Ronacher
The Ronacher , formerly the Ronacher establishment , is a theater in Vienna's 1st district, Innere Stadt , between Himmelpfortgasse, Seilerstätte and Schellinggasse. Together with the Raimund Theater and the Theater an der Wien, it forms the venues of the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien and is almost 100 percent owned by the City of Vienna through Wien Holding ( Rudolf Klausnitzer holds a minority stake ).
history
It was initially built as a Viennese city theater from 1871 to 1872 by the architects Ferdinand Fellner the Elder and Ferdinand Fellner the Younger for a private company owned by the journalist Max Friedländer and the playwright and theater director Heinrich Laube . The two wanted to build a bourgeois theater that - without censorship - should compete with the imperial court theaters . The house was opened on September 15, 1872 with Schiller's Demetrius in an adaptation of Laubes. Twelve years after it opened, the house burned down on May 16, 1884. Since the building is not free on all four sides, reconstruction as a theater was not permitted according to the fire protection regulations that are now in force. In 1886 Anton Ronacher bought the ruined fire and again let Ferdinand Fellner the Elder. J. (who in the meantime had founded the Fellner & Helmer office ) built a concert and ball house on it from May 1887 to April 1888 . The wall paintings are by Eduard Veith . The main staircase was built with steps made from Kaisersteinbruch . A large ballroom and a hotel were connected to the new variety theater , next to which it could already use electric light, and contained promenades and a winter garden.
The new Ronacher establishment was not a theater, but was furnished with tables and chairs. During the performance it was allowed to drink, eat and smoke. Due to the poor economic situation, Ronacher had to give up the house later. From 1890 on, artists appeared more often, which increasingly attracted suburban populations and drove the aristocracy away. The program was later supplemented by revues, operettas, dance and song performances. The house was rebuilt again and again and adapted to the needs of the modern vaudeville business (1901, 1906 and continuously between 1907 and 1916; each time by Ferdinand Fellner the Younger), especially around 1910 accompanied by the discussion whether to keep up with the times that the house should transform itself into a classic spoken theater. From 1928, the then Austrian radio, RAVAG , was rented in parts of the Ronacher for a few years and broadcast its music programs from there: First, the so-called “Parisien” was converted into a studio that was used along with ancillary rooms and the entire third floor. In 1930 RAVAG rented another one and a half floors and a few single rooms in the building.
After the Anschluss in 1938, the theater was Aryanized from its previous co-owner, Samuel Schöngut, to Bernhard Labriola. Schöngut was deported to the Litzmannstadt ghetto on November 2, 1941 and from there to the Auschwitz concentration camp on August 16, 1944 , where he was murdered.
After the Second World War , the Ronacher was an alternative stage for the Burgtheater, which was damaged by bombs, until 1955 . Variety artists then appeared again before Austrian television used the premises for TV productions from 1960 . After ten years of vacancy, an operetta was performed again for the first time in 1986, this time Cagliostro in Vienna by Johann Strauss (son) . In 1987 the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien bought the house and performed the musical Cats and two operas. An architecture competition in 1987 resulted in a “deconstructivist” increase as the winning project. However, the Coop Himmelblau project was the target of fierce public criticism and was shelved in August 1991. In 2003 , 2004 and 2008 the Ronacher hosted the awards gala for the Nestroy Theater Prize .
After a few years as a guest theater for international productions and festive events, the Ronacher was expanded into a musical stage by 46.9 million euros. By mid-2008 the stage technology was modernized and the floor of the stage was lowered by two meters, which improved the view of the stage. The increase in the building by the architect Günther Domenig was carried out despite massive political and cityscape protection concerns.
The Ronacher has around 1000 seats and 40 standing places. The exact number of seats and standing places varies depending on the production. (At Cats currently 994 seats and 30 standing places)
Performances
musical | Music and book | premiere | Dernière | Performances / visitors | additional information |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cats | Andrew Lloyd Webber | 1988 | September 24, 1990 | over 2,000 performances / 2.3 million visitors | 1st season in the Theater an der Wien and Ronacher |
Since September 20, 2019 | open | 175 performances +6 previews / 180,000 visitors (as of July 4, 2020) | Resumption; Due to COVID-19 , the performances between March 11th and July 26th, 2020 were canceled. | ||
Chicago | John Kander , Fred Ebb | April 21, 1999 | Before that at the Theater an der Wien | ||
Falco - A Cybershow | Joshua Sobol and Paulus Manker | April 1, 2000 | November 26, 2000 | ||
The Producers | Mel Brooks | June 30, 2008 | February 22, 2009 | German-language premiere | |
Spring awakening | Michael Mayer, Bill T. Jones | March 21, 2009 | May 30, 2009 | German-language premiere | |
dance of the Vampires | Michael Kunze , Jim Steinman | September 16, 2009 | June 25, 2011 | World premiere in 1997 in the Raimund Theater | |
September 30, 2017 | June 27, 2018 | 240 performances + 2 previews / approx. 252,000 visitors | Resumption | ||
Sister Act | Alan Menken , Glenn Slater | September 15, 2011 | December 31, 2012 | is based on the film of the same name with Whoopi Goldberg | |
Naturally blond | Laurence O'Keefe , Nell Benjamin | February 21, 2013 | 20th December 2013 | is based on the film of the same name with Reese Witherspoon | |
The visit of the old lady | Christian Struppeck , Moritz Schneider | 19th February 2014 | June 29, 2014 | 120 performances + 5 previews / approx. 114,000 visitors | In-house production / co-production with the Seefestspiele Thun |
Mary Poppins | Cameron Mackintosh , Disney | October 1, 2014 | January 31, 2016 | 371 performances +10 previews / approx. 366,000 visitors | German-language premiere |
Evita | Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice | March 9, 2016 | December 31, 2016 | 185 performances + 3 previews / approx. 148,000 visitors | |
Don Camillo and Peppone | Michael Kunze, Dario Farino | January 27, 2017 | June 25, 2017 | 117 performances + 2 previews | In-house production / co-production with the St. Gallen Theater |
Bodyguard | Alexander Dinelaris | September 27, 2018 | June 30, 2019 | 273 performances + 5 previews / approx. 260,000 visitors | based on the film of the same name with Whitney Houston |
literature
- Ferdinand Fellner: About the construction of the Vienna City Theater. Presentation by -. With drawings on sheet no. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. In: Wilhelm Tinter (Red.): Journal of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects. No. 3/1874 (XXVIth year), ZDB -ID 2534647-7 . Waldheim, Vienna 1874, pp. 39–45 ( opus.kobv.de PDF; 7 MB).
- G (uido) Zampis, L (eopold) Nobis: The iron constructions of the ceilings and roofs of the Ronacher establishment (formerly the city theater). In: Der Bautechniker , year 1888, June 15, 1888, No. 24/1888 (VIII. Year), pp. 341–345. (Online at ANNO ). .
- Rudolf Tyrolt : Chronicle of the Vienna City Theater. 1872-1884. Carl Konegen, Vienna 1889 ( archive.org ).
- Lutz Eberhardt Seelig: Ronacher. The story of a house. Böhlau, Vienna / Graz (among others) 1986, ISBN 3-205-05043-6 .
- Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna. Kremayr and Scheriau, Vienna 1992-2004, ISBN 3-218-00740-2 .
Web links
- Ronacher's website on the United Bühnen Wien website
- Etablissement Ronacher on Planet Vienna
- Entry on Ronacher in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
- View from the stage into the auditorium; 2008
- The Ronacher in Old Postcards (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ st – g .: Small Chronicle. (…) The battle between variety and theater. In: Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 16082/1909, May 30, 1909, p. 15, top center. (Online at ANNO ). .
- ^ Stephan Templ , Tina Walzer : Our Vienna. "Aryanization" in Austrian. Construction Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-351-02528-9 . P. 212.
- ↑ Eva Offenthaler: A person in his contradiction: the master stemmer, manufacturer and variety owner Bernhard Labriola . Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Modern and Contemporary History Research (INZ), biography of the month August 2015.
- ↑ Affidavit by nephew Adolf Glücksmann in the files of the Property Control Sub-Section of the US military government (access after free registration)
- ↑ Ronacher with a new interior city hall correspondence from June 27, 2008 (accessed on June 17, 2010).
- ↑ Functional renovation Ronacher .
Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 19 ″ N , 16 ° 22 ′ 30 ″ E