Opernhaus Dortmund | |
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General information | |
Location | Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany |
Coordinates | 51°30′40″N7°27′42″E / 51.5110°N 7.4616°E |
Opened | 1966 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) |
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Website | |
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Opernhaus Dortmund is the opera house of Dortmund, Germany, operated by the Theater Dortmund organisation. A new opera house opened in 1966, replacing an earlier facility which opened in 1904 and was destroyed during World War II. It was built on the former site of the Old Synagogue, which was demolished by the Nazi local government in the 1930s.
Architects Heinrich Rosskotten and Edgar Tritthart designed the modernist structure. [1] The design separates the functions of the stage and technical areas in the Bühnenhaus (stage house), which is dominated by straight lines, from the auditorium under a concrete shell roof.
The new house opened on 3 March 1966, to serve as a venue for operas, ballets, concerts, and for plays which require a large stage. The inaugural performance was Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier , an opera first performed in 1911, shortly after its premiere; Wilhelm Schüchter conducted the Dortmunder Philharmoniker. [2] Teresa Żylis-Gara appeared as Octavian, along with guest artist Elisabeth Grümmer as the Marschallin, Liselotte Hammes as Sophie 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 Johann Strauss' Der Zigeunerbaron were performed.
The first plays staged in the so-called Großes Haus during this period were Brecht's Leben des Galilei and Anouilh's Becket . Unusual for the era of the iron curtain, the Volkstheater Rostock performed Peter Weiss's Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt durch die Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung des Herrn de Sade .
Marek Janowski 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.
Christine Mielitz was Opera Director at the Dortmund Theatre for the 2002 / 2003 season.
Jens-Daniel Herzog has been Opera Director since August 2011. [3]
In 1967, Schüchter conducted the world premiere of the opera Eli by Walter Steffens. The city of Dortmund commissioned the work based on the drama by Nelly Sachs. [4]
The facility hosted the first performance of Reinhard Febel's opera Sekunden und Jahre des Caspar Hauser in 1992 with Alexander Marco-Buhrmester in the title role. [5]
Pascal Paul-Harang produced the second staging of Gavin Bryars 1998 opera Doctor Ox's Experiment in 1999, with Alexander Rumpf conducting. [6]
In 2000, Michael Hofstetter conducted a production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde . [7]
Oper Dormund commissioned Wallenberg from Erkki-Sven Tüür and premiered the work on 5 May 2001 with staging by Philipp Kochheim and Alexander Rumpf as conductor. [8]
In 2004, Theater Dortmund planned a new production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first opera house. [9] The production began with Das Rheingold on 26 June 2005, directed by Christine Mielitz and conducted by Arthur Fagen [10] and continued with Siegfried on 2 September 2006. [11] In April 2007, the company performed a complete cycle. [12] In 2009, Mielitz staged Henze's Der junge Lord , conducted by Jac van Steen, as part of project RUHR.2010 that named the whole Ruhr that year's European Capital of Culture. [13]
Beverley Blankenship staged Verdi's Falstaff beginning 11 April 2010, with Jac van Steen conducting and Jacek Strauch in the title role. [14]
Dortmund is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 609,000 inhabitants, it is the largest city of the Ruhr as well as the largest city of Westphalia. It lies on the Emscher and Ruhr rivers in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region and is considered the administrative, commercial, and cultural centre of the eastern Ruhr. Dortmund is the second-largest city in the Low German dialect area, after Hamburg.
The Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie is a German symphony orchestra based in Herford. It was founded in 1950 and, along with Philharmonie Südwestfalen and Landesjugendorchester NRW, is one of the 'official' orchestras (Landesorchester) of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The orchestra has been shaped by conductors such as Wilhelm Schüchter, Hermann Scherchen and Andris Nelsons. They have regularly served several cities in northwest Germany, and toured internationally to halls such as Berliner Philharmonie, Tonhalle Zürich and Großes Festspielhaus in Salzburg, also to the U.S. and Japan.
Wilhelm Schüchter was a German conductor. He was Generalmusikdirektor in Dortmund from 1962 until his death. He opened the new opera house in 1966 with Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, and conducted the world premiere of the opera Eli by Walter Steffens after the drama of Nelly Sachs in 1967. He left a legacy of opera recordings, especially of excerpts sung in German.
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. Supported by the German Government, the organization owns and operates several performance spaces.
The Dortmunder Philharmoniker are a German symphony orchestra based in Dortmund. The orchestra of the Theater Dortmund performs opera in the Opernhaus Dortmund and concert in the Konzerthaus Dortmund. The orchestra was founded in 1887 and has been shaped by conductors such as Wilhelm Schüchter, Marek Janowski, Moshe Atzmon and Jac van Steen.
Christiane Kohl is a German soprano in opera and concert.
Opernwelt is a monthly German magazine for opera, operetta and ballet. It includes news about current performances, portraits of composers and performers, articles about opera houses, performance spaces, and contemporary and historical subjects from the world of opera and classical music. It reviews recordings and books and publishes monthly schedules of German and international opera houses. The magazine's website offers full text search for past issues. A year book is published every October.
Jens-Daniel Herzog is a German stage director for play and opera, and a theater manager.
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.
Hans Wallat was a German conductor, GMD in Bremen, at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, Theater Dortmund and Deutsche Oper am Rhein. A specialist for the stage works of Richard Wagner, he appeared at the Bayreuth Festival and internationally.
An allem ist Hütchen schuld!, Op. 11, is an opera in German in three acts composed by Siegfried Wagner in 1914/15 to his own libretto. It is described as a Märchenspiel or fairy-tale play. It premiered on 6 December 1917 at the Ccourt Theatre Stuttgart.
Michael Hofstetter is a German conductor and academic. He was chief conductor of the festival Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele from 2005 to 2012, and has been Generalmusikdirektor of Gießen since. He has worked internationally at notable opera houses and festivals. He is regarded as an expert of historically informed performance, who has rediscovered and recorded rarely performed operas.
Günther Morbach was a German classical bass in opera and concert. He performed major roles at German opera houses and on international tours.
Liselotte Hammes is a German operatic soprano and academic voice teacher. While based at the Cologne Opera, she performed internationally. One of her signature roles is Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, which she performed at the Glyndebourne Festival, among other European opera houses.
Jeff Martin is an American operatic tenor who made a career based in Germany, singing at international opera houses and concert halls. Focused on character roles, he has appeared as Mime in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen and Herod in Salome by Richard Strauss, and appeared in several world premieres.
Anton Marik is an Austrian conductor who made a career with orchestras and choirs in Germany.
Christine Mielitz is a German theatre and opera director.
Hainer Hill was a German scenic designer, costume designer, painter, graphic artist and theatre photographer who was based in Berlin and worked internationally. After studying painting in Frankfurt, he worked at the Oper Frankfurt, assisting Caspar Neher. Together they moved to Brecht's Berliner Ensemble where Hill created an iconic stage for Mutter Courage and took hundreds of scene photographs now archived at the Akademie der Künste. When the Berlin Wall was erected, Hill, who lived in the West and had worked in the East, began to work freelance, including at the Royal Opera House. In 1966 he became director of scenery (Ausstattunggsleiter) at Opernhaus Dortmund, and there he created the stage for the world premiere of Eli by Walter Steffens, which was followed by 45 other productions. Hill is best remembered for his focus on light projection.
Eli, Op. 7, is a German-language opera in three acts with music by Walter Steffens to a libretto based on a play by Nelly Sachs. The world premiere was in 1967 at the Opernhaus Dortmund.
Claus Guth is a German theatre director, focused on opera. He has directed operas at major houses and festivals, including world premieres such as works of the Munich Biennale, and Berio's Cronaca del luogo at the Salzburg Festival in 1999. Guth is particularly known for his opera productions of the works of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. He has received two Faust awards, for Daphne by Richard Strauss in 2010, and for Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, both at the Oper Frankfurt.
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