Musiktheater im Revier (MiR) (Music Theatre in the

Ruhr The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...

) is the venue for performing

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 ...

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its ...

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...

and

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 ...

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; wep, Gelsenkiärken) is the 25th most populous city of Germany and the 11th most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River (a tributary of the Rhine), it lies ...

, Germany. It opened on 15 December 1959; it is listed since 1997 as a protected

cultural monument A national heritage site is a heritage site having a value that has been registered by a governmental agency as being of national importance to the cultural heritage or history of that country. Usually such sites are listed in a heritage regist ...

. The building offers two performance spaces: the Large House (''Großes Haus'') with 1,008 seats and about 200 performances per year, and the Small House (''Kleines Haus'') with 336 seats and about 120 annual performances. In contrast to the building's outside cubic appearance, the auditoria use a more curved design.

Design

The building was designed by the German architect . The cubic outer shell of the Large House is formed by a glass facade, which gives view into the interior and the cylindric casing of the auditorium and its stairways, and the two monumental sculptures by the French artist Yves Klein. Gelsenkirchen Musiktheater Foyer 2

They consist of one 7×20 m (×) monochrome sponge sculpture in a distinctive blue ("Gelsenkirchen Blue") because Klein's International Klein Blue was unsuitable for the large walls: the

acetone Acetone (2-propanone or dimethyl ketone), is an organic compound with the formula . It is the simplest and smallest ketone (). It is a colorless, highly volatile and flammable liquid with a characteristic pungent odour. Acetone is miscibl ...

-based mixture evaporated, the paint lost adhesion and luminescence, and it was highly flammable. A second, slightly smaller work, is in blue and white. These intensely blue reliefs, which are visible from the outside through the glass skin of the building, inspired the city's graphic artist, Uwe Gelesch, to introduce blue as Gelsenkirchen's house colour. The Small House features a mobile by

Jean Tinguely Jean Tinguely (22 May 1925 – 30 August 1991) was a Swiss sculptor best known for his kinetic art sculptural machines (known officially as Métamatics) that extended the Dada tradition into the later part of the 20th century. Tinguely's art ...

.Musiktheater im Revier

The building served as a location for the 1961 film ''

The Miracle of Father Malachia ''The Miracle of Father Malachia'' (german: Das Wunder des Malachias) is a 1961 West German black-and-white film directed by Bernhard Wicki and starring Horst Bollmann. The film is based on the 1931 novel '' Father Malachy's Miracle'' by Bruce Ma ...

'' by Bernhard Wicki.MiR-Jubiläum : Gala der Superlative
Anne Bolsmann, 16 December 2009, "Der Westen"

Music theatre

When the theatre opened in 1959, it provided also for the spoken theatre, a typical German ''Drei-Sparten-Theater'' (three performing arts theater: opera, ballet, plays). Austerity measures in 1966/67 forced the abandonment of plays. Like most German municipal theatres (''Stadttheater''), the Musiktheater im Revier employs its own opera company and chorus and a ballet company under the direction of

Bridget Breiner Bridget Breiner (born 1974) is an American dancer and choreographer. Since 1991, she lives and works mainly in Germany. Breiner was born in Connecticut and brought up in Columbus, Ohio, where she received her early dance training. At 17, she furth ...

. The house orchestra is the , the largest of the three state orchestras in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

. The orchestra is funded by the cities of Gelsenkirchen and

Recklinghausen Recklinghausen (; Westphalian: ''Riäkelhusen'') is the northernmost city in the Ruhr-Area and the capital of the Recklinghausen district. It borders the rural Münsterland and is characterized by large fields and farms in the north and indust ...

and the district of Unna.

Johannes Kalitzke Johannes Kalitzke (born 12 February 1959) is a German composer and conductor. After studying in Cologne and at the IRCAM in Paris, he was chief conductor at the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen for several years, then led the ensemble musi ...

was chief conductor from 1984 to 1990. Heiko Mathias Förster is the current

music director A music(al) director or director of music is the person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, the di ...

. In 1968, Bernd Alois Zimmermann's work ' was premiered at the Musiktheater im Revier. The first performance of

Albert Lortzing Gustav Albert Lortzing (23 October 1801 – 21 January 1851) was a German composer, librettist, actor and singer. He is considered to be the main representative of the German ''Spieloper'', a form similar to the French ''opéra comique'', which ...

's 1899 opera '' Regina'' which used the composer's original

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major li ...

took place at the MiR in 1998. On 10 October 2003, Alexander Mullenbach's chamber opera ''Die Todesbrücke'' (''The Death Bridge'') saw its premiere here.

Enjott Schneider Enjott Schneider (born Norbert Jürgen Schneider 25 May 1950 in Weil am Rhein) is a German businessman, composer, musicologist, and music educator. He is best known as the chairman of the board of the German collecting society GEMA. As a compo ...

composed a musical for the occasion of the 100th anniversary in 2004 of the soccer team

FC Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhi ...

(spoken: Schalke nullvier) which was premiered on 9 May 2004. The title ''Nullvier – Keiner kommt an Gott vorbei!'' with a double meaning was translated by the composer to ''Zerofour: Nobody comes past God'', but might be rendered also as "04 – Nobody Outdribbles God!". The musical '' Strike Up the Band'' by George Gershwin saw its German premiere at the MiR in 2007 as had the German language production of his opera ''

Porgy and Bess ''Porgy and Bess'' () is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play '' Porgy'', ...

'' in 1970. Dannenberg, Peter. "Gelsenkirchen: Nach fünfunddreißig Jahren, Gershwin ''Porgy and Bess''", in ''

Opernwelt ''Opernwelt'' (''Opera World'') is a monthly German magazine for opera, operetta and ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert ...

'', Vol. XI, No. 11 (November 1970), pp. 35–36

References

External links

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Musiktheater im Revier
Gelsenkirchen.de
1959 – Eröffnung des Theaters Gelsenkirchen
pening of Theater Gelsenkirchen {{DEFAULTSORT:Musiktheater Im Revier Theatres completed in 1959 Modernist architecture in Germany Buildings and structures in Gelsenkirchen Heritage sites in North Rhine-Westphalia Opera houses in Germany Ballet venues Theatres in North Rhine-Westphalia Music venues completed in 1959