Theater Kiel is a theatre company in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

, the capital of

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...

, Germany. It is jointly funded by the city and the state. The company produces opera, musical, ballet, plays, and theatre for youth and children, in three different buildings: the Opernhaus (completed in 1907), the ', and the '.

History

The theatre dates its history to 1907, when the opera house was completed. Former names include ' (Stages of the state capital Kiel) and ' (State Theatre Kiel). Associated people as of 2014 are general director , director of music Georg Fritzsch, commercial director Jörn Sturm, director of opera Reinhard Linden, director of children's and youth theater Norbert Aust, directors of ballet Yaroslav Ivanenko and Heather Jurgensen. The theatre is supported by the ' (Association of the friends of the theatre in Kiel), the ' (Friends of Music Kiel), and the ' (Stage of the people Kiel), who all organize numerous events.

Buildings

Opernhaus Kiel

The Kiel Opera House () is the city's major venue for

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 ...

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

, and

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

l performances. It was designed by architect Heinrich Seeling and built from 1905 to 1907. Aerial bombings destroyed much of the original structure in 1942 and 1943, and architects Henry Hansen and Guido Widmann were later brought in to restore the theatre from 1952 to 1953.

Schauspielhaus

Theater im Werftpark

Performances

The first performance of Theater Kiel was Beethoven's ''

Fidelio ''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Op. 72, is Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, wi ...

'' on 1 October 1907. In 1988, the theatre was part of the co-commission of the opera ''

The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 ''The Making of the Representative for Planet 8'' is a 1982 science fiction novel by Doris Lessing. It is the fourth book in her five-book ''Canopus in Argos'' series and relates the fate of a planet, under the care of the benevolent galactic e ...

'' by Philip Glass, together with the

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English ...

, Houston Grand Opera, and

Het Muziektheater The Stopera is a building complex in Amsterdam, Netherlands, housing both the city hall of Amsterdam and the Dutch National Opera and Ballet, the principal opera house in Amsterdam that is home of Dutch National Opera, Dutch National Ballet and ...

, Amsterdam. In the season 2007/2008, Theater Kiel celebrated its 100th anniversary. In addition to the program during the season, a summer event was held. The second opera by

Cristóbal Halffter Cristóbal Halffter Jiménez-Encina (24 March 1930 – 23 May 2021) was a Spanish classical composer. He was the nephew of two other composers, Rodolfo and Ernesto Halffter and is regarded as the most important Spanish composer of the gene ...

, ''Lázaro'', was premiered on 4 May 2008 at the Kiel Opera House as part of the celebration. In 2010, the first large scale stage work Márton Illés, ', was co-produced with the

Munich Biennale The Munich Biennale (german: Münchener Biennale) is a contemporary opera and music theatre festival in the city of Munich. The full German name is ''Internationales Festival für neues Musiktheater'', literally: International Festival for New Musi ...

. It premiered at the

Gasteig Gasteig is a cultural center in Munich, opened in 1985, which hosts the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. The Richard Strauss Conservatory, the Volkshochschule, and the municipal library are all located in the Gasteig. Most of the events of the Fi ...

, and was repeated in Kiel in May and June. An open-air performance of Puccini's ''

Tosca ''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language drama ...

'' was presented at the Kiel Town Hall Square in 2012.

References

External links

Theater Kiel
Official Website
Oper Kiel
Official Website {{Authority control Theatres in Germany Buildings and structures in Kiel Theatres completed in 1907