Komische Oper Berlin
Encyclopedia
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
and musicals
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
.
Since 2004, it has been operated by the Berliner Opernstiftung, and is located on Behrenstraße, just a few steps from the famous Berlin street Unter den Linden
Unter den Linden
Unter den Linden is a boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is named for its linden trees that line the grassed pedestrian mall between two carriageways....
.
History of the Building
Ferdinand Fellner
Ferdinand Fellner was an Austrian architect. Along with Hermann Helmer, he designed several theatres and palaces across Europe in the late 19th century and early 20th century.Fellner was born in Vienna...
for a private society. It first opened on September 24, 1892 as "Theater Unter den Linden" with Adolf Ferron's operetta Daphne and Gaul and Haßreiter's ballet Die Welt in Bild und Tanz.
The theatre was primarily a vehicle for operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
, but was also used for various other events and balls. Around 800 people could be seated in the stalls, and the balconies and various en-suite dinner rooms housed about a further 1,700 seats. Its directors went bankrupt in 1896 and the theatre was forced to close its doors.
On September 3, 1898 the theatre was reopened as Metropol-Theater with Julius Freund's revue Paradies der Frauen. It then grew to become one of Berlin's most famous and successful variety theatres. However, due to a decline of variety and music hall entertainment in the late 1920s the theatre was again closed in 1933.
In 1934 the theatre was nationalized and renamed Staatliches Operettentheater. It operated as part of the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Kraft durch Freude entertainment and leisure programmes. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the auditorium was damaged by Allied bombing on May 7, 1944. The façade, entrance hall, and auditorium ceiling murals were destroyed by bombs on March 9, 1945.
Following repair works and provisional rebuilding, the theatre reopened on December 23, 1947, as the Komische Oper with Johann Strauss's operetta Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
.
The 1950s saw various further alterations and extensions. The theatre was completely rebuilt in 1965/1966 by Architektenkollektiv Kunz Nierade, adding functional extensions and giving the theatre a completely new exterior. The theatre reopened again on December 4, 1966, with Mozart's Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
. The auditorium underwent further restoration in 1986, and the stage technology was further modernized by 1989. Today the theatre seats 1270.
The Komische Oper company
In 1947, Walter FelsensteinWalter Felsenstein
Walter Felsenstein was an Austrian theater and opera director.He was one of the most important exponents of textual accuracy, productions in which dramatic and musical values were exquisitely researched and balanced...
founded and led the resident opera company, the Komische Oper, until his death in 1975. Götz Friedrich
Götz Friedrich
Götz Friedrich was a German opera and theatre director.He was a student and assistant of Walter Felsenstein at the Komische Oper Berlin in Berlin, where he went on to direct his early productions...
was an assistant to Felsenstein at the company. Joachim Herz became general director after Felsenstein's death and served until 1981. Subsequently, Harry Kupfer
Harry Kupfer
Harry Kupfer is a German opera director. He studied theatre in Leipzig and directed his first opera, Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka, in 1958....
directed the company for 21 seasons, until 2002. The company specializes in German language productions of opera, operetta and musicals. In 2007 the company won, jointly with Oper Bremen, the "Opera house of the year
Opera house of the year
Opera House of the Year , is an award from the German monthly magazine Opernwelt. Each year since 1994, at the end of the season, a jury of 50 critics selects an opera house in Austria, Germany or German speaking Switzerland for the award....
" award by the Geman magazine Opernwelt
Opernwelt
Opernwelt is a monthly German magazine for opera, operetta and ballet.The magazine covers news about current performances; it presents portraits of composers and performers, articles about opera houses and performance spaces, and about contemporary and historical subjects from the world of opera...
. Since 2002, the company's chief director and Intendant has been Andreas Homoki. He is scheduled to step down from those posts on 31 July 2012. In June 2008, the company announced the appointment of Barrie Kosky
Barrie Kosky
Barrie KoskyBarrie Kosky's name is sometimes misspelled as Barry Kosky, Barrie Koski, Barrie Koskie. is an Australian theatre and opera director.Kosky also plays the piano, as he did in his production of Monteverdi's Poppea...
to succeed Homoki as its next Intendant, as of the 2012/2013 season. Since 2005, the company's managing director has been Susanne Moser.
From 1966 to 2004 the theatre was also home to a resident ballet company – first as "Tanztheater der Komischen Oper", and then from 1999 as "BerlinBallett – Komische Oper". In 2004, due to budgetary problems, the separate ballet companies of Berlin's three opera houses were merged into a single company called the Staatsballett Berlin
Berlin State Ballet
The Berlin State Ballet is the principal ballet company in the German capital of Berlin. It was created in 2004 through a merger of the separate ballet companies of the city's three opera houses at a time when the city was going through a financial crisis. It is one of the largest ballet companies...
.
Past General Music Directors (GMD) of the company have included Rolf Reuter, Yakov Kreizberg
Yakov Kreizberg
- In the Soviet Union :Yakov Kreizberg was born in Leningrad. He began studying piano at age 5. He attended the Glinka Choir School, where he began composing at age 13 and studied conducting with Ilya Musin. "Musin had an incredible system" Kreizberg recalled...
, Kirill Petrenko, and Carl St.Clair
Carl St.Clair
Carl Ray St.Clair is an American conductor.St.Clair attended the University of Texas. He later studied conducting with Gustav Meier at the University of Michigan and Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood...
. Patrick Lange became GMD of the Komische Oper Berlin as of the 2010/2011 season.
General Music Directors
- Rolf Reuter (1981–1993)
- Yakov KreizbergYakov Kreizberg- In the Soviet Union :Yakov Kreizberg was born in Leningrad. He began studying piano at age 5. He attended the Glinka Choir School, where he began composing at age 13 and studied conducting with Ilya Musin. "Musin had an incredible system" Kreizberg recalled...
(1994–2001) - Kirill Petrenko (2002–2007)
- Carl St.ClairCarl St.ClairCarl Ray St.Clair is an American conductor.St.Clair attended the University of Texas. He later studied conducting with Gustav Meier at the University of Michigan and Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood...
(2008–2010) - Patrick Lange (2010–present)