Music theater in the district

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The music theater in the Revier at night

The Musiktheater im Revier (MiR) on Kennedyplatz in Gelsenkirchen-Schalke is one of the most important theater buildings of the post-war period . The complex, built under the leadership of the architect and urban planner Werner Ruhnau , with two venues, the large and the small house, was opened on December 15, 1959, after a construction period of 41 months, and has since been performing operas , musicals , symphony concerts and ballet performances by the ballet im District .

"As in the construction industry of the Middle Ages, Werner Ruhnau combined all the arts, integrated visual artists and thus created a total work of art."

A total of around 250 performances take place annually in the big house with 1004 seats and a stage area of ​​450 m², in the small house with 336 seats and a stage space of 180 m². In 1997, the music theater in the Revier was entered in the list of monuments of the city of Gelsenkirchen. Michael Schulz has been the general manager of the house since 2008/09 .

history

In 1953 Werner Ruhnau founded a team of architects with Harald Deilmann , Ortwin Rave and Max von Hausen in the construction office of the Chamber of Agriculture for the Münster Theater . They won the 1954 competition of the city of Gelsenkirchen for a new theater building. The program of the competition envisaged a large house with 1,100 seats as well as a stage with main and back stages, two side stages and a small rehearsal stage. The Little House was not planned, it developed from the rehearsal stage in the course of the organization. The aim of the competition was a traditional separation between the stage and auditorium, foyer and outdoor area. In contrast, the design by the Münster-based group of architects was based on “opening up and integration” from the start. Before the music theater in Gelsenkirchen was realized, Harald Deilmann left the team and Werner Ruhnau took on all subsequent responsibility for design, planning and execution.

description

location

Kennedyplatz is located on the northern edge of Gelsenkirchen City in the south of the city. Here is the towering music theater, which combines artists , music and architecture into a masterpiece. The main axis of the Great House, which is extended in a north-south oriented pedestrian zone , Ebertstrasse , is crossed by Florastrasse . This runs in an east-west direction parallel to the theater complex. The small house is on the west side a little offset in front of the big house. The big and the small house are each arranged axially symmetrically .

Architecture and construction technology

The big house

Glass cylinder that surrounds the interior of the Great House

The base , clad with black tiles, supports the big house. The southern front is largely dissolved into glass surfaces. The vertical glass front is structured by white profiles, behind which are the supports that are not visible from the outside. Black bars subdivide the glass front horizontally. The glass front is an essential element of the architecture of the so-called international style in the 20th century: The beginning of the glass front can be discovered at the Fagus factory in Alfeld and finds its final expression in the glass front of the Bauhaus Dessau . Werner Ruhnau was particularly inspired by Mies van der Rohe's design for the Mannheim National Theater . It is not a facade in the conventional sense, but rather the idea of ​​“floating space”: a thin separating layer that allows a flowing transition between the architectural space and the outer urban space.

“In the reception of Mies van der Rohe, Ruhnau also received latent classicism in the external overall appearance and the disposition of the individual functional areas. The house fulfills three basic principles of classical architecture aesthetics: symmetrical composition, axial composition, hierarchical composition. "

The central point of sale emphasizes the mirror axis of the building corresponding to the center. Visible corner stairs accentuate the axiality of the front. Platforms and stairs are symmetrical. The glass half-cylinder and the stage house are at the core of the Great House. The interior of the Great House is divided into three floors. In the podium area below the glass front there are symmetrically arranged cloakrooms, each with a sponge relief by the French artist Yves Klein on the front walls . Above this floor is the mezzanine foyer , a low mezzanine and above that in turn the high, spacious main foyer. In the entrance area and in both foyers, the outer wall of the auditorium extends over a semicircular floor plan. The tiers are reached through the stairwells in front, which are encased in a glass half-cylinder. The tables and swivel chairs in the main foyer were also designed by Werner Ruhnau.

The opening of the space to the city is reflected in the color scheme of the foyer: the floor is covered with slate-gray Kattenfels from the Sauerland and resembles the color of the pavement slabs on the outside. Since evening events dominate in a theater, the ceiling was coated with black-colored, sound-absorbing plaster , which corresponds to the night sky. The type of light is similar to the lights of a big city in the evening and avoids any effect that could be reminiscent of interior decoration or furniture. The auditorium, laid out over a horseshoe-shaped floor plan , is symmetrical. The rows of seats rise slightly in the parquet , above are two tiers, each with three stepped balconies on either side. Here, too, the ceiling is black, as is the wall. The parapets are made of matt aluminum . The chairs are held in a light medium gray. The stage size and the stage opening can be changed using portal panels, height-adjustable podiums and a movable front stage. “The stage and auditorium are shaped by the guiding principle of democratizing the theater, overcoming the traditional separation of auditorium and stage, ideally creating a unified space. The swinging side walls and the arched ceiling of the auditorium create a flowing transition to the portal and stage, the uniform black and flush spotlights lift the room boundaries even more. ”In contrast to the rather angular-looking exterior, the auditorium is elegantly curved and made possible by everyone Places a good view.

The architecture of the Great House tries to cross the boundaries of space both inside and outside, this becomes clear through the glass facade facing the city. The glass facade allows views from the inside to the outside and vice versa, so viewers themselves become actors, as they are exposed to external glances. A piece of culture is carried out openly, it is not a closed place. But this openness also brought with it doubts: “The foyer, which is open due to the glazing and can be fully seen through the interior lighting, especially when the theater is in the evening, raised concerns from the theater building commission: theater-goers can feel at the mercy of the bystanders outside. It was doubted whether such an openness could even create a 'festive mood' ... In Gelsenkirchen, I therefore agreed with the theater building commission to integrate a curtain rail in the foyer and, if necessary, to put in a 'curtain break' within a few weeks. "

The little house

The small house forms a counterpoint to the main structure. The upper closed cuboid lies on a low lower zone with open pillars, on which there is a lead-clad roof. The small and large houses are connected by a bridge, the cladding of the main building is taken up here. This architectural motif is reminiscent of the connecting tract of the Dessau Bauhaus designed by Walter Gropius that spans the street . Dark gray natural stone panels adorn the outer wall of the small house. On the south wall, the large relief consisting of bundled steel tubes hangs in two levels by Norbert Kricke . It stands out strongly against the dark gray panel. A glass wall can also be discovered on the west side of the Little House. The entrance hall and cloakroom are behind the glass wall . Two mechanical reliefs by Jean Tinguely hang on the walls covered with gray velor in the foyer above. With no dividing walls or doors, the audience area extends into the foyer. Compared to the Big House, the spatial separation of the stage area and the audience area is more radical. The room and the game situation can be changed within a very short time thanks to movable seating, movable hand-held platforms and mobile lighting and sound systems.

Opposites between light and dark, outside and inside, between strict rectangular shapes and soft curves, between color and black and white and even colorlessness, are encountered at every turn in the music theater in the Revier.

Accessible theater

The music theater in the Revier with its venues, the large and the small house, is completely barrier-free. All stage rooms can also be reached by elevator for wheelchair users and people with reduced mobility. For blind and visually impaired people, the MiR offers a service that is unique in the Ruhr area for selected performances with Hör.Oper: With the help of audio description, visual events on the stage are commented live during the performance by trained speakers and thus made tangible. An audio loop with 36 “listening positions” built into the auditorium allows the images of a production to emerge in the mind of the listener via headphones. A tour of the stage setting before the performance gives you the opportunity to feel the props and costumes. The plot and background of the corresponding piece are explained.

Artists involved in the construction

Glass facade of the music theater in the Revier

From the beginning, Werner Ruhnau campaigned for various artists to contribute to the conceptual design of the new building. On May 31, 1957, a competition for artistic design was announced. Werner Ruhnau had already largely determined the placement of the works by this time. The artists taking part in the competition were divided into five groups. Kurt Janitzki (Gelsenkirchen), Jean Sprenger (Essen), Karl Hartung (Berlin), Norbert Kricke (Düsseldorf) and Fritz Winter (Diessen / Ammersee) took over the management. However, the architect was largely responsible for realizing the art program. Werner Ruhnau supported Yves Klein and Jean Tinguely during the competition program . From the beginning he wanted to integrate all painters and sculptors in the creation process. Therefore, in Gelsenkirchen, the attempt was not made to create art in architecture, but to create architecture. Werner Ruhnau explained this as follows: “When building in the present, the flowing transitions between design and technical trades are mostly missing. Works by visual artists usually appear decoratively placed in front of it, just like art 'on' a building. 'Architecture', on the other hand, arises when the engineers as well as the visual and - in the case of a theater - the performing artists mutually agree and coordinate the work to be created together and not only have their own goals in mind in isolation. That is why the planning and construction management team should always include all those involved in the construction [...] The architect's task is to bring about this integration. "This guiding principle runs through the entire musical theater:" The theater - the culture - is integrated into the city , art is integrated into the architecture, the auditorium integrates the stage, etc. In the case of the Gelsenkirchen theater, however, integration means more than 'cooperation', namely the removal of boundaries. This concept was also to be understood politically as a feature of the progressive democratization of theater. ”In addition to the construction site, the old fire brigade was provided by the city, the artists used this place as a construction hut. The Bauhütte supported the close cooperation and offered space for work and living. House rules regulated living together. Visitors who wanted to visit the Bauhütte and find out about projects were welcomed in large numbers.

Robert Adams

Plastic on the MiR by Robert Adams

The concrete relief (3 × 22 m) on the outer wall of the ticket hall was designed by the English sculptor Robert Adams . The relief front was not manufactured separately, but rather poured together with the concrete walls as an integral part of it. Originally the relief was illuminated from below, but the lighting has been removed due to frequent malfunctions.

Norbert Kricke

Plastic on the small house of the MiR by Norbert Kricke

On the long outer wall of the small house, Norbert Kricke's large relief on two levels underlines the "floating lightness of the building and the dynamism of the expansion of playful possibilities towards the interior structure". Werner Ruhnau agreed with Norbert Kricke to have multiples of the metal relief made in the scales 1: 100 and 1:20, which make it clear that the relief is conceptually independent of its location. Another planned project like the water forest was never carried out.

Jean Tinguely

In the small house, the Swiss artist Jean Tinguely was responsible for the front walls of the foyer. He made the mechanical reliefs, which was also his first public commission. Thirty panels clad with velor rotate at different speeds. Jean Tinguely follows the idea that “stability is not a standstill, but rather permanent change.” The overall impression remains the same despite different constellations. The mechanical reliefs, however, mostly stand still.

Paul Dierkes

About five centimeters thick plaster in a tree-bark-like structure adorns the round wall of the foyer in the Great House. Paul Dierkes designed the plaster relief. A spotlight embedded in the floor and ceiling and indirect grazing light is reflected by the white surface of the relief and creates a play of light and shadow, and the foyer is also illuminated. Door handles and the flooring of the stairs were developed in a formal context with the plaster relief.

Yves Klein

Yves Klein's blue sponge reliefs
Interior between the glass facade and the half cylinder
Yves Klein stands out among the popular artists, on the one hand because his monochrome blue picture panels occupy a special position in the Gelsenkirchen theater, and on the other hand because he and Werner Ruhnau had a particularly intensive collaboration. It is worth noting that these panels are the only public commission during the artist's lifetime. This may show that this project and the collaboration with Werner Ruhnau were of particular importance to him. French artist Yves Klein died in 1962 at the age of almost 35, three years after completing the Gelsenkirchen work. "

At the beginning of the 1950s he created his monochromes, which made a decisive contribution to the development of art in the sense of a concrete spatial experience of images. Six works by the artist hang in the Gelsenkirchen theater. Two sponge reliefs hang on the side walls of the cloakroom, and two more are placed on the front walls. Two monochrome blue picture panels are attached to the outer walls of the foyer. The left relief of the monochrome panel consists of a vertical interwoven wave system, the right relief has predominantly horizontal wave forms. A brick wire mesh on the wall provides the plaster reliefs with a firm hold. The plaster of paris was formed on the brick wire mesh and, in accordance with Werner Ruhnau's suggestion, pebbles were thrown into the still soft plaster in order to expand the structure of the plaster wall. The natural sponge reliefs were attached to the wall using a different technique. After the natural sponges were dipped in two-component binders, they were fastened to the wall with nails after a short tightening. Then they were colored with the blue paint. The blue is known under the abbreviation IKB (International Klein Blue). To arrive at this result, Yves Klein experimented for a long time with a special ultramarine blue in order to achieve the greatest possible pigment density. The Gelsenkirchen blue inspired city graphic designer Uwe Gelesch in 2002 to introduce blue as the city's corporate color.

In the main foyer, the white side walls are structured by seven pillars, which extend from the floor to the ceiling. The monochrome panels support the wall in the upper half of the storey. The panels protrude beyond the lower boundary of the wall and the outer boundary of the pillars . The lower half of the floor is permeable to the bar. The relationship between the picture panels and the architecture of the room cannot be clearly determined: “Seen as a pure color surface, they are seemingly completely separated from the wall like a separate spatial body. There can be no fixed assignment - not even with regard to the integration of the panels into the surfaces of the side walls. With their dimensions, the panels do not take up any division of the space. Nevertheless, their blue color involves the room to the greatest extent. “Since the sponges in the sponge reliefs were attached directly to the plaster, they appear more closely connected to the wall. The color has stronger contrasts, as the rough sponges and the smooth background create different pigment densities. Since the edges are not clearly delimited from the white wall, it is not possible to define the dimensions of the picture. The art scholar Michael Bockemühl speaks of an abstract architecture that does not allow the room boundaries to become effective due to the broken white walls, the dark ceiling and the glass; which does not make the real space vivid, but negates it.

The arrangement of the works in the main foyer is particularly exciting. The pictures stretch like a blue ribbon around the geometrically angular foyer and transform it into a semicircle. The arrangement of the audience forms an inverted semicircle around the half-cylinder of the stairs. This creates a closed circle from the arrangement of the pictures and the visitors to the theater. The half-cylinder, which is artistically designed in two ways by means of architectural design elements and the reliefs on the outer circular wall of the auditorium, allows the works of art in the foyer to constitute the space.

Artistic importance

Inside the MiR

The Musiktheater im Revier was one of the main stages of its genre in the German-speaking area as early as the 1950s, when it was still known as the Städtische Bühnen Gelsenkirchen.

The Musiktheater im Revier has its own opera ensemble and a choir (with an extra choir) as well as the dance ensemble "MiR Dance Company", which has been led by the Italian dancer and choreographer Giuseppe Spota since the 2019/20 season. He succeeds Bridget Breiner , who has headed the ballet in the Revier since the beginning of the 2012/13 season. Breiner was awarded the DER FAUST theater prize in 2013. She succeeded Bernd Schindowski , who directed the ballet Schindowski named after him from 1978 to 2011. The house orchestra is the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen , which emerged in 1996 from the merger of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the City of Gelsenkirchen and the Westphalian Symphony Orchestra of Recklinghausen and is the largest of the three regional orchestras in North Rhine-Westphalia . From 2007 the orchestra leader was GMD Heiko Mathias Förster . In the 2014/15 season he was succeeded by Rasmus Baumann , until then chief conductor of the Musiktheater im Revier, as the new general music director. The opera orchestra of the Musiktheater im Revier is sponsored by the cities of Gelsenkirchen and Recklinghausen as well as the Unna district .

Children and youth program

With "Opera out of the suitcase", "Mission: possible" or the ambitious projects of the Musiktheater im Revier Foundation, the MiR also offers an exciting program for all young audiences and young people. Shortened performances tailored to a young audience give an impression of the “emotional powerhouse of opera”. In addition, ballet projects for children and young people are regularly created in the Revier with “Move”.

Others

The Musiktheater im Revier was the location for parts of the film Das Wunder des Malachias (1961) by Bernhard Wicki .

literature

in alphabetical order by authors / editors

  • Georg Dehio: The Handbook of German Art Monuments: North Rhine-Westphalia 2. Westphalia 2012, ISBN 978-3-422-03114-2 .
  • Michael Hesse, Michael Bockemühl: Ruhr area art location: Gelsenkirchen music theater - Yves Klein: blue reliefs, building between international style and classic tradition, burning blue . 2003, ISBN 3-89861-225-2 .
  • Nicole Jakobs: Architecture for the »City of a Thousand Fires«. The Gelsenkirchen music theater. In: Preservation of monuments in Westphalia-Lippe. H. 2 (1998), pp. 47-54.
  • Anna Kloke: Theater makes the city. The Gelsenkirchener Musiktheater im Revier as a source of inspiration for urbanity and cultural identity in the Ruhr area in the post-war period . In: INSITU 2018/2, pp. 295–306.
  • MiR season booklet, 2012.
  • Werner Ruhnau, Ludwig Baum (ed.): Architecture - Yves Klein, Robert Adams, Paul Dierkes, Norbert Kricke, Jean Tinguely - Das Gelsenkirchener Theater. Gelsenkirchen 1992, OCLC 311848037 .

Web links

Commons : Musiktheater im Revier (Gelsenkirchen)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Musiktheater im Revier - Das Haus ( Memento from August 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  2. Georg Dehio 2012.
  3. a b MiR season booklet 2012.
  4. a b Ruhnau 1992, p. 7.
  5. Hesse / Bockemühl 2003, p. 38.
  6. a b Hesse / Bockemühl 2003.
  7. Hesse / Bockemühl 2003, p. 40.
  8. a b c d e f g h Jakobs, 1998.
  9. Ruhnau 1992, p. 54.
  10. Hesse / Bockemühl 2003, p. 12.
  11. Ruhnau 1992, p. 5.
  12. Ruhnau 1992, p. 53.
  13. Hesse / Bockemühl 2003, p. 29.
  14. Hesse / Bockemühl 2003, p. 62.
  15. Music theater in the Gelsenkirchen district. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 51 ″  N , 7 ° 5 ′ 28 ″  E