Zurich Opera House: Difference between revisions

Zurich Opera’s Schauspielhaus has been its home since 1926. The first permanent theatre, the Aktientheater, was built in 1834 and it became the focus of Richard Wagner’s activities during his “exile”. It seats 1,100 people.

History of the opera house

After the original theatre burnt down in 1891, the theatre as we know it today was built, and it was based on plans by the Viennese architects Fellner and Helmer . Initially, both music and drama were performed at what was known as the “Stadttheater”, but after the construction of the new “playhouse” in 1926, the focus was shifted to opera, operetta, and ballet.

During 1982 to 1984 renovation and extension of the Opera House took place. The theatre was reopened with Wagner’s Meistersingers of Nuremberg and the world première of Rudolf Kelterborn’s Chekov opera Der Kirschgarten.

Alexander Pereira, formerly Secretary-General of the Vienna Konzerthaus, has been Director of Zurich Opera since the 1991/92 season and Franz Welser-Möst has been Chief Conductor since the 1995/96 season, prior to which he was the Chief Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. Before coming to Zurich, Welser-Möst was Director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also held the position of General Musical Director of Zurich Opera since September 2005.

History of the opera company

Wilhelm Furtwängler began his career there, and in 1913 Richard Wagner’s “Parsifal” was given its first performance outside Bayreuth. Ferruccio Busoni, Paul Hindemith, Richard Strauss, Othmar Schoeck, Arthur Honegger, Frank Martin and other famous composers all left their mark on the development of Zurich’s musical theatre. Zurich Opera House has been the setting for numerous world premières, such as Alban Berg’s “Lulu”, Paul Hindemith’s “Mathis der Maler”, Arnold Schönberg’s “Moses and Aron”. Works by Heinrich Sutermeister, Giselher Klebe and [Rudolf Kelterborn]] were also performed here for the first time.

Dr. Claus Helmut Drese was Director of Zurich Opera House from 1975 to 1986, bringing it to a high artistic standard and earning the company international recognition, primarily as a result of the Monteverdi cycle, with Nikolaus Harnoncourt as conductor and Jean-Pierre Ponnelle as director and set designer. Alexander Pereira, has been Director of Zurich Opera since the 1991/92 season. He opened his first season with “Lohengrin”, the same opera that had inaugurated the theatre exactly 100 years earlier, in a sensational production by Robert Wilson. From the very beginning, one of Pereira’s greatest concerns was the continuous development of a soloist ensemble. He placed equal emphasis on promoting promising young artists, new types of performances, involving the public and collaborating with great artists. International opera stars regularly give guest performances on the Zurich stage, complementing the ensemble for periods of several weeks. Alexander Pereira focuses his programming on the great opera repertoire from Mozart to Verdi, but contemporary works are also performed. Recently Alexander Pereira has been strongly committed to Zurich Opera’s active and varied youth work, as well as encouraging the presence of Zurich’s opera productions on the international DVD market. With great dedication, Pereira also ensured that the Canton of Zurich assumed the City of Zurich’s financial responsibilities, and hence those of the Opera House, in the spring of 1995.

As one of the initiators of the Zurich Festival, since the autumn of 1996 Pereira has also been Artistic Director and a member of the Artistic Committee of the Zurich Festival, which was held for the first time in the summer of 1997. His contract as General Director of Zurich Opera runs until 2011.

Two other important conductors are Nello Santi for the Italian repertoire and Nikolaus Harnoncourt, primarily for Mozart operas and more recently also for Johann Strauss, Jacques Offenbach, Carl Maria von Weber and Giuseppe Verdi. William Christie, Christoph von Dohnányi, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Adam Fischer, John Eliot Gardner and Marc Minkowski also regularly conduct new opera productions.

Major contemporary works

• Spring 1996: world première of Herbert Willi’s “Schlafes Bruder” after the novel by Robert Schneider.
• October 1998: Heinz Holliger’s opera “Schneewittchen” after Robert Walser.
• July 2003: Beat Furrer’s “invocation”, inspired by Marguerite Duras
• 2005: HK Gruber’s opera “der herr nordwind” .

Zurich Opera ballet

Zurich Opera has its own ballet company of approximately 35 dancers. Uwe Scholz, who died in 2004, was appointed Ballet Director and Chief Choreographer in the 1985/86 season. He succeeded the Balanchine specialist Patricia Neary, who acted as Ballet Director from 1978 to 1985. Neary’s directorship saw performances by artists as Rudolf Nurejev and Gaye Fulton. In 1992 Director Pereira appointed the Viennese choreographer Bernd Roger Bienert as the new Director of Zurich Ballet, which performs two or three premières and two revivals every season.