Hanover State Opera (german: Staatsoper Hannover) is an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

company in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, the state capital of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

, Germany. The company is resident in the Hanover Opera House (), and is part of a publicly-funded umbrella performing arts organisation called Hanover State Theatre of Lower Saxony (), or simply Hanover State Theatre (). Hanover State Theatre comprises the following divisions that put on

s, stage productions, and concert programs, in addition to maintaining a theatre museum, with seasons running from September through to June.

Hanover Opera House

Hanover State Opera is resident in the Hanover Opera House, built in classical style between 1845 and 1852 based on a plan by

Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves (17 December 1788 – 30 April 1864) was a German architect, civil engineer and urban planner. Born in Uslar, Lower Saxony, he lived and worked primarily in the city of Hanover and also died there. He was appointed ...

. The building was rebuilt from 1948 after being badly damaged by the aerial bombings of Hanover during World War II. In 1985, the acoustics were improved, and between 1996 and 1998, the stage facilities were renovated. The

International Choreographic Competition Hannover Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

has taken place at Hanover Opera House since the early 1980s, and is the longest-running choreography competition in the world. It is organised by the Ballet Association of Hanover ().

Governance

The current intendant of the opera company is replacing Michael Klügl in 2019. The current general music director () of the opera company is Stephan Zilias, named to the post in February 2020 following his debut with the opera company in the 2019–2020 season. Past general music directors are: *

Rudolf Krasselt Rudolf Krasselt (1 January 1879 – 12 April 1954) was a German violoncellist, conductor and director of the Staatsoper Hannover during the Weimar Republic and the period of National Socialism. Life Born in Baden-Baden, Krasselt grew up as son ...

(1924–1943) *

Franz Konwitschny Franz Konwitschny (14 August 1901, Fulnek, Moravia – 28 July 1962, Belgrade) was a German conductor and violist of Moravian descent. He started his career on the viola,Schwinger playing in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Wilhelm Furtw ...

(1945–1949) *

Johannes Schüler Johannes Schüler (21 June 18943 October 1966) was a German conductor who held leading positions at opera houses such as the Berlin State Opera and the Staatsoper Hannover. He promoted contemporary music, leading the world premieres of Alban Ber ...

(1949–1960) * Günter Wich (1961–1965) *

George Alexander Albrecht George Alexander Albrecht (15 February 1935 – 21 December 2021) was a German conductor and composer, who also worked as a musicologist and academic teacher. A prolific composer at a young age, he was Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the Staatsope ...

(1965–1993) *

Christof Perick Christof Prick (born 1946) is a German orchestra conductor. He uses the name Christof Perick in English-speaking countries. His father was the concertmaster of the Hamburg Philharmonic. Biography Born in Hamburg, Prick studied at the Univer ...

(1993–1996) *

Andreas Delfs Andreas Delfs (born 30 August 1959) is a German conductor. He is the music director of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor laureate of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Biography Delfs was born in Flensburg, West Germany. He be ...

(1996–2000) * Hans Urbanek (2000–2001) *

Lü Shao-chia Lü Shao-chia (; born 1960) is a Taiwanese conductor. He has been music director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan since 2010. Biography Born in Hsinchu, Taiwan, Lü studied piano at an early age. Initiated by Taiwanese conductor ...

(2001–2006) * (2006–2011) *

Karen Kamensek Karen Kamensek (born January 2, 1970 in Chicago) is an American orchestral and opera conductor. Biography Her parents came from Kamnica pri Mariboru, Slovenia. Kamensek received degrees in orchestral conducting and piano performance from Indiana ...

(2011–2016) * (2016–2019) The longest-serving general music director of the opera company was

, from 1965 until 1993. The first woman, and first American, to hold the post of general music director was

, from 2011 until 2014.

Premieres

* 1838: '' Der Bäbu'' by

Heinrich Marschner Heinrich August Marschner (16 August 1795 – 14 December 1861) was the most important composer of German opera between Weber and Wagner.

(performance took place in the old ''Schlossopernhaus'') * 1852: ''Austin'' by Marschner * 1921: '' Die Prinzessin Girnara'' by

Egon Wellesz Egon Joseph Wellesz CBE (21 October 1885 – 9 November 1974) was an Austrian, later British composer, teacher and musicologist, notable particularly in the field of Byzantine music. Early life and education in Vienna Egon Joseph Wellesz was ...

* 1931: ''Prinzessin Brambilla'' by

Walter Braunfels Walter Braunfels (; 19 December 1882 – 19 March 1954) was a German composer, pianist, and music educator. Life Walter Braunfels was born in Frankfurt. His first music teacher was his mother, the great-niece of the composer Louis Spohr. He c ...

* 1943: ''Der Kuckuck von Theben'' by

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (born Ermanno Wolf) (January 12, 1876 – January 21, 1948) was an Italian composer and teacher. He is best known for his comic operas such as '' Il segreto di Susanna'' (1909). A number of his works were based on plays ...

* 1952: ''

Boulevard Solitude ' is a ' (lyric drama) or opera in one act by Hans Werner Henze to a German libretto by Grete Weil after the play by Walter Jockisch, in its turn a modern retelling of Abbé Prévost's 1731 novel ''Manon Lescaut''. The piece is a reworking of the ...

'' by

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as ...

* 1970: ''Der Aufsichtsrat'' by

Diether de la Motte Diether de la Motte (30 March 1928 – 15 May 2010) was a German musician, composer, music theorist, music critic and academic teacher. Life Born in Bonn, de la Motte studied at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold from 1947 to 1950, composition ...

* 1977: ''Faust und Yorick'' by

Wolfgang Rihm Wolfgang Rihm (born 13 March 1952) is a German composer and academic teacher. He is musical director of the Institute of New Music and Media at the University of Music Karlsruhe and has been composer in residence at the Lucerne Festival and the Sa ...

* 1980: ''Ein Abenteuer auf dem Friedhof'' by Alfred Koerppen * 1992: ''Draußen vor der Tür'' by Xaver Paul Thoma * 2000: ''Gilgamesh'' by

Volker David Kirchner Volker David Kirchner (25 June 1942 – 4 February 2020) was a German composer and violist. After studies of violin and composition at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory, the Hochschule für Musik Köln and the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, he w ...

* 2005: ''iOPAL'' by

Hans-Joachim Hespos Hans-Joachim Hespos (13 March 1938 – 18 July 2022) was a German composer of avant-garde music. He was trained as a teacher and worked until 1984. Self-taught as a composer, he then worked freelance and created more than 200 works in many genre ...

* 2017: ''Lot'' by Giorgio Battistelli

References

External links

* {{authority control German opera companies Tourist attractions in Hanover