intact.
By 
