Since 1956, there has been an opera company based in Düsseldorf and Duisburg, in Germany's Ruhr valley, called Deutsche Oper am Rhein. The company performs at Opernhaus Düsseldorf (originally build in 1875 and re-built in 1956 after war damage) and Theater Duisburg (built in 1912 and re-built in 1950 after being completely destroyed in the war). In fact, it is much more than just an opera company, more like a cultural hub. There is the opera company and opera studio, the ballet (Ballett am Rhein) along with a ballet school, the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, plus work with young children. Now all this is threatened.
Deutsche Oper am Rhein has always seemed one of the prime examples of how culture was embedded into German civic live in a way that it isn't in the UK. A collaboration between the state capital, Düsseldorf (population 1.5 million) and Duisburg (population 500,000 million), which supports and array of work that is impressive by any standards. In 2012/13 there are 13 new opera production, and 19 revivals, with everything from Handel to Wagner, Lehar to Montsalvtge and Zemlinsky. The season's ballet programmes include work by the ballet's director, along with Jerome Robbins, Hans van Manen, Anthony Tudor, Frederick Ashton and George Balanchine. Plus a lively programme of visiting companies and events.
But the city of Duisburg is drowning in debts, 2 billion euros of them, and the cultural project costs the city 10 million euros per year. So the agreement between the two cities is scheduled to end in September 2014. To howls of outrage in artistic quarters.
This would have a disastrous effect on cultural life in Duisburg and the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra (70% of whose work comes from Deutche Oper am Rhein) would be seriously threatened. Düsseldorf would be left needing to make some pretty serious economies in the whole Deutche Oper am Rhein structure.
Richard von Weizsäcker, the first President of the re-united Germany, said 'culture is not a luxury we afford ourselves or can do without, but the spiritual survival that guarantees our actual inner survival'
It will be interesting to see whether this forward thinking model can survive the economic realities of the 21st century.
There is an on-line petition to save the company, do sign it.
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
What about blowing the box to pieces: composer Eímear Noone on writing for video games, films and TVEímear Noone (Photo: Andy Paradise) Dublin and LA-based composer Eímear Noone is known for her scores for video games, films and TV. She re...
-
Lehár : The Merry Widow - Alex Otterburn, Henry Waddington - Scottish Opera (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic) Lehár: The Merry Widow ; Paula Sides,...
-
Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra I get all sorts of mail, people sending my information on concerts and recordings. Everything gets gl...
-
Gilbert & Sullivan: Trial by Jury - Jamie MacDougall - Scottish Opera (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic) Gilbert & Sullivan: Trial by Jury ,...
-
Purcell: Dido & Aeneas - Joshua Saunders as Aeneas with the Witches - Guildhall School (Photo: David Monteith-Hodge) Purcell: Dido and...
-
Rameau: Les Indes Galantes - Andreas Wolf, Cappella Mediterranea, Chœur de chambre de Namur, Structure Rualité, Leonardo García-Alarcón - T...
-
Edward Gardner & Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts) Daniel Kidane: Sirens , Mark...
-
Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - The Grange Festival (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith) Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus ; Sylvia Schwartz, And...
-
Handel: Saul - Soraya Mafi - Glyndebourne Opera (Photo: Glyndebourne/ASH) Soprano Soraya Mafi is currently singing the role of Michal in H...
-
Silhouette of the clarinettist Anton Stadler For whom Mozart wrote the Clarinet Quintet David Gow, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Mozart; Peter Ci...
No comments:
Post a Comment