Although the experience inside the Wynn Palace in Macau after a gondola with dragons is initially a bit underwhelming, visitors can soon find themselves in the resort's ground-level hallways, which few people would describe as understated.
The hallways lead to luxury shops, restaurants, and, of course, the main casino. Walking around will also take one past a number of creative works.
For example, there is the Tulips sculpture by the American artist Jeff Koons.
There are also floral sculptures designed by Preston Bailey. All of them were made in Las Vegas, dismantled, shipped to Macau, and then reassembled. With eight available in total, the two sculptures on display at the Wynn Palace change every few months. During my recent visit, the hot air balloon floral sculpture was out.
Each of the balloons slowly rises and falls, and the largest is nearly 17 feet (about 5 meters) in height.
The other floral sculpture now on display at first only appears to be your everyday 12-foot-tall Fabergé egg.
[Spoiler alert: there is more than meets the eye here. To avoid the big egg reveal do not read any further and take a ride on the nearest gondola.]
But periodically a phoenix appears accompanied by a condensed version* of the end of Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird.
Perhaps the regenerating phoenix can give people hope if they lost a lot of money in the casino. Or in Preston Bailey's words: “We knew that we needed to keep people amused and surprised.” Whatever the case, after the short performance the phoenix returns to its egg until it decides to emerge once again.
Somebody recently posted a video of the phoenix doing its thing, so if you need a bit of phoenix inspiration:
And now I am going to do a bit of regeneration myself with a more complete performance of The Firebird.
*Stravinsky composed several versions of The Firebird. I didn't check them all but am not aware of any being shortened in this manner.
The hallways lead to luxury shops, restaurants, and, of course, the main casino. Walking around will also take one past a number of creative works.
For example, there is the Tulips sculpture by the American artist Jeff Koons.
There are also floral sculptures designed by Preston Bailey. All of them were made in Las Vegas, dismantled, shipped to Macau, and then reassembled. With eight available in total, the two sculptures on display at the Wynn Palace change every few months. During my recent visit, the hot air balloon floral sculpture was out.
Each of the balloons slowly rises and falls, and the largest is nearly 17 feet (about 5 meters) in height.
The other floral sculpture now on display at first only appears to be your everyday 12-foot-tall Fabergé egg.
[Spoiler alert: there is more than meets the eye here. To avoid the big egg reveal do not read any further and take a ride on the nearest gondola.]
But periodically a phoenix appears accompanied by a condensed version* of the end of Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird.
Perhaps the regenerating phoenix can give people hope if they lost a lot of money in the casino. Or in Preston Bailey's words: “We knew that we needed to keep people amused and surprised.” Whatever the case, after the short performance the phoenix returns to its egg until it decides to emerge once again.
Somebody recently posted a video of the phoenix doing its thing, so if you need a bit of phoenix inspiration:
And now I am going to do a bit of regeneration myself with a more complete performance of The Firebird.
*Stravinsky composed several versions of The Firebird. I didn't check them all but am not aware of any being shortened in this manner.
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