The State Opera Opens a New Chapter

The landmark building is reopening after two-and-a-half years with a new look and new attitude

By Raymond Johnston

A new era is starting at the State Opera, one of Europe’s most opulent high-culture venues. A multiyear renovation has just been completed, and the management is reaching out to attract a wider audience to this Neo-rococo landmark.

Per Boye Hansen, artistic director of the National Theatre Opera and the State Opera, talks about the building in reverent terms. “When you open the door of the State Opera, it’s like entering a different world or a beautiful church. It is a place where you will find a totally different atmosphere, beauty, tradition,” he said as the renovation entered its final stages.

The opera house was reopened on 5 January, exactly 132 years after it first saw an audience in 1888 when Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Master-Singers of Nuremberg) was performed. It had been closed since July 2016.

People will see some of the fruits of the renovation, which carefully preserved the building’s history while adding modern touches. Much of the modernisation was behind the scenes, as the theatre technology was outdated and long neglected. The building was last renovated in the 1970s.

The ceiling paintings by Eduard Veith in the auditorium had been obscured by decades of smoke and grime, and seemed to be painted in shades of grey. These have been cleaned to make them bright and colourful again.

There is also a new stage curtain that was created over the course of two years in the National Theatre workshops according to the design of the 1888 curtain, also by Veith. The original mysteriously disappeared in 1945. The new curtain will replace the one made for the 2002 production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

New seats with reading devices to show subtitles have been installed in the auditorium. This will make it easier to follow the story, and eliminate the intrusive lit sign above the stage, which made people crane their necks to read along. In addition to this technological update, there is a rebuilt rotating stage. On the second underground floor, a modern rehearsal room has been created, and other hidden spaces renovated.

Hansen also wants to reinvigorate the opera program and show people it is a vibrant art form, not just dusty museum pieces sitting on a shelf.

He has already overseen a flash mob, with members of the State Opera ensemble dressed as a police officer, janitor, and various travellers breaking into classic arias at Prague’s main train station, on the same street as the opera house. Leading up to the reopening, there was video mapping on the facade from 31 December to 5 January.

“The dramaturgy of the State Opera must be rooted in its history. Since its foundation in 1888, it has played an important role in European operatic life, not only absorbing but also creating the most important artistic impulses of that time, always in dialogue with other European opera houses, hosting many of the world’s leading artists of that time,” Hansen said.

“For me, Alexander Zemlinsky is a great inspiration. From 1911 to 1927 he was music director of the State Opera, then the New German Theatre. Zemlinsky was a very innovative experimenter and the State Opera under his leadership has reached a high international standard,” he added.

While Austrian-born Zemlinsky is not nearly as famous as his countryman Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who once conducted at the rival Estates Theatre in Prague, he is a very significant figure in modern music. He composed the popular fairytale opera Es war einmal (Once Upon a Time), as well as Eine florentinische Tragödie (A Florentine Tragedy) and Der Zwerg (The Dwarf), the latter two based on writings by Oscar Wilde. In Prague, Zemlinsky conducted the world premiere of Arnold Schoenberg’s Erwartung (Expectation) in 1924.

The State Opera began as the Neues deutsches Theater (New German Theatre) when Prague was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and was intended to primarily serve German-speaking opera fans, while the historical building of the National Theatre, which opened in 1881, catered to a Czech audience. The Estates Theatre concentrated on drama at that time.

The basic plans came from Viennese firm Fellner & Helmer with assistance from Karl Hasenauer, architect of Vienna’s Burgtheater, and Prague architect Alfons Wertmüller.

The first director was Angelo Neumann, who made an effort to bring in high-profile names to put the new venue on the world map. One name from the early days is Otto Klemperer, a composer who began conducting there in 1907 on the recommendation of Gustav Mahler. If the name rings a bell, he was the father of Werner Klemperer, the actor and singer remembered for playing Colonel Klink on the American television sitcom Hogan’s Heroes.

Guest vocalists included Enrico Caruso, who sang in Rigoletto in 1904, and Nellie Melba, who sang in La Traviata in 1900.

Kurt Adler conducted there in 1929-32, before eventually making his way to the New York Metropolitan Opera, where he held the baton from 1943 to ’73.

The venue underwent a number of name changes throughout the 20th century. Between 1938 and 1945, there were only a few performances from visiting companies, and the venue was known as Deutsches Opernhaus (German Opera House). It also hosted political rallies for the occupying government.

From 1945 to 1948, it became known as Divadlo 5. května (5th of May Theatre) and hosted Czech operas for the first time. The name refers to the date of the

Prague Uprising at the end of World War II. One name associated with this era is set designer Josef Svoboda, who would later help to develop black light theatre, launched at Expo 58 in Brussels. Some sets he made for the National Theatre are still in use, and he won numerous international awards.

Next, the venue was known as Smetanovo divadlo (Smetana Theatre) from 1948 to 1992, and its organisation was merged with the National Theatre for the first time. The surrounding area was greatly altered in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the construction of the National Assembly, now the New Building of the National Museum, and the cross-town D1 motorway, which complicates pedestrian access. The Bolshoi Ballet visited during this time.

Renovations in this era reduced the number of seats but increased visibility. Marble floors and the decorative plaster were repaired. and then-modern lighting was installed.

Photos for this article were provided by: Jakub Gulyás (1-2) Petr Neubert (3) Tomáš Brabec (4)

The theatre became independent again in 1992, and changed its name to Státní opera Praha (State Opera Prague). A highlight from this period was a symphonic concert featuring George Michael in 2011.

At the same time, plans were announced to merge the State Opera and National Theatre once again, with the transition starting in 2012. The word Praha was dropped from the official name.

The renovation that began in 2016 was supposed to end in 2018, in time for the 130th anniversary, but legal issues over the selection of contractors caused a significant delay.

The next chapter after the renovation kicks off with a gala concert called The State Opera: Transformations in Time (1888–2018), directed by Alice Nellis and featuring music from the venue’s history. The first premieres will be the opera King Roger by Karol Szymanowski, the ballet Sleeping Beauty by Tchaikovsky, and Wagner’s opera The Master-Singers of Nuremberg, which links this new phase to the theatre’s origins.

Čestmír Suška

Artist of alchemical proportions

By Jacklyn Janeksela

Transformation is the goal of any alchemist. Alchemy takes an item of little to no worth and breathes new life into it. Through applied processes and a touch of magic, the alchemist revamps identities.

Čestmír Suška is an alchemist. Over the past few decades, he’s gravitated towards objects that have been abandoned or forgotten – even those in the grip of deterioration. Where others see trash, he sees treasure. “My approach is that something new emerges from what is old, an ugly object becomes an object of admiration.”

In a world where single-use objects and waste are on the rise, it makes sense that Suška’s work would gain further recognition. If more artists followed his ideology, not only could we reduce waste, we’d change the way we approached, looked at, and engaged with art. It is through the bravery of artists who use rubbish that we can see the extraordinary value in all life’s objects.