Opernhaus Dortmund
Encyclopedia
Opernhaus Dortmund is the opera house
of Dortmund
, Germany
, opened in 1966 and formally operated by the Theater Dortmund
.
roof.
's Der Rosenkavalier
, an opera which had been first performed in 1911, shortly after its premiere; Wilhelm Schüchter
conducted the Dortmunder Philharmoniker
. Teresa Żylis-Gara appeared as Octavian, along with guest artist Elisabeth Grümmer
as Marschallin and Kurt Böhme
as Ochs. In the short remaining part of the season Verdi's Il trovatore
, with Fedora Barbieri
as Azucena, Mozart's Die Zauberflöte
, Hindemith's Mathis der Maler
, and Der Zigeunerbaron
of Johann Strauß were performed.
The first plays staged in the socalled Großes Haus during this period were Brecht's Leben des Galilei
and Anouilh's Becket
. Unusual for the time of the Iron curtain
, the Volkstheater Rostock
performed Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt durch die Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung des Herrn de Sade
of Peter Weiss
.
, a commission of the city of Dortmund.
In 1992 the opera Sekunden und Jahre des Caspar Hauser by Reinhard Febel
was first performed, with Alexander Marco-Buhrmester in the title role.
The opera Wallenberg of Erkki-Sven Tüür
was commissioned by the Oper Dormund and premiered there on 5 May 2001, staged by Philipp Kochheim, conducted by Alexander Rumpf.
was the Generalmusikdirektor from 1973 to 1979, followed by Moshe Atzmon
(1996-2000), Anton Marik, Arthur Fagen, and since 2008 Jac van Steen
. The Dortmunder Philharmoniker used the opera house for concerts until 2002.
In 2000 Michael Hofstetter conducted a production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde
.
Christine Mielitz was Opera Director in Dortmund Theatre since 2002/2003. In 2004, the 100th anniversary of the first opera house, a new production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen
was planned. It started with Das Rheingold
on 26 June 2005, directed by Mielitz and conducted by Arthur Fagen. Siegfried
was performed on 2 September 2006. In April 2007 a complete cycle was performed. In 2009 she staged Henze's Der junge Lord
, conducted by Jac van Steen, related to the project RUHR2010, the whole Ruhr
being European Capital of Culture
.
Verdi's Falstaff
was performed on 11 April 2010, staged by Beverley Blankenship, conducted by Jac van Steen, with Jacek Strauch in the title role.
Jens-Daniel Herzog
has been Opera Director since August 2011.
Opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...
of Dortmund
Dortmund
Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, opened in 1966 and formally operated by the Theater Dortmund
Theater Dortmund
Theater Dortmund is a theatrical organization that produces operas, musicals, ballets, plays, and concerts in Dortmund, Germany. It was founded as the Stadttheater Dortmund in 1904...
.
Architecture
The first opera house of Dortmund of 1904 had been destroyed in World War II. The new opera house was designed by architects Heinrich Rosskotten and Edgar Tritthart. The design separates the functions stage and technical rooms in the Bühnenhaus (stage house), dominated by straight lines, from the hall for the audience under a thin-shell structureThin-shell structure
Thin-shell structures are light weight constructions using shell elements. These elements are typically curved and are assembled to large structures...
roof.
Opening season
The new stage opened on 3 March 1966 to serve as a venue for operas, ballets, concerts, and for plays which require a big stage. The inaugural performance was of Richard StraussRichard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
, an opera which had been first performed in 1911, shortly after its premiere; Wilhelm Schüchter
Wilhelm Schüchter
Wilhelm Schüchter was a German conductor. He was Generalmusikdirektor in Dortmund and left a legacy of opera recordings.-Professional career:...
conducted the Dortmunder Philharmoniker
Dortmunder Philharmoniker
The Dortmunder Philharmoniker are a German symphony orchestra based in Dortmund. The orchestra of the Theater Dortmund performs both opera in the Opernhaus Dortmund and concert in the Konzerthaus Dortmund...
. Teresa Żylis-Gara appeared as Octavian, along with guest artist Elisabeth Grümmer
Elisabeth Grümmer
Elisabeth Schilz Grümmer was a German operatic lyric soprano.She was born at Niederjeutz, near Diedenhofen, Alsace-Lorraine to German parents...
as Marschallin and Kurt Böhme
Kurt Böhme
Kurt Böhme was a German bass.He was born in Dresden, Germany, where he studied with Adolf Kluge at the Dresden Conservatory. He made his debut in 1930 in Bautzen as Kaspar, one of his most important roles further on...
as Ochs. In the short remaining part of the season Verdi's Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, with Fedora Barbieri
Fedora Barbieri
Fedora Barbieri was an Italian mezzo-soprano.Barbieri was born in Trieste. She made her official debut in Florence in 1940, but retired in 1943 because of her marriage. She re-emerged in 1945. She was one of the first performers to investigate and perform in early operas by Monteverdi and Pergolesi...
as Azucena, Mozart's Die Zauberflöte
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
, Hindemith's Mathis der Maler
Mathis der Maler (opera)
Mathis der Maler is an opera by Paul Hindemith. The libretto is also by the composer.The opera's genesis lay in Hindemith's interest in the Protestant Reformation...
, and Der Zigeunerbaron
The Gypsy Baron
The Gypsy Baron is an operetta in three acts by Johann Strauss II which premiered at the Theater an der Wien on 24 October 1885. Its libretto was by the author Ignaz Schnitzer and in turn was based on Sáffi by Mór Jókai. During the composer's lifetime, the operetta enjoyed great success, second...
of Johann Strauß were performed.
The first plays staged in the socalled Großes Haus during this period were Brecht's Leben des Galilei
Life of Galileo
Life of Galileo , also known as Galileo, is a play by the twentieth-century German dramatist Bertolt Brecht. The first version of the play was written between 1937 and 1939; the second version was written between 1945–1947, in collaboration with Charles Laughton...
and Anouilh's Becket
Becket
Becket or The Honor of God is a play written in French by Jean Anouilh. It is a depiction of the conflict between Thomas Becket and King Henry II of England leading to Becket's murder in 1170. It contains many historical inaccuracies, which the author acknowledged.-Background:Anouilh's...
. Unusual for the time of the Iron curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
, the Volkstheater Rostock
Rostock
Rostock -Early history:In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc ; the name Rostock is derived from that designation. The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161.Afterwards the place was settled by German traders...
performed Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt durch die Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung des Herrn de Sade
Marat/Sade
The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade , almost invariably shortened to Marat/Sade, is a 1963 play by Peter Weiss...
of Peter Weiss
Peter Weiss
Peter Ulrich Weiss was a German writer, painter, and artist of adopted Swedish nationality. He is particularly known for his plays Marat/Sade and The Investigation and his novel The Aesthetics of Resistance....
.
World premieres
In 1967 Schüchter conducted the premiere of the opera Eli of Walter Steffens after the drama of Nelly SachsNelly Sachs
Nelly Sachs was a Jewish German poet and playwright whose experiences resulting from the rise of the Nazis in World War II Europe transformed her into a poignant spokeswoman for the grief and yearnings of her fellow Jews...
, a commission of the city of Dortmund.
In 1992 the opera Sekunden und Jahre des Caspar Hauser by Reinhard Febel
Reinhard Febel
Reinhard Febel is a German composer, notable for his operas. He is also a music theorist and a university professor at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover and the Mozarteum.-Career:...
was first performed, with Alexander Marco-Buhrmester in the title role.
The opera Wallenberg of Erkki-Sven Tüür
Erkki-Sven Tüür
Erkki-Sven Tüür is an Estonian composer.Tüür was born in Kärdla on the Estonian island of Hiiumaa. He studied flute and percussion at the Tallinn Music School from 1976 to 1980 and composition with Jaan Rääts at the Tallinn Academy of Music and privately with Lepo Sumera from 1980 to 1984...
was commissioned by the Oper Dormund and premiered there on 5 May 2001, staged by Philipp Kochheim, conducted by Alexander Rumpf.
Conductors, directors, performances
Marek JanowskiMarek Janowski
Marek Janowski is a Polish-born conductor.Janowski grew up in Wuppertal, Germany, near Cologne, after his mother traveled there at the start of World War II to be with her parents...
was the Generalmusikdirektor from 1973 to 1979, followed by Moshe Atzmon
Moshe Atzmon
Moshe Atzmon is a Hungarian-born Israeli conductor.He was born in Budapest, and at the age of thirteen he emigrated with his family to Tel Aviv, Israel. He started his musical career on the horn before going to London for further studies in conducting....
(1996-2000), Anton Marik, Arthur Fagen, and since 2008 Jac van Steen
Jac van Steen
Jac van Steen is a Dutch conductor. He studied music theory, as well as orchestral and choral conducting, at the Brabants Conservatory of Music....
. The Dortmunder Philharmoniker used the opera house for concerts until 2002.
In 2000 Michael Hofstetter conducted a production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
.
Christine Mielitz was Opera Director in Dortmund Theatre since 2002/2003. In 2004, the 100th anniversary of the first opera house, a new production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
was planned. It started with Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
is the first of the four operas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen . It was originally written as an introduction to the tripartite Ring, but the cycle is now generally regarded as consisting of four individual operas.Das Rheingold received its premiere at the National Theatre...
on 26 June 2005, directed by Mielitz and conducted by Arthur Fagen. Siegfried
Siegfried (opera)
Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring...
was performed on 2 September 2006. In April 2007 a complete cycle was performed. In 2009 she staged Henze's Der junge Lord
Der junge Lord
Der junge Lord is an opera in two acts by Hans Werner Henze to a German libretto by Ingeborg Bachmann, after Wilhelm Hauff's Der Affe als Mensch from Der Scheik von Alexandria und seine Sklaven .The style and plot owe much to Italian opera buffa, with the influence of Vincenzo Bellini and...
, conducted by Jac van Steen, related to the project RUHR2010, the whole Ruhr
Ruhr
The Ruhr is a medium-size river in western Germany , a right tributary of the Rhine.-Description:The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region, at an elevation of approximately 2,200 feet...
being European Capital of Culture
European Capital of Culture
The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by theEuropean Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension....
.
Verdi's Falstaff
Falstaff (opera)
Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...
was performed on 11 April 2010, staged by Beverley Blankenship, conducted by Jac van Steen, with Jacek Strauch in the title role.
Jens-Daniel Herzog
Jens-Daniel Herzog
Jens-Daniel Herzog is a German stage director for play and opera, and a theater manager.-Professional career:Jens-Daniel Herzog was born in Berlin, the son of the actor Peter Herzog. He studied Philosophy at the FU Berlin....
has been Opera Director since August 2011.
External links
- Musiktheater Dortmund on Theater Dortmund
- Opernhaus Dortmund on theoperacritic.com
- Theater Dortmund on theater-tv.com, slideshow (in German)