Landestheater Salzburg should be able to do without creaks in the future
Only six more weeks and the creaking chairs in the Salzburg State Theater will be a thing of the past. Started on May 11 in the parent company die 13.6 million expensive renovation. The balcony in the auditorium, the seating and the stage technology will be renewed. In May and June, the theater moves to a circus tent at the exhibition center. After the summer break and productions at the beginning of the 2022/2023 season in the festival district, the house will open in golden splendor on November 12th.
After five months of reconstruction, the original beige and gold tones of the interior of the late 19th-century theater have returned. In the 1930s the colors were brushed over in grey. However, the original gold stucco underneath has been preserved, as the commercial director of the Landestheater, Bernhard Utz, explained on Thursday during a local inspection. “I think we can restore the shine to the entire interior.”
However, the new approach is only one aspect of the renovation. On the second day of the renovation phase, the balcony, which cracked with every movement of the viewer, was demolished. By optimizing the seat spacing, “more better seats” will be created, explained Utz. This enables a better view of the stage, but no seat is lost. All chairs, old and worn out, are exchanged for new ones.
Most of the many visible cables and lighting fixtures are built into walls and thus disappear from the audience’s perspective. The stage machinery receives a central, electronic control. The old cable pulls in the stage building, which were used to move the stage parts with a counterweight, WILL no longer be there in the autumn. “They are no longer up-to-date in terms of safety,” said Utz. The sound, video and lighting technology will also be brought up to date, which improves the working situation and upgrades the room.
As far as the project phase is concerned, we are on budget and on schedule. The commercial director is also looking forward to the new season with confidence, even if the current season has not been left untouched by the corona pandemic. The 153 performances performed until March 15 were attended by around 52,000 visitors, which is only around half the number of visitors compared to the same period in the years before the pandemic. Utilization in 2021/2022 has been 67 percent so far. Nevertheless, a capacity utilization of 90 percent was recorded for productions such as “The Rocky Horror Show”, “The Shoe of Manitou” and “The Magic Flute”. “We also have an extremely high demand in the children’s and youth sector.”
The 2022/2023 theater season is entitled “Light Shapes”. The word is derived from the English term “enlightenment”, which symbolizes the time of enlightenment with the commitment to human reason and science. During the season life constellations that shape life with light and reason are highlighted, explained state theater director and drama director Carl Philipp von Maldeghem.
The first three months are mainly played in the festival district. The program includes three new productions in the Felsenreitschule: the opera “Der Rosenkavalier” – a co-production with the Kulturvereinigung, the musical “Hair” and the world premiere “The Origin of Light”, which deals with Haydn’s Creation and Charles Darwin’s journey to the Galapagos Islands and will be staged by the director himself.
A gala will be held to mark the opening of the newly renovated flagship store, Maldeghem announced. The first production after the refurbishment will take place there on November 25 with Thomas Mann’s “Buddenbrooks” directed by Alexandra Liedtke. The first opera to follow on December 10th is “La Finta Giardiniera” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and on March 4th the opera “Des Kaisers Neue Walzer” by Alma Deutscher will premiere. Other operas on the program include Tchaikovsky’s “Iolanthe/The Nutcracker” and Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus”.
The new season also includes the musicals “Das Fliegen Klassenzimmer” (a world premiere) and “The Sound of Music” (revival). In terms of drama, “Shakespeare in the Pool” will take place on September 9th in the Paracelsus-Bad, on October 11th “Effi Briest” will be staged in the Theater Oval in the Europark in cooperation with the Altstadttheater Ingolstadt. The “Young Country” section offers a lot for children and young people, such as the world premieres of “The Rainbow Fish” and “The Flying Classroom” – an Austrian premiere of the new version by Michael Ende under the musical direction of composer Katrin Schweiger, as well as “Der Lorax” and the Austrian premiere of “The Weight of the Ants”.
(SERVICE – www.salzburger-landestheater.at)