National Theater Munich

The National Theater on Max-Joseph-Platz, 2019

The National Theater at Max-Joseph-Platz in Munich is the venue for the Bavarian State Opera , the Bavarian State Orchestra and the Bavarian State Ballet .

architecture

Auditorium with royal box

The National Theater is a major work of European classicism . From the outside, it is reminiscent of a Greek temple with its row of Corinthian columns. The Théâtre National de l'Odéon in Paris provided inspiration for the facade of the classicist building . In contrast to this, the National Theater has a double triangular gable and uses the Corinthian column order instead of the Doric column, which is unsuitable for theater.

The interior also works with quotes based on classical Greek suggestions. Architecturally interesting in the National Theater are above all the King's Hall, the staircases and the entrance hall. The theater room itself has a glamorous interior design in red, gold and ivory. The auditorium was decorated in the late Empire style by the French Jean Baptiste Métivier . The magnificent royal box forms the center of the inner roundabout, which can hold 2,100 spectators. The stage area is 2,500 m², making the theater the third largest opera stage in the world after the Opéra Bastille in Paris and the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw . The dimensions of the peep box stage are approx. 13.50 meters in height and approx. 16 meters in width.

history

National theater with both gable paintings, around 1900
Variously designed gable fields, 2019
Ensemble with residence theater, 2019
Location of the National Theater at the Residenz, aerial photo, 2007

The history of the Munich opera house goes back to 1651, when an ' electoral opera house ' was built under Elector Ferdinand Maria on Salvatorplatz near the Salvatorkirche . This seems to have been the oldest free-standing building in Germany. A short time later, in 1657, it was also opened to the public. Its shape is recorded in a copper engraving by Michael Wening (around 1700). Then a theater room was set up in the old Georgssaal der Neuveste within the residence . When the great fire broke out there after an event in 1750, the elector planned a new building. Therefore, in 1751/53, the 'Old Residence Theater' or better known as the ' Cuvilliés Theater ' followed after its builder François de Cuvilliés the Elder. Ä. - a world-famous treasure of the courtly Munich rococo , in which the Munich court played mainly Italian operas. Mozart's Idomeneo was first performed in 1781 . With 560 seats it was soon too small for a large audience, and when the building on Salvatorplatz had to be closed in 1795, the call for a new “opera house for everyone” was loud.

King Maximilian I Joseph met this requirement in 1810 when he commissioned the architect Karl von Fischer to plan the new Royal Court and National Theater . Construction began on October 26, 1811, but it would take seven years for the opera to stand. First, the work was interrupted for some time in 1813 because problems arose with the financing and in 1817 a fire destroyed part of the new building. When the house opened on October 12, 1818 with the world premiere of Ferdinand Fränzl's opera Die Weihe , only part of Fischer's ambitious, monumental plans had been realized.

Theater program of January 14, 1821

Another fire on January 14, 1823 destroyed the entire theater again down to the foundation walls. The performance began that Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. with the comic opera Die beyden Füchse von Méhul . During the performance, the decoration caught fire and because the extinguishing water was frozen nothing could be done about the fire.

But the reconstruction, financed by the city of Munich, was quickly decided. The originally planned but not realized pillared vestibule was added by the architect Leo von Klenze . It reopened on January 2, 1825. In the history of art, however, the question of the respective share of Fischer and Klenze in the building from 1825, which is still largely in existence today, is discussed.

The next major renovation took place in 1854. When Maximilianstrasse was widened, part of the house had to be removed, so the orchestra pit was enlarged . During the reign of King Ludwig II , an ardent admirer of Richard Wagner , the Wagner operas Tristan and Isolde , Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , Das Rheingold and Die Walküre were premiered there.

On the occasion of the German Art Day, Adolf Hitler attends the festival performance of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde

The stage and technology were modernized in 1925. 18 years later, during the Second World War , the building was destroyed by aerial bombs in the air raid on Munich on October 3, 1943, except for the surrounding walls. The evening before, Meinhard von Zallinger had conducted another performance of Eugen d'Albert's Tiefland . This dealt a big blow to the city of Munich and the numerous opera lovers.

After the war the decision was made against a new building, which would have been cheaper, but instead to reconstruct the old theater . Gerhard Moritz Graubner and Karl Fischer led the reconstruction from 1958 to 1963, which cost 62 million German marks and was partly covered by donations from the population. The stage was changed; since then it has been one of the largest opera stages in the world.

The gable fields of the main facade were decorated with paintings by Ludwig Schwanthaler in 1840 and replaced by mosaics in 1894. The upper mosaic " Pegasus and the Horen " has been preserved, the lower mosaic " Apollo and the Muses " was destroyed in World War II and replaced in 1972 by a modern group of figures by Georg Brenninger .

Reconstruction plaque
Bust of Karl von Fischer in the foyer
Access to the central box with a peace sculpture
Ceiling chandelier in the auditorium
Chandelier in the foyer
Chandelier in the foyer
Under the stage machinery

On November 21, 1963, the reopening was celebrated with a performance of the opera Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss under the direction of GMD Joseph Keilberth in front of invited guests. On November 23, 1963, the first public performance followed with Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Richard Wagner, again under the direction of Joseph Keilberth. Premiere guests were Curd Jürgens , Maximilian Schell , Soraya , Herbert von Karajan , the Shah of Persia , as well as Alfons Goppel and Franz Josef Strauss .

From 1987 to 1989 the lower stage and the technology were modernized again. In 2006, the stage technology was further modernized and the stage floor was replaced, which gives her a wide range of options for changing the stage sets. According to the opera house, the best seats in terms of visibility and acoustics are on the balcony in row 1 on seats 1 and 3.

literature

Katharina Meinel: For Prince and Fatherland. Concept and history of the Munich National Theater in the late 18th century. Herbert Utz Verlag, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-8316-0242-5 .
F. Meiser: The royal new court and national theater building in Munich, its interior furnishings, machinery and the fire safety measures that were ordered. Franz, Munich 1840 ( digitized version ).
Festive opera. History and reconstruction of the National Theater in Munich. Published by the Free State of Bavaria with the participation of the Friends of the Nationaltheater e. V. and the state capital Munich. Management and editing: Paul Schallweg. Georg DW Callwey, Munich 1964.
Norbert Hierl-Deronco: The Intendant Karl Freiherr von Perfall, In letters from the years 1863-1870. Krailling 1992, ISBN 3-929884-03-8 .
Christina Oikonomou: "My beautiful theater!". The fire in the court and national theater in 1823 and its consequences. An exhibition by the Bavarian Archive School. Published by the Bavarian Main State Archives, Munich 2015.
Jürgen Schläder: How one becomes what one is: The Bavarian State Opera before and after 1945. Verlag Henschel, Leipzig 2017, ISBN 978-3894877965 .

Individual evidence

↑ https://www.staatsoper.de/campus/kinder-jugend/musik-theater-lexikon.html , accessed on February 24, 2019.
↑ Heinrich Habel, Johannes Hallinger, Timm Weski: Monuments in Bavaria - State Capital Munich Center - Volume 2 . In: Monument topography of the Federal Republic of Germany . Lipp Verlag, Munich 2009, p. 645 .
↑ 50 years of the National Theater; in Süddeutsche Zeitung from 16/17. November 2013
↑ The perfect place. Article in SZ-Magazin , No. 14/2009, p. 40