French opera to shut for three years
OperaThe mayor of Strasbourg has announced that the Opéra national du Rhin will undergo a complete reconstruction from 2026 to 2029 (plus overruns). The company has been told to seek out other venues.
Jeanne Barseghian called it: ‘A great day for our city, for the future of opera and more generally for opera and choreography in Strasbourg, France and Europe. We are going to carry out a vast renovation and restructuring project (…) in order to transform our charming municipal theatre into a contemporary opera house at the height of our European capital.’
It will:
–Take longer than three years
–Cost a fortune
–Bring in more stage hydraulics and heavy equipment (in order to make TV-ready productions)
–Disserve the theatre audience by replacing two-dimensional picture stagings (and many scene changes) with hard-surface, camera-ready sets
–Prevent productions transferring to Colmar and Mulhouse
The ‘charming municipal theater’ will probably transform into a monstrosity. There’s something about the word contemporary that fills me with trepidation.
Sounds exciting. Good news. Turning that lovable, quaint pile into a modern opera house will take time and money. But it’s long overdo. Bravo Strasbourg.
Whatever they do, the building takes up a footprint that will be difficult to enlarge.
The pit is way too small for a full orchestra to play Wagner productions etc..
The OPS always ends their Opera series in Mulhouse, where there is lots of room for everyone.
Having played in the Strasbourg Opera for 33 years, I am very interested to see what they come up with.
It’s about time.
The pit is way too small for Wagner productions and the musicians find it claustrophobic. They always prefer the one in Mulhouse which is roomier and where they finish off each series.
Having played in that building for 33 years, I will be delighted to see what they come up with.
However, with the building’s footprint that takes up the space it does, you simply can’t create something bigger without overlapping onto the tram tracks.
It’s about time.
The pit is way too small for Wagner productions and the musicians find it claustrophobic, not to mention the lack of fire escapes. They always prefer the one in Mulhouse which is roomier and where they finish off each series.
Having played in that building for 33 years, I will be delighted to see what they come up with.
However, with the building’s footprint that takes up the space it does, you simply can’t create something bigger without overlapping onto the tram tracks.
It’s about time.
This project has been on the table for many years, and the only thing they really renovated was a flashy new bar. They also replaced the music stands with handlebar LED lighting. The old ones would fall down like a guillotine blade in the middle of a performance.
The pit is way too small for Wagner productions and is too claustrophobic for the musicians. The fire escapes are practically non existent and during an earthquake in 1998 (or 99?) the performers were rushing out like madmen in the middle of a Strauss opera. The pit in Mulhouse (where they finish off each series) is much roomier and better ventilated. BTW, Colmar has no longer been in the loop for many years
The building’s footprint however, takes up a certain amount of space. One simply can’t create something bigger without overlapping onto the tram tracks.
Having played in that building for 33 years, I will be delighted to see what they come up with!
Poppea moves to Colmar next month, where she’ll be welcome.
Yes, you are correct. Things have changed, but for many years Colmar was no longer in the schedule.