Bavarian State Opera

The Bavarian State Opera (German: Bayerische Staatsoper) is a German opera company based in Munich. Its main venue is the Nationaltheater München, and its orchestra the Bavarian State Orchestra.

Bayerische Staatsoper
Bavarian State Opera

Nationaltheater München
Formation	1653
Location	Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Intendant	Serge Dorny
Website	www.bayerische.staatsoper.de

History

Nationaltheater München, interior

The parent ensemble of the company was founded in 1653, under Electress consort Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy, when Giovanni Battista Maccioni's L'arpa festante was performed in the court theatre.^[1] In 1753, the Residence Theatre (Cuvilliés Theatre) was opened as a major stage.^[2] While opera performances were also held in the Prinzregententheater (completed in 1901),^[3] the company's home base is the Nationaltheater München on Max-Joseph-Platz.^[4]

In 1875, the Munich Opera Festival took place for the first time. Sir Peter Jonas became the general manager in 1993,^[5] the first British general manager of any major German-speaking opera house. In 2008, Nikolaus Bachler became Intendant (general manager) of the opera company, and Kirill Petrenko became Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) in 2013. In 2014, the Bavarian State Opera received the Opernhaus des Jahres (opera house of the year) award from Opernwelt magazine.^[6] In October 2015, the company announced the extensions of the contracts of Bachler and of Petrenko through August 2021.^[7][8] Both Bachler and Petrenko stood down from their respective posts at the close of the 2020–2021 season.^[9]

In March 2018, the company announced the appointments of Serge Dorny [de] as its next general manager, and of Vladimir Jurowski as its next GMD, both effective with the 2021–2022 season.^[10] In June 2024, the company announced the extension of Dorny's contract as Intendant through 2031, and of Jurowski's contract as GMD through the close of the 2027-2028 season, at which time Jurowski is expected to stand down as GMD.^[11]

The company received the "Opera Company of the Year" award at the 2018 and 2023 International Opera Awards.^[12][13]

Intendant

• Johann Nepomuk von Poißl (1824–1848)
• Karl Theodor von Küstner [de] (1848–1851)
• Franz von Dingelstedt (1851–1858)
• Karl von Perfall [de] (1868–1893)
• Ernst von Possart (1895–1906)
• Albert von Speidel (1907–1912)
• Clemens von Franckenstein (1912–1918)
• Karl Zeiss [de] (1918–1924)
• Clemens von Franckenstein (1924–1934)
• Hans Knappertsbusch (1934–1935)
• Oskar Walleck (1935–1937)
• Clemens Krauss (1937–1940)
• Georg Hartmann [de] (1945–1952)
• Rudolf Hartmann [de] (1952–1967)
• Günther Rennert (1967–1976)
• August Everding (1977–1982)
• Wolfgang Sawallisch (1982–1993)
• Peter Jonas (1993–2006)
• Kent Nagano (2006–2008)
• Nikolaus Bachler (2008–2021)
• Serge Dorny [de] (2021–present)

Generalmusikdirektor

• Franz Lachner (1836–1867)
• Hans von Bülow (1864–1869)
• Franz Wüllner (1870–1877)
• Hermann Levi (1872–1896)
• Richard Strauss (1894–1896)
• Max Erdmannsdörfer (1896–1898)
• Bernhard Stavenhagen (1898–1902)
• Hermann Zumpe (1901–1903)
• Felix Mottl (1904–1911)
• Bruno Walter (1913–1922)
• Hans Knappertsbusch (1922–1935)
• Clemens Krauss (1937–1944)
• Hans Knappertsbusch (1945)
• Georg Solti (1946–1952)
• Rudolf Kempe (1952–1954)
• Ferenc Fricsay (1956–1958)
• Joseph Keilberth (1959–1968)
• Wolfgang Sawallisch (1971–1992)
• Peter Schneider (interim, 1992–1998)
• Zubin Mehta (1998–2006)
• Kent Nagano (2006–2013)
• Kirill Petrenko (2013–2021)
• Vladimir Jurowski (2021–present)

World premieres

Date	Opera	Composer	Libretto	Location
2 October 1753	Catone in Utica	Ferrandini	Metastasio	Residence Theatre
13 January 1775	La finta giardiniera	Mozart	Giuseppe Petrosellini(?)	Salvator Theatre
29 January 1781	Idomeneo	Mozart	Giambattista Varesco	Residence Theatre
1 February 1782	Semiramide	Salieri	Metastasio	Residence Theatre
27 January 1807	Iphigenie in Aulis	Franz Danzi	Karl Reger	Residence Theatre
4 June 1811	Abu Hassan	Weber	Franz Carl Hiemer	Residence Theatre
23 December 1812	Jephtas Gelübde	Meyerbeer	Aloys Schreiber	Residence Theatre
10 June 1865	Tristan und Isolde	Wagner	Wagner	National Theatre
21 June 1868	Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg	Wagner	Wagner	National Theatre
22 September 1869	Das Rheingold	Wagner	Wagner	National Theatre
26 June 1870	Die Walküre	Wagner	Wagner	National Theatre
29 June 1888	Die Feen	Wagner	Wagner	National Theatre
23 January 1897	Königskinder (Melodrama)	Humperdinck	Elsa Bernstein	National Theatre
10 October 1897	Sarema	Alexander von Zemlinsky	Alexander and Adolf von Zemlinsky, Arnold Schoenberg	National Theatre
22 January 1899	Der Bärenhäuter	Siegfried Wagner	Siegfried Wagner	National Theatre
27 November 1903	Le donne curiose	Wolf-Ferrari	Luigi Sugana (German by Hermann Teibler)	Residence Theatre
19 March 1906	I quatro rusteghi	Wolf-Ferrari	Giuseppe Pizzolato (German by Hermann Teibler)	National Theatre
11 December 1906	Das Christ-Elflein	Hans Pfitzner	Pfitzner and Ilse von Stach	National Theatre
4 December 1909	Il segreto di Susanna	Wolf-Ferrari	Enrico Golisciani (German by Max Kalbeck)	National Theatre
28 March 1916	Der Ring des Polykrates / Violanta	Korngold	Leo Feld and Julius Korngold / Hans Müller-Einigen	National Theatre
12 June 1917	Palestrina	Hans Pfitzner	Pfitzner	Prinzregententheater
30 November 1920	Die Vögel	Walter Braunfels	Braunfels (play by Aristophanes)	National Theatre
24 July 1938	Friedenstag	Richard Strauss	Joseph Gregor and Stefan Zweig	National Theatre
5 February 1939	Der Mond	Carl Orff	Orff	National Theatre
28 October 1942	Capriccio	Richard Strauss	Strauss and Clemens Krauss	National Theatre
11 August 1957	Die Harmonie der Welt	Paul Hindemith	Hindemith	Prinzregententheater
9 July 1978	Lear	Aribert Reimann	Claus H. Henneberg	National Theatre
6 July 1991	Ubu Rex	Penderecki	Penderecki and Jerzy Jarocki (play by Alfred Jarry)	National Theatre
17 July 2003	Das Gesicht im Spiegel	Jörg Widmann	Roland Schimmelpfennig	Cuvilliés Theatre
30 June 2007	Alice in Wonderland	Unsuk Chin	David Henry Hwang	National Theatre
22 February 2010	Die Tragödie des Teufels	Peter Eötvös	Albert Ostermaier	National Theatre
27 October 2012	Babylon	Jörg Widmann	Peter Sloterdijk	National Theatre

Recordings

Bavarian State Opera has issued numerous recordings under record labels such as Deutsche Grammophon. In May 2021, it launched its own recording label, Bayerische Staatsoper Recordings (BSOrec).^[14]

Among the company's noted recordings are the 1989 video recording of Wagners' Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch, which won Best Video in the 1993 Gramophone Classical Music Awards.^[15] The 1973 recording of Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, conducted by Carlos Kleiber and released in 2008, was highly acclaimed and selected as Editor's Choice in the April 2009 issue of Gramophone Magazine.^[16]

At International Opera Awards, the Bayerische Staatsoper won the 2018 the Opera Company Award.^[17] Their recording of Handel's Agrippina, directed by Barrie Kosky from the Royal Opera House, has been shortlisted for the 2018 Opera Awards. ^[18]

In 1977, a recording by the Bavarian State Opera was selected by NASA to be included on the Voyager Golden Record, a gold-plated copper record that was sent into space on the Voyager space craft. The record contained sounds and images which had been selected as examples of the diversity of life and culture on Earth. In the recording, soprano Edda Moser sings "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" from Mozart's opera, The Magic Flute, conducted by Sawallisch.^[19][20][21]

References

1. Warrack, John (2001). German Opera: From the Beginnings to Wagner, pp. 27–28. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23532-4
2. Brug, Manuel (16 June 2008). "München hat ein neues Rokoko-Prachtstück". Die Welt (in German). Hamburg. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
3. Frank, Werner (10 March 2001). "Klein-Bayreuth an der Isar". Die Welt (in German). Hamburg. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
4. Schönbauer, Sina (15 June 2016). "Die Bayerische Staatsoper ist die drittgrößte Bühne Europas". Focus (in German). Retrieved 7 September 2017.
5. Spahn, Claus (19 November 1993). "Die Droge Oper". Die Zeit (in German). Hamburg. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
6. "Bayerische Staatsoper ist Opernhaus des Jahres". Die Welt (Press release). Munich. dpa. 30 September 2014. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
7. "Kirill Petrenko und Nikolaus Bachler verlängern ihre Verträge" (Press release). Bavarian State Opera. 13 October 2015. Archived from the original on 13 December 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
8. Matthias Wulff (13 October 2015). "Kirill Petrenko kommt später als erwartet nach Berlin". Berliner Morgenpost. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
9. Joshua Barone (7 July 2021). "The 'Prince of Opera' Bids Munich Farewell". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
10. Michael Cooper (6 March 2018). "An Opera Powerhouse, Munich, Picks Its Next Leaders". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
11. "Verträge mit Staatsintendanten Serge Dorny, Generalmusikdirektor Vladimir Jurowski und Ballettdirektor Laurent Hilaire verlängert – Startschuss für externen Beratungsprozess und strukturelle Reformen" (Press release). Bavarian State Opera. 17 June 2024. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
12. "Winners 2018". International Opera Awards. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
13. "Winners 2023". International Opera Awards. Retrieved 26 November 2023.
14. "Recordings". Bayerische Staatsoper. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
15. "Wagner Der Ring des Nibelungen". Gramophone. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
16. "Strauss, R: Der Rosenkavalier". Presto Classical. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
17. "2018". Opera Awards. 29 January 2018. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
18. "2020". Opera Awards. 5 February 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
19. "Voyager – Music on the Golden Record". voyager.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
20. "Late Junction: The songs they sent to space". www.bbc.co.uk. BBC Radio 3. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
21. Sagan, Carl (2 April 2013). Murmurs of Earth. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-80202-6.

External links

• Official website
• Bayerisches Staatsorchester history
• Bayerisches Staatsorchester at the Bach Cantatas Website