Opera House Hall

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Opera House Halle (2008)

The Halle Opera House is one of two opera houses in Saxony-Anhalt and the most important theater building in Halle (Saale) in terms of cultural history . It houses the opera hall and the ballet Rossa . The orchestra of the Halle Opera House was a longstanding orchestra . The Staatskapelle Halle has played in the opera house since the orchestra merged in 2006 .

History of the Opera House

The city ​​theater in Halle (Saale) was built between 1884 and 1886 based on a design by the Berlin architect Heinrich Seeling and the engineer Stumpf, which emerged from an architectural competition held in 1883 . At that time, the city theater, along with the Budapest Opera, was considered the most technically modern theater in Europe. On October 9, 1886, the house with Friedrich Schiller's Wallenstein's camp and Die Piccolomini was opened.

The theater around 1900 with the imposing dome over the stage house, in front of it the old promenade
Theater of Peace (1986)

The building was badly damaged by high-explosive bombs on March 31, 1945, in particular the stage building. The reconstruction took place under the direction of Kurt Hemmerling . The rebuilt building was simply plastered. The arched windows on the upper floor of the modernized entrance front were dispensed with; instead, rectangular French windows were installed. The triangular gables lost the plastic decoration and the gable top. The auditorium was largely changed. The stage building was rebuilt, renouncing the previous cubature, the earlier facade and the dome. When the almost completely renovated theater was inaugurated again in 1951 with the opera Fidelio , it was called the "Landestheater Halle" as a multi-branch theater as the state theater of the Halle district in the state of Saxony-Anhalt .

After further, extensive modernization measures, the house received its musical consecration on the evening of April 24, 1968 with a symphony concert on the occasion of the 65th birthday of the general music director and chief conductor Horst-Tanu Margraf . Until 1992 the building was called the “Theater of Peace”.

On January 1, 1992, the Halle Opera House emerged from this house, the only theater in Saxony-Anhalt intended exclusively for opera. The building was gradually renovated and reconstructed. The show facade (south) was restored around the year 2000 according to construction-time findings, the east facade has shown its original appearance again since 2011. In the next few years, a reconstruction of the west facade with terrace is planned, later a new dome as stylish as possible - if the financing is secured.

In total, the Halle Opera House now has 672 seats, which are spread over stalls, 1st and 2nd tier, and are also accessible for the disabled.

The ensemble also plays in the Goethe Theater in Bad Lauchstädt .

Opera hall as part of the TOOH

The Halle Opera House, to which the ballet also belongs, was established under the umbrella organization Theater, Oper und Orchester GmbH , following a resolution by the city council in November 2008 with the Staatskapelle , the New Theater , the Thalia Theater (children's and youth theater) and the Puppet Theater Halle ( TOOH ) merged to save costs in the long term. This organizational structure, which “subordinated the autonomy of art to the economic aspect”, has been heavily criticized from the start. The managing director of TOOH has been Stefan Rosinski since 2016 . It is increasingly controversial due to differences to the artistic direction; on April 11, 2019, an application for early leave of absence on the TOOH supervisory board only narrowly failed. By resolution of the TOOH Supervisory Board on February 18, 2020, his position will not be extended beyond July 31, 2021.

Artistic Director

Theater directors and artistic directors

Current

The Halle Opera offers all branches and genres of music theater. From the 2011/2012 season to summer 2016 she was artistically directed by Axel Köhler . Florian Lutz as artistic director and Michael von zur Mühlen as chief dramaturge have been artistic directors since the 2016/2017 season . Veit Güssow , who completed the management team as deputy director, announced his resignation in May 2019 “due to the ongoing conflicts with management”.

Ballet director was Ralf Rossa since 1998 ; on April 1, 2019, he retired. Michal Sedláček has been the artistic and organizational director of the ballet since 2018 .

The French conductor Ariane Matiakh has been the general music director since the beginning of the 2019/2020 season . At Mathiak's request, the current contract was terminated with effect from January 31, 2020.

Public perception

With the annual new productions of operas by Georg Friedrich Handel , the city 's most important son, as part of the Handel Festival , the Halle Opera has been setting international standards for a long time.

Since Florian Lutz, Veit Güssow and Michael von zur Mühlen took over the artistic directors , the Halle Opera has been enjoying increasing national attention. Christine Lemke-Matwey calls in the time the opera hall, "one of the most exciting musical theater houses in Germany". The Aida -Inszenierung Michael von zur Mühlen (season 2017-2018) show, so Lemke-Matwey "what opera in the 21st century can".

Important persons

Among others who worked at this house: GMD Christian Kluttig and the director Peter Konwitschny in the 1980s. Great singers were also represented in Halle such as u. a. Anny Schlemm , Jutta Vulpius , Irmgard Arnold , Philine Fischer , Margarete Herzberg , Werner Enders , Franz Stumpf , Wolfgang Sommer, Hellmuth Kaphahn , Günther Leib .

Prizes and awards

Set designer Rudolf Heinrich , director Heinz Rückert , conductor Horst-Tanu Margraf and the dramaturge Waldtraut Lewin were among the artists in the 1950s a. a. with the Handel operas Ezio , Radamisto , Deidamia , Poro and Rinaldo significantly involved in the Halle Handel Festival . For this, the team received the Halle Handel Prize .

The set designer Sebastian Hannak was awarded the theater prize Der Faust for the space stage "Heterotopia" in 2017 . In April 2019 the Halle Opera received the federal theater award .

Honorary members of the ensemble

Web links

Commons : Opernhaus Halle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Theodor Unger: The competition for designs for a city theater in Halle a./S. In: Deutsche Bauzeitung , Volume 18, 1884, No. 2 (from January 5, 1884), p. 9 f. (1st part) / No. 4 (from January 12, 1884), p. 17 f. (2nd part) / No. 5 (from January 16, 1884), p. 25 f. (3rd part) / No. 6 (of January 19, 1883), pp. 29-31 (4th part).
  2. ↑ New Theater Almanac 1899 , Berlin 1899, p. 360.
  3. ↑ Information about the Halle Opera House on musical-total.com ( Memento from December 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ).
  4. ↑ City council resolution . (PDF; 6.6 MB) Retrieved May 8, 2019 .
  5. ^ Farewell letter from the opera director Axel Köhler (2016). (PDF) Retrieved May 8, 2019 .
  6. ↑ "Saved with one vote majority", Mitteldeutsche Zeitung of April 12, 2019. Retrieved on May 8, 2019 . .
  7. ↑ Contract with TOOH managing director will not be extended: Stefan Rosinski has to leave in 2021. February 28, 2020, accessed on February 28, 2020 (German).
  8. ↑ Since the majority of the Supervisory Board decided against extending the contract in February 2019, Lutz's involvement at the Halle Opera will only run until the 2020/21 season. ( Regine Müller: artistic director of the opera hall to go. In: Der Tagesspiegel . February 25, 2019, accessed on April 28, 2019 . )
  9. ^ Homepage of the Halle Opera House. Retrieved May 8, 2019 .
  10. ↑ In his public declaration of resignation, Güssow blames the managing director, Stefan Rosinski, for the “ongoing poisoning of the working atmosphere” and accuses him of conducting “negative advertising” through tendentious presentations in the supervisory board and the public. ( Opera Hall: Resignation of negative propaganda. In: Radio Corax . May 23, 2019, accessed on 21 June 2019 . )
  11. ↑ Ballet director Rossa retires. In: mdr. April 2, 2019, accessed May 30, 2019 .
  12. ^ Homepage of the Ballet Rossa. Retrieved May 8, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Matiakh leaves Staatskapelle Halle , “Kulturnachrichten” on deutschlandfunkkultur.de. Retrieved February 28, 2020
  14. ↑ Helmut Schödel: Right in the middle of heterotopia. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. November 7, 2016, accessed May 30, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Christine Lemke-Matwey: Everything should burn. In: Die ZEIT. September 20, 2017. Retrieved May 28, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Christine Lemke-Matwey: "Aida". A wonderful fraud. In: Die ZEIT. January 24, 2018, accessed May 28, 2019 .
  17. ^ Homepage of the German Stage Association. Retrieved May 8, 2019 .
  18. ↑ mdr Kultur on April 24, 2019. Retrieved on May 8, 2019 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 11.6 "  N , 11 ° 58 ′ 17.4"  E