Deutsche Oper Berlin
The
Deutsche Oper Berlin is an opera company located in Berlin
, Germany
, in what was
formerly West Berlin. The
resident building, also called
Deutsche Oper Berlin, also
is home to the Staatsballett Berlin.
History
The
company's history goes back to the Deutsches Opernhaus
built by the city of Charlottenburg
(Bismarckstraße 34-37) from 1911 and opened on
November 7, 1912 with
a performance of Beethoven's
Fidelio, conducted by Ignatz Waghalter.
Deutsches Opernhaus, 1936
After the
incorporation of Charlottenburg into Greater Berlin
the name of the resident building was changed to
Städtische Oper (Municipal Opera House) in 1925.
With the Nazi
Machtergreifung in
1933, the opera was under control of the
Ministry of
Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
Minister Joseph Goebbels had the name changed back to
Deutsches Opernhaus, competing the Berlin State
Opera
under the control of his rival Minister President
Hermann Göring. In 1935,
the building was remodeled by
Paul
Baumgarten and the seating reduced from 2300 to 2098.
Carl Ebert, the pre-World
War II general manager, chose to emigrate from Germany rather
than endorse a Nazi view of music, and went on to co-found the
Glyndebourne
opera festival
in England. The opera house was destroyed on
November 23,
1943.
Ebert later returned as general manager after the war.
After the war, the company used the building of the
Theater des Westens until the new
building, designed by
Fritz
Bornemann, was completed on
September
24,
1961. The opening production was
Mozart's
Don
Giovanni. The new building opened with the current name.
Past General Music Directors have included
Bruno Walter,
Ferenc
Fricsay,
Lorin Maazel,
Gerd Albrecht,
Jesús López Cobos, and
Christian Thielemann. In October 2005,
the Italian conductor
Renato Palumbo
was appointed
Generalmusikdirector as of the 2006-2007
season. In October 2007, the Deutsche Oper announced the
appointment of
Donald Runnicles as
their next
Generalmusikdirector, effective August 2009,
for an initial contract of 5 years. Simultaneously, Palumbo and the
Deutsche Oper mutually agreed to terminate his contract, effective
November 2007.
Since 2004, the Deutsche Oper's
Intendantin has been
Kirsten Harms.
Controversy
In 1967, the opera house was the scene of the shooting of
Benno Ohnesorg, a student taking part in the
German student movement. He
had been protesting against the visit to Germany by the
Shah of Iran.
In April 2001, the Italian conductor
Giuseppe Sinopoli died at the podium while
conducting Verdi's Aida, at the age of 54.
In September 2006, the opera house drew criticism after it
cancelled performances of
Mozart's opera Idomeneo
because of fears that a scene in it featuring the severed heads of
Jesus,
Buddha
and
Muhammad would offend
Muslims, and that the opera house's security might
become under threat if violent protests took place.
Critics of the
decision include German Ministers and the German Chancellor
Angela Merkel. The reaction
from Muslims has been mixed — the leader of Germany's Islamic
Council welcomed the decision, whilst a leader of Germany's Turkish
community, criticising the decision, said:
"This is about art, not about politics ...
We should not make art dependent on religion — then we
are back in the Middle Ages."
At the end of October 2006 the opera house announced that
performances of
Mozart's
opera Idomeneo would
then proceed. On this subject, see also
Idomeneo .
Intendanten (General Managers)
Generalmusikdirektoren (Music Directors)
References
See also
Music in Berlin
External links
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