Bits are falling off Beethoven’s opera house
mainThe opera in Bonn is in a bad way.
The facade is crumbling and concrete chunks are falling off. A screen has been erected to protect passerby.
The city of Bonn has been talking for years about renewing or replacing the opera house.
Still talking.
What time’s the next Beethoven anniversary?*
photo: Benjamin Westhoff/General Anzeiger
*2027
Very strange, we know the passion of the germans for opera and classic. Many times I was very impressed by the concerts hall outside of the 3 bigest cities (ex : Dortmund and Dresde) and Bonn is not in the poorest lander of Germany…
… but it is now 12% Muslim, so the culture is new.
Some of these cities are not what they used to be. Same in the U.K.
By not what they used to be, I assume you mean ethnically pure?
Why bother with the provincial opera house of Bonn when the city of Cologne with its major opera house is next door?
A fair point, Germany has dozens of opera houses and scores of orchestras. Is there demand for them all?
That’s right: tear ’em all down! Build a strip mall! Then Germany can be a “normal country” like the UK and US. Any young musician who is not good enough for the Philharmoniker can go work at Burger King in the strip mall!
Rather a hysterical response, not unexpected.
I don’t think anyone looking at the last 150 years of European history would call Germany “normal”
Glass half empty. Again.
You mean where demand is met with supply? Oh, surely not!!!
Take the rest of the week off!!!
What the hell are you talking about?
Rattle and LSO should raise funds when they’re there.
They have to. The Barbican (very ugly) don’t have the old charme of the Concertgebouw and Musikverein. Don’t have the modern charme of Leipzig concert hall and the Berliner Philarmonie. And don’t have the qualities of the Paris Philarmonie.
But possibly still better acoustics than Elbphilharmonie – depending on where you sit or if you happen to be Riccardo Muti or Jonas Kaufmann.
Paris Philarmonie is certainly less beautiful from the outside but inisde it must be a good model for London and it’s a very big sucess. Anyway London has to earise the Barbican. Munich was in the same situation and is building something new. Rome did that 20 years ago. Apart in Leipzig the 80’s were a very bad period for the concert halls…
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/arts/music/cologne-opera-house-delay-cost.html
Readers should take a look at this article before making their comments; it may well change their opinion!
Without mentioning the largest, non-arts, elephant in the room, the Berlin airport. And trains don’t run on time, less so than in Italy. There is a splendid German word for this: schlamperei.
And here is another one (not behind a firewall) from a German perspective:
https://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/skandalbaustellen-im-kulturbereich-geld-singt-nicht/25550136.html
If we criticize the Germans, it is perhaps to complain that they have too much money. Should they spend the billion on a bomber instead–like the US? Or on tax cuts for the rich and greedy?
Isn’t Bonn’s Concert Hall also shut for ‘renovation’ even tho’ it is Beethoven year? Granted, the theatre is NOT the most attractive building inside or out!
Yes, Bonn is in a shambles.
Ludwig spent just too much time in Vienna.
Beethoven worked well in Bonn’s Beethoven Halle, not that long ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYnvaququio
Hard to accept that renovation works are taking that long.
There must be someone making a profit through artificial project prolongation.
They have until 16 or 17 December.