Eight years late, Cologne Opera is delayed again
OperaRenovation work on the Rhineland opera house started in 2012 with a budget of 253 million Euros.
It was supposed to take three years.
It’s currently running eight years late and the most recent cost estimate is 682 million euros.
Reopening was scheduled for March 2024.
Guess what? It has been postponed again.
Whatever happened to German efficiency?
https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/die-story/das-trauerspiel-der-koelner-oper-ein-sanierungs-desaster/wdr/Y3JpZDovL3dkci5kZS9CZWl0cmFnLWU3NDc5OTU5LTMyNTAtNDQ1Ni1iYzM1LTU5MzViMWFmNzVlMA
afaik, March ’24 was the date set for the completion of renovation works and has indeed been postponed – however, the actual reopening had been planned for the start of the new season in September/October.
This might still be possible …
and just for comparison:
renovation/rebuilding of the opera houses in both Düsseldorf and Frankfurt are planned to cost around €1bn.
all that aside, I’m very much looking forward to attending a performance in Köln soon – architecturally it is one of my favourite modern opera houses and auditoriums.
Perhaps it will be ready for when Orozco Estrada takes over as Music Director for Cologne in 2025.
What efficiency? It’s excessive bureaucracy and pedantry and a jungle of contradictory regulations that slow down even the most sensible measures – nothing more – and I say that as someone who has a German passport (it is (still) very comfortable to live in this country – but unimaginative and often simply annoying)!
I guess the Germans are no less prone to the planning fallacy. https://hbr.org/2022/01/this-is-why-you-keep-missing-deadlines