Zurich Opera
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Zurich Opera is an opera company in Zurich Switzerland. The company gives performances in the Opernhaus Zürich which has been the company’s home for fifty years. The house seats 1,238 people.
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[edit] 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 Mahler, Arnold Schönberg’s Moses und Aron. Works by Heinrich Sutermeister, Giselher Klebe and Rudolf Kelterborn were also performed here for the first time.
From 1975 to 1986 Claus Helmut Drese was Director of Zurich Opera House and he brought high artistic standards wit the result that the company gained international recognition, through the presentation of the Monteverdi cycle, with Nikolaus Harnoncourt as conductor and Jean-Pierre Ponnelle as director and set designer.
Since the 1991/92 season, Alexander Pereira has been Director of company, and it opened with Lohengrin, in a striking production by Robert Wilson. He has placed great emphasis on promoting promising young artists and new types of performances.
The Zurich Festival has been in existence since the autumn of 1996 with Pereira as Artistic Director; the first Festival was held in the summer of 1997.
The first permanent theatre, the Aktientheater, was built in 1834 and it became the focus of Richard Wagner’s activities during his period of “exile” from Germany.
[edit] History of the opera house
The Aktientheater burnt down in 1890, and the company then moved to the re-built theatre, named the Stadttheater Zurich. Existing as the city’s main performance space for drama, opera, and musical events until 1925, this theatre was renamed as the Opernhaus Zürich and a separate playhouse was built.
By the 1970s, the Opernhaus was badly in need of major renovations; when some considered it not worth restoring, a new theatre was proposed for the site. However, between 1982 and 1984, rebuilding took place but not without huge local opposition which was expressed in street riots. The rebuilt theatre was inaugurated with Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the world première of Rudolf Kelterborn’s Chekov opera Der Kirschgarten.
As restored, the theatre is an ornate building with a neo-classical façade of white and grey stone adorned with busts of Weber, Wagner, and Mozart. Additionally, busts of Schiller, Shakespeare, and Goethe are to be found. The auditorium is built in the rococo style.
[edit] Music Administration
Franz Welser-Möst has been Chief Conductor since the 1995/96 season, and continues to be the Chief Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, a post held since 2002. Before Cleveland and 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.
