Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Opera in the Afternoon

Steep in the tradition of great composers such as Wagner and Strauss, the National Theater in Munich today is home of the Bayerische Staatsoper and Staatsballett or Bavarian State Opera and Ballet. The original construction was actually built to Wagner’s specifications in 1750, and described as a Rococo gem. I ended up catching this shot during a break in one of the afternoon performances, where theatergoers spilled out into the streets in their finest wares. The theater that stands today is the third on this location, reconstructing after it burned down in 1823, and then after the bombing of WWII. Architect Gerhard Graubner recreated the builing in 1963 based upon the original neo-classical 2100 seat theater.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Built to Wagner's specifications in 1750? This I'd call premature as Wagner was born in 1813. The one theater built as "Wagner-Festspielhaus" is the Prinzregententheater.
The Rococo gem from 1750 is now the "Alte Residenztheater" or "Cuvillies-Theater", built on the location of today's Residenztheater to the left of Nationaltheater. The building was destroyed in WWII, but the interior survived so that the theater could be reconstructed, this time inside the Residenz.

The first Nationaltheater ("Königliche Hof- und Nationaltheater")that burned down in 1823 was built in 1810.