Festspielhaus St. Pölten
The Festspielhaus St. Pölten is an Austrian festival theater in the St. Pölten government district .
The Festspielhaus organizes around 70 own events per season and has around 70,000 visitors a year. A total of twelve subscription cycles are used by almost 4,000 subscribers. With the 2013/2014 season, Brigitte Fürle from Vienna took over the artistic direction of the Festspielhaus.
positioning
The Festspielhaus St. Pölten is one of the most striking theater buildings of contemporary architecture in Austria and since its foundation in 1997 has developed into a leading venue with one of the largest stages for dance and music in a dialogue between tradition and modernity. As a seasonal multi - discipline house , the Festspielhaus St. Pölten presents dance productions from contemporary ballet to international creation, concerts from classical to jazz and world, youth formats and, since the 2013 season, chamber music again. The schedule includes events consisting of guest performances, co-productions and artist residencies. Since its opening in 1997, the Festspielhaus St. Pölten has been the permanent residence of the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich , which with its concert cycle represents one of the main program pillars in the Festspielhaus. The classical music program is complemented by international orchestral concerts.
The Festspielhaus St. Pölten has played a pioneering role in the field of cultural mediation for many years. With the aim of establishing the Festspielhaus as an open place for creative exchange, this participatory area is increasingly taken into account in the programming and planning.
The international program of dance productions, concerts, music theater and cultural mediation activities stands for the opening and dialogue ability of the house for and with established and new audiences, for deep roots in the region as well as for a strong artistic positioning in the international cultural scene. The Festspielhaus St. Pölten is neither a repertoire house nor a festival, but a new type of venue with time and space for art, a future-oriented model of continuous and socially responsible cultural work.
history
When the Festspielhaus St. Pölten was inaugurated on March 1st, 1997 with a concert by the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria, this marked a milestone for cultural life in Lower Austria. With the construction and opening of this house, which is unique in all of Austria, a striking symbol was set within the local cultural landscape - in many ways: Not only its innovative architecture, but also the project itself to create a large-scale new venue in St. Pölten and from now on to play top-class activities all year round - i.e. to provide the appropriate subsidies for this - is tantamount to a small revolution from today's perspective and contributed significantly to giving the then still young Lower Austrian provincial capital a strong profile.
architecture
The Festspielhaus, designed by the Austrian architect Klaus Kada , has a total of four halls, which are suitable for cultural events of various sizes due to their different spatial dimensions. In addition to orchestral concerts and dance productions, traditional events, light music concerts and opera performances are also presented.
The great hall of the house has a maximum of 1,063 seats, standing room for 70 and 4 wheelchair spaces in the auditorium. The stage equipment enables music and dance theater performances. A special orchestral shell was made for orchestral concerts. Due to the slight mechanical changes, the Great Hall offers good conditions for dance and, thanks to its acoustics, also for concerts and musical theater. The possible changes relate to the ceiling, wall and stage portal. The concert shell is an essential element of the acoustics. The iron curtain, which separates the auditorium from the stage area, is almost 20 meters wide and over 10.5 meters high and is the largest visual work of art in the country. The entire structure weighs 14.5 tons. It was designed by the artist Eva Schlegel .
The side walls and parapets were made by Bernhard Schutti using the traditional stucco technique
Next to the Great Hall there is the Small Hall, which is used for the performance of chamber music events. In addition, “Probebühne 1” and “Probebühne 2” are available for smaller events. The spacious foyers and the convenience of a parking garage with direct access to the festival hall characterize the successful architecture as well as the choice of elegant materials for the festival hall.
Guest performances and appearances
The Festspielhaus is the residence of the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich , which hosts around 15 concerts per season and also some special projects - under the direction of Marc Piollet , Julia Jones , Guido Mancusi , Jun Märkl , Michail Jurowski , Christian Muthspiel , Ari Rasilainen or Thomas Zehetmair and internationally known soloists such as B. Rudolf Buchbinder , Elisabeth Van Keulen, Renaud Capuçon , Murat Coşkun , Antoni Dontschew , Bernarda Fink , Clemens Hagen , Marc-André Hamelin , Stephen Hough , Elisabeth Kulman , Otto Lechner , Daniel Müller-Schott , Wolfgang Puschnig , Lise de la Salle Benjamin Schmid or Elisabeth Schwarz - plays in the house. Yutaka Sado has been chief conductor of this orchestra since September 2015 .
In the field of dance, u. a. several productions of the Sadler's Wells Theater as guest as well as the choreographers and dancers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui , Angelin Preljocaj , Alain Platel , Osamu Tezuka , Sylvie Guillem , Akram Khan , Wayne McGregor or Martin Schläpfer . Choreographies by Mats Ek and Jiří Kylián were also on view. From the field of serious music, the Vienna Philharmonic , the London Symphony Orchestra and the Bolshoi Orchestra are among the guests; popular music this season includes Gregory Porter , The Puppini Sisters , Dee Dee Bridgewater , Carminho , Cameron Carpenter , Sofa Surfers , Garish and the Pasadena Roof Orchestra .
In 2006 the first Austrian revival of Jacques Offenbach's Viennese opera Die Rheinnixen ( Wiener Hofoper 1864) was played in this house .
Artistic Director
- 1998–2002 Mimi Wunderer
- 2002–2009 Michael Birkmeyer
- 2009–2013 Joachim Schlömer
- since 2013 Brigitte Fürle
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 3.3 ″ N , 15 ° 37 ′ 51.8 ″ E