klaxen wrote:
judging by that image overlap, there is an additional balcony on the backside of the concert hall as well (you have a small one "backstage" and the big one off the foyer area.. judging by that, is it possible that the concert hall itself is deep under what we have access to and the balcony is off a grand concourse area?
Sure, it's possible...if there were several staircases leading down down down from the interior hallway we can see beyond the barricades from the foyer area. But then the location listed on the DRC map as the "Concert Hall" would not match the shape they have depicted there.
Lordly wrote:
Starting with the idea that the 'barriers' we see and cannot get through...may be the access to this level and each of the other two levels for the orchestra to play...top level, percussion...center level, brass...lower level (the one we are on), woodwinds and strings...
If you take a look at the diagram in this post, you can see that the horizontal space between the wall of the entrance hallway furthest from the foyer and the point that the manmade cowl above the stage area meets the natural stone is much less than 44 feet. You can see that very little horizontal space remains above the hallway and cowl to put any higher orchestral levels...and if they were there, their sound would be bouncing off a vertical wall directly in front of them, not down and into the theater.
Regarding the levels of protrusions above the foyer windows on the side looking out toward the bay and Arch, I had thought them both to be simply multiple roof areas. But on exploration, the top level is not sloped the way a roof would be. And it has been built with what appears to be the lower part of a guard rail, which the D'ni were very conscientious about putting in anywhere there were precipitous drops like this. This rim only comes about knee-high, leading one to think it was intended to have posts and rails added above, which were never completed. Likewise, there is presently no exit from the interior to this exterior balcony, so I think it may have been designed for a future use that was never realized.

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it seems that the second level for sure has passages on either side to enter and exit
I myself see no indication of openings; but the curve of the facade on the right side there does disappear into the natural stone where it cannot continue its arc.
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I still contend that the dome closes after the orchestra is seated
The arch at the very top looks like it's embedded right into the rock wall, with no recess for it to slide into, no mechanism to drive such a thing. Even if it were a separate piece, where would such a movable dome extend to? Where is the mating part to which it would seal when extended and the "dome closed"?
To me, this arch in the above picture just seems to be a decorative addition, like the common arch motifs seen on many period buildings:
But really, without the ability to enter the theater, we can only hypothesize about its interior construction.