Chemnitz Theater

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The Theaters Chemnitz (official name: Städtische Theater Chemnitz gGmbH) are a five-part theater in Chemnitz, Saxony . The five branches are opera , philharmonic orchestra , ballet , drama and puppet theater . After Gerhard Meyer (1966 to 1990) had been artistic director for many years, Jörg Liljeberg (1990 to 1992), Rolf Stiska (1992 to 2007) and Bernhard Helmich (2007 to 2013) took over this task. Christoph Dittrich has been General Director of the Chemnitz Theater since 2013 .

Opera / ballet

Chemnitz Opera House

The Opera House , the King Albert Museum and the Petrikirche are located on the Theaterplatz . The opera house was inaugurated in 1909, destroyed in the Second World War and rebuilt after the war. On May 26, 1951, visitors could be received again for the first time. After a ceremony in the morning, the curtain opened for Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio in the evening . At the beginning of 1988 a comprehensive reconstruction of the house began, which was completed in 1992 after several years of construction. Since then, the Chemnitz Opera House has been one of the most modern theaters in Germany and has earned a high reputation in its almost 100-year history.

The program offers a wide range of options from classical to modern opera, from operettas to musicals. Under Rolf Stiska, the Chemnitz Opera earned the reputation of a "Saxon Bayreuth " by staging numerous Wagner operas .

The performance of unknown and rarely performed operas such as Mascagnis Iris , Nicolais Il templario and Die Heimkehr des Verbands , Reznicek's benzine or Pfitzner's Rose vom Liebesgarten , but also the German premieres of Pinocchio's adventures ( Jonathan Dove ) and Love and Other Demons ( Péter Eötvös ) shaped the directorship of Bernhard Helmich . The German premiere of Doves Swanhunter followed in the 2011/2012 season . The Chemnitz production of the Puccini opera Manon Lescaut was produced on DVD by the ARTHAUS label. In addition, two productions - the opera Die Liebe zu den Drei Orangen and the ballet Giselle M. - have already received the German Theater Prize DER FAUST. The opera Pinocchio's Adventure (set / costumes: Francis O'Connor) was nominated for this award . In January 2011, the Chemnitz Opera was awarded the prize of the Association of German Stage and Media Publishers for exemplary commitment in the field of music theater.

Rolf Stiska also founded a long series of musical productions, which his successors continued. Classics like My Fair Lady stand alongside newer works like Tim Rice and Elton Johns Aida as well as Falco meets Amadeus .

Christoph Dittrich opened his first season (2013/2014) with the premiere of the ironic-grotesque opera Le Grand Macabre by György Ligeti in the set by the painter Georg Baselitz and the costumes by the action artist John Bock . This is followed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni , Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlos and Vincenzo Bellini's Norma . He is continuing the musical tradition of the house with Funny Girl .

The Ballet Chemnitz with its ten female and ten female dancers has been under the direction of the ballet director Sabrina Sadowska since the beginning of the 2017/2018 season . With international guest choreographers, she designs a spectrum from classical to contemporary ballet. Sabrina Sadowska has established the Chemnitz BallettBenefizGala, at which dance companies from all over Germany perform for charitable purposes, and the festival for contemporary dance, “Dance | Modern | Dance”, as annual events.

Robert Schumann Philharmonic

Wilhelm August Mejo founded the Chemnitz City Orchestra in 1833. By resolution of the SED district management in Karl-Marx-Stadt, the city orchestra became the “Robert Schumann Philharmonic” in 1983 for the 150th anniversary. With this the orchestra gained national importance.

The orchestra's tasks include ten symphony concerts per season in the Chemnitz city hall , each with one repetition, as well as special concerts, chamber music evenings and around 180 performances of operas, operettas, musicals and ballet in the Chemnitz Opera House. Child and youth work has a special place in the orchestra's program.

The Robert Schumann Philharmonic is also a partner of various concert organizers. In the 2008/2009 season, for example, the orchestra will be guest at the Festival at Neuschwanstein Castle, in the Herkulessaal in Munich and in the Tonhalle Zurich. Guest appearances have also taken the orchestra to Salzburg, Vienna, Linz, New York, Rome, Zagreb as well as to Berlin, Frankfurt / M., Cologne and Dresden.

Former general music directors important to the house were a. Dieter-Gerhardt Worm , who shaped the orchestra for almost 20 years and who also initiated the renaming to the “Robert Schumann Philharmonic”. Furthermore, John Carewe (1993–1996), Oleg Caetani (1996–2001) and most recently Niksa Bareza (2001–2007) worked in Chemnitz. Bareza continued the Strauss and Wagner tradition of the Chemnitz Opera House from the 1920s.

From 2007 to 2016 Frank Beermann was general music director in Chemnitz. He managed to bring guest conductors like Michail Jurowski , Péter Eötvös , Martin Haselböck and Stefan Blunier and soloists like Olga Scheps , Fabio Bidini , Jan Vogler , Linus Roth , Martin Stadtfeld , the GrauSchumacher Piano Duo , Matthias Kirschnereit and Ulf Wallin to Chemnitz.

For the world premiere recording of the piano concertos in E minor by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in the reconstruction by Larry Todd, the pianist Matthias Kirschnereit received the ECHO Klassik together with the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Chemnitz under the direction of Frank Beermann in 2009 .

After Beermann's departure, Felix Bender, who was born in Halle in 1986 and had previously been the first Kapellmeister in Chemnitz, took over the post of general music director on a temporary basis. Since the 2017/18 season, the Spaniard Guillermo García Calvo took over the position of general music director.

Playhouse

Chemnitz theater

The Chemnitz theater is housed in a new building that was opened in October 1980 on the edge of the Park of the Victims of Fascism . In 1976, shortly before the premiere of the controversial play "Tinka" by Volker Braun , the old theater was almost completely burned out under unclear circumstances and was demolished.

The house was headed for many years by Hartwig Albiro (1980–1996). He was followed by Herbert Olschok (1996–2000), Manuel Soubeyrand (2000–2004), Katja Paryla (2004–2008) and Enrico Lübbe (2008–2013).

Carsten Knödler has been acting director since the 2013/2014 season. The main stage in the Schauspielhaus presents texts from world drama from antiquity to classical modernism: the program ranges from William Shakespeare to Henrik Ibsen to Woody Allen and focuses on literary and acting theater. The east wing of the Schauspielhaus, which replaced the small stage as a venue in October 2011, focuses on premieres and premieres, looking for contemporary forms of theater and new aesthetics. The “Night Shift” series shows the ensemble and many guests in events and programs that short-circuit the house with the city and its (art) scene.

Puppet theater

The puppet theater has been based in the Schauspielhaus since the beginning of the 2011/2012 season and plays on the previous small stage there. The pieces are not only aimed at very young viewers from 4 years of age, adults and young people will also find their special offer, traditionally using marionettes, hand and stick puppets, but also open ways of playing and material theater. Gundula Hoffmann has been the director of the puppet theater since the beginning of 2015.

Honorary members

literature

  • Karl-Hans Möller, Harald Müller: Theater for the City of Chemnitz: The Intendanz Rolf Stiska 1992-2005 , Theater der Zeit, 2006, ISBN 978-3-934344-71-6 .
  • Karl-Hans Möller: Not without folly: history in stories by and about Hartwig Albiro , Verlag für modern art Nuremberg, 2008, ISBN 978-3-939738-94-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Reise Travel History of the Chemnitz Opera House
  2. ↑ “Schumann's Name kidnapped” , Freie Presse from February 1, 2008, page B6: Quote: “The naming of 'Robert Schumann' in January 1983 was by no means decided. Siegfried Lorenz , then 1st secretary of the SED district leadership, already had a negative decision ready for the GMD. The people of Zwickau were upset that Karl-Marx-Stadt claimed the name for the Philharmonie! Worm's answer: 'There is something in common between Karl Marx and Robert Schumann: Both have nothing to do with the city.' That convinced the influential party man. 'Yes,' he said, 'we'll do it.' The name of the composer, who was born in Zwickau, went to Karl-Marx-Stadt, and the municipal orchestra became the Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie. "
  3. ↑ World premiere of the year: Matthias Kirschnereit. In: ECHO Klassik. Archived from the original on September 9, 2009 ; Retrieved September 5, 2009 .
  4. ↑ Felix Bender ( Memento of the original dated November 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the Chemnitz Theater @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.theater-chemnitz.de
  5. ↑ Spaniard García Calvo new general music director in Chemnitz on freiepresse.de from December 2, 2016
  6. ↑ Karl-Hans Möller: Not without foolishness: history in stories by and about Hartwig Albiro , Verlag für moderne Kunst Nürnberg, pp. 118, 121.