The National Theatre (german: link=no, Nationaltheater) on

Max-Joseph-Platz Max-Joseph-Platz is a large square in central Munich which was named after King Maximilian Joseph. Max-Joseph-Platz serves as the western starting point of the royal avenue Maximilianstraße. Architecture The square was constructed with the erect ...

in Munich, Germany, is a historic opera house, home of the Bavarian State Opera, Bavarian State Orchestra and the

Bavarian State Ballet The Bavarian State Ballet (german: Bayerisches Staatsballett) is a professional ballet company in Munich, Germany. It was founded in 1988 by Konstanze Vernon as an independent company. The ballet had previously been part of the ''Bayerische Staa ...

Building

First theatre – 1818 to 1823

The first theatre was commissioned in 1810 by King Maximilian I of Bavaria because the nearby

Cuvilliés Theatre The Cuvilliés Theatre (german: link=no, Cuvilliés-Theater) or Old Residence Theatre (''Altes Residenztheater'') is the former court theatre of the Residenz in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. History Elector of Bavaria Maximilian III Joseph (reg ...

had too little space. It was designed by

Karl von Fischer Karl arlvon Fischer (19 September 1782 – 12 February 1820) was a German architect.Fischer, Karl von. ''Benezit Dictionary of Artists'' (Oxford University Press; 2011)Claudia Bölling. Fischer, Karl von. ''Grove Art Online'' (Oxford University Pr ...

, with the 1782 Odéon in Paris as architectural precedent. Construction began on 26 October 1811 but was interrupted in 1813 by financing problems. In 1817 a fire occurred in the unfinished building. The new theatre finally opened on 12 October 1818 with a performance of ''Die Weihe'' by Ferdinand Fränzl, but was soon destroyed by another fire on 14 January 1823; the stage décor caught fire during a performance of ''Die beyden Füchse'' by Étienne Méhul and the fire could not be put out because the water supply was frozen. Coincidentally the Paris Odéon itself burnt down in 1818.

Second theatre – 1825 to 1943

Leo von Klenze Leo von Klenze (Franz Karl Leopold von Klenze; 29 February 1784, Buchladen (Bockelah / Bocla) near Schladen – 26 January 1864, Munich) was a German neoclassicist architect, painter and writer. Court architect of Bavarian King Ludwig I, L ...

, the second theatre incorporated Neo-Grec features in its portico and triangular pediment and an entrance supported by Corinthian columns. In 1925 it was modified to create an enlarged stage area with updated equipment. The building was gutted in an air raid on the night of 3 October 1943.

Third theatre – 1963 to present

The third and present theatre (1963) recreates Karl von Fischer's original neo-classical design, though on a slightly larger, 2,100-seat scale. The magnificent royal box is the centre of the interior rondel, decorated with two large caryatids. The new stage covers , and is thus the world's third largest, after the Opéra Bastille in Paris and the Grand Theatre, Warsaw. Through the consistent use of wood as a building material, the auditorium has excellent acoustics. Architect

Gerhard Moritz Graubner Gerhard is a name of Germanic origin and may refer to: Given name * Gerhard (bishop of Passau) (fl. 932–946), German prelate * Gerhard III, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg (1292–1340), German prince, regent of Denmark * Gerhard Barkhorn (1919–1 ...

closely preserved the original look of the foyer and main staircase. It opened on 21 November 1963 with an invitation-only performance of '' Die Frau ohne Schatten'' under the baton of Joseph Keilberth. Two nights later came the first public performance, of ''

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg"), WWV 96, is a music drama, or opera, in three acts, by Richard Wagner. It is the longest opera commonly performed, taking nearly four and a half hours, not counting two breaks between acts, and is tradit ...

'', again under Keilberth.

Music

During its early years, the National Theatre saw the premières of a significant number of operas, including many by German composers. These included Wagner's '' Tristan und Isolde'' (1865), ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'' (1868), '' Das Rheingold'' (1869) and '' Die Walküre'' (1870), after which Wagner chose to build the Festspielhaus in

Bayreuth Bayreuth (, ; bar, Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital o ...

and held further premières of his works there. During the latter part of the 19th century, it was

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

who would make his mark on the theatre in the city in which he was born in 1864. After accepting the position of conductor for a short time, Strauss returned to the theatre to become principal conductor from 1894 to 1898. In the pre-War period, his ''

Friedenstag ''Friedenstag'' (''Peace Day'') is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss, his Opus 81 and TrV 271, to a German libretto by Joseph Gregor. The opera was premiered at the National Theatre Munich on 24 July 1938 and dedicated to the leading singer ...

'' (1938) and '' Capriccio'' were premièred in Munich. In the post-War period, the house has seen significant productions and many world premieres.

World premieres

:''The list refers only to those premières of the Bavarian State Opera staged in the National Theatre. The Bavarian State Opera had additional premieres also in other theatres. The ''Bayerisches Staatsballett'' had also premieres in the National Theatre.'' * 7 October 1849, ''

Benvenuto Cellini Benvenuto Cellini (, ; 3 November 150013 February 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, and author. His best-known extant works include the ''Cellini Salt Cellar'', the sculpture of ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'', and his autobiograph ...

'' by Franz Lachner, Henri Auguste Barbier and Léon de Wailly * 10 June 1865, '' Tristan and Isolde'' by

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

* 21 June 1868, ''

'' by Richard Wagner * 22 September 1869, '' Das Rheingold'' by Richard Wagner * 26 June 1870, '' Die Walküre'' by Richard Wagner * 29 June 1888, '' Die Feen'' by Richard Wagner * 23 January 1897, ''

Königskinder ' (German for ''King's Children'' or “Royal Children”) is a stage work by Engelbert Humperdinck that exists in two versions: as a melodrama and as an opera or more precisely a '' Märchenoper''. The libretto was written by Ernst Rosmer (pen n ...

'' (Melodrama edition) by Engelbert Humperdinck and Elsa Bernstein * 10 October 1897, ''Sarema'' by Alexander von Zemlinsky, Adolf von Zemlinszky and Arnold Schönberg * 22 January 1899, ''Der Bärenhäuter'' by Siegfried Wagner * 19 March 1906, '' I quatro rusteghi'' (''Die vier Grobiane'') by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari and Giuseppe Pizzolato (German by Hermann Teibler) * 11 December 1906, '' Das Christ-Elflein'' by Hans Pfitzner and Ilse von Stach * 4 December 1909, '' Il segreto di Susanna'' (''Susannens Geheimnis'') by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari and Enrico Golisciani (German by

Max Kalbeck Max Kalbeck (January 4, 1850May 4, 1921) was a German writer, critic and translator. He became one of the most influential critics in Austria and was bitterly opposed to the music of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner and Hugo Wolf. Early life Kalbe ...

) * 28 March 1916, '' Der Ring des Polykrates'' by Erich Wolfgang Korngold,

Leo Feld Leo Feld (14 February 1869, Augsburg - 5 September 1924 Florence) was an Austrian librettist, dramaturge, stage director, and writer. He also worked as a translator for publishing companies, and was notably responsible for translating many of Char ...

and

Julius Korngold Julius Leopold Korngold (24 December 1860 – 25 September 1945) was an Austrian music critic. He was the leading critic in early twentieth century Vienna, serving as chief music critic of the '' Neue Freie Presse'' from 1904 to 1934. His son w ...

and '' Violanta'' by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Hans Müller-Einigen * 30 November 1920, '' Die Vögel'' by Walter Braunfels (freely adapted from

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his ...

) * 15 November 1924, ''Don Gil von den grünen Hosen'' by Walter Braunfels (after Tirso de Molina) * 12 November 1931, ''Das Herz'' by Hans Pfitzner and Hans Mahner-Mons * 24 July 1938, ''

'' by

Joseph Gregor Joseph Gregor (* 26 October 1888 Czernowitz – 12 October 1960 Vienna) was an Austrian writer, theater historian and librettist. He served as director of the Austrian National Library. Life and career Joseph Gregor was born in Czernowitz. He stud ...

and

Stefan Zweig Stefan Zweig (; ; 28 November 1881 – 22 February 1942) was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist, and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most widely translated and popular write ...

* 5 February 1939, ''

Der Mond ' (''The Moon'') is an opera in one act by Carl Orff based on a Grimm's fairy tale with a libretto by the composer. It was first performed on 5 February 1939 by the Bavarian State Opera in Munich under the direction of Clemens Krauss. The composer ...

'' by Carl Orff * 28 October 1942, '' Capriccio'' by Richard Strauss and

Clemens Krauss Clemens Heinrich Krauss (31 March 189316 May 1954) was an Austrian conductor and opera impresario, particularly associated with the music of Richard Strauss, Johann Strauss and Richard Wagner. Krauss was born in Vienna to Clementine Krauss, ...

* 27 November 1963, ''Die Verlobung in San Domingo'' by Werner Egk (after Heinrich von Kleist) * 1 August 1972, ''Sim Tjong'' by

Yun I-sang Isang Yun, also spelled Yun I-sang (17 September 1917 – 3 November 1995), was a Korean-born composer who made his later career in West Germany. Early life and education Yun was born in Sancheong (Sansei), Chōsen (today part of independ ...

and Harald Kunz * 9 July 1978, ''

Lear Lear or Leir may refer to: Acronyms * Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios, a Mexican association of revolutionary artists and writers * Low Energy Ion Ring, an ion pre-accelerator of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN ** Low Energy Antipr ...

'' by

Aribert Reimann Aribert Reimann (born 4 March 1936) is a German composer, pianist and accompanist, known especially for his literary operas. His version of Shakespeare's ''King Lear'', the opera ''Lear'', was written at the suggestion of Dietrich Fischer-Dieska ...

and

Claus H. Henneberg Claus H. Henneberg (4 February 1936 – 22 February 1998) was a German librettist and translator. He worked as dramaturge for the Cologne Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In the 1976/77 season, he was the '' Intendant'' of the Opernhaus Kiel. ...

* 10 May 1981, ''Lou Salomé'' by

Giuseppe Sinopoli Giuseppe Sinopoli (; 2 November 1946 – 21 April 2001) was an Italian conductor and composer. Biography Sinopoli was born in Venice, Italy, and later studied at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice under Ernesto Rubin de Cervin ...

and Karl Dietrich Gräwe * 22 July 1985 ''Le Roi Bérenger'' (''König Bérenger I.'') by Heinrich Sutermeister (after

Eugène Ionesco Eugène Ionesco (; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre in the 20th century. Ionesco inst ...

) * 8 November 1985, ''

Night Night (also described as night time, unconventionally spelled as "nite") is the period of ambient darkness from sunset to sunrise during each 24-hour day, when the Sun is below the horizon. The exact time when night begins and ends depends ...

'' by

Lorenzo Ferrero Lorenzo Ferrero (; born 1951) is an Italian composer, librettist, author, and book editor. He started composing at an early age and has written over a hundred compositions thus far, including twelve operas, three ballets, and numerous orchestral ...

and Peter Wehran (after

Novalis Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (), was a German polymath who was a writer, philosopher, poet, aristocrat and mystic. He is regarded as an idiosyncratic and influential figure o ...

) * 25 January 1986, ''Belshazar'' by

Volker David Kirchner Volker David Kirchner (25 June 1942 – 4 February 2020) was a German composer and violist. After studies of violin and composition at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory, the Hochschule für Musik Köln and the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, he w ...

and Harald Weirich * 7 July 1986, '' Troades'' by

and Gerd Albrecht (after

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars ...

and

Franz Werfel Franz Viktor Werfel (; 10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) was an Austrian- Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of ''The For ...

) * 6 July 1991, ''

Ubu Rex ''Ubu Rex'' is a satirical opera by Krzysztof Penderecki, on a libretto in German by the composer and Jerzy Jarocki, based on Alfred Jarry's 1896 play ''Ubu Roi''. It uses models by Offenbach, Rossini, Shostakovich and Schnittke. The opera wa ...

'' by Krzysztof Penderecki (after

Alfred Jarry Alfred Jarry (; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play ''Ubu Roi'' (1896). He also coined the term and philosophical concept of 'pataphysics. Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, ...

) * 1 July 1996, '' Schlachthof 5'' by Hans-Jürgen von Bose (after Kurt Vonnegut) * 24 May 1998, ''Was ihr wollt'' by

Manfred Trojahn Manfred Trojahn (born 22 October 1949) is a German composer, flautist, conductor and writer. Career Trojahn was born Cremlingen in Lower Saxony and began his musical studies in 1966 in orchestra music at the music school of Braunschweig. After grad ...

and Claus H. Henneberg * 30 October 2000, ''Bernarda Albas Haus'' by

(after Federico García Lorca) * 27 October 2006, ''Das Gehege'' by Wolfgang Rihm and

Botho Strauß Botho Strauß (; born 2 December 1944) is a German playwright, novelist and essayist. Biography Botho Strauß's father was a chemist. After finishing his secondary education, Strauß studied German, History of the Theatre and Sociology in Co ...

* 30 June 2007, ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...

'' by Unsuk Chin and

David Henry Hwang David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays '' FOB'', '' Golden Child'', and '' Yel ...

* 22 February 2010, ''Die Tragödie des Teufels'' by Peter Eötvös and Albert Ostermaier * 27 October 2012, ''

Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...

'' by Jörg Widmann and Peter Sloterdijk * 31 January 2016, ''

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...

'' by Miroslav Srnka and

Tom Holloway Tom Holloway is an Australian playwright, based in Melbourne . Holloway's plays have been performed across Australia and internationally, including '' Beyond the Neck'' at Belvoir St Theatre (2007), ''Red Sky Morning'' at Red Stitch Actors Theat ...

References

External links

*
Bayerisches Staatsballett
{{Authority control Munich, National Theatre Munich Munich, National Theatre Munich Neoclassical architecture in Munich 1818 establishments in Bavaria Music venues completed in 1818 Theatres completed in 1818 Music venues in Munich Theatres in Munich