Theater Dortmund is a theatrical organization that produces

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

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 of ...

s, plays, and concerts in

Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...

, Germany. It was founded as the Stadttheater Dortmund in 1904. Supported by the German Government, the organization owns and operates several performance spaces. In 2010, the

Ruhr district The Ruhr ( ; , 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 1,160/km2 and a populatio ...

was a

European Capital of Culture A European Capital of Culture is a city designated by the European Union (EU) for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong pan-European dimension. Being a European Capital of Culture can ...

, Theater Dortmund is a partner of the related program '' RUHR.2010'' in the fields ''Music'' and ''Theater and Dance''.Dortmund
at RUHR2010, including ''Musik'' and ''Theater und Tanz'' (in German)

Stadttheater Dortmund

Theater Dortmund's original theatre was designed by architect

Martin Dülfer Martin Dülfer (1 January 1859 in Breslau – 21 December 1942 in Dresden) was a German architect and professor; best known for designing theatres in the Historical and Art-Nouveau styles. Life and work His father, Carl Dülfer, was a publish ...

and built from 1902 to 1904. The theater's inaugural performance was of

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

's ''

Tannhäuser Tannhäuser (; ), often stylized "The Tannhäuser", was a German Minnesinger and traveling poet. Historically, his biography, including the dates he lived, is obscure beyond the poetry, which suggests he lived between 1245 and 1265. His name ...

'' on 17 December 1904. Busoni's ''

Doktor Faust ''Doktor Faust'' is an opera by Ferruccio Busoni with a German libretto by the composer, based on the myth of Faust. Busoni worked on the opera, which he intended as his masterpiece, between 1916 and 1924, but it was still incomplete at the time o ...

'' was performed in 1925. The building was significantly damaged from an aerial bombing on 1 March 1943, but remained in operation until 1 September 1944 when the

Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda The Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (, RMVP), also known simply as the Ministry of Propaganda (), controlled the content of the press, literature, visual arts, film, theater, music and radio in Nazi Germany. The ministr ...

of the Nazi government closed all German theatres. A second bombing on 6 October 1944 completely destroyed the original building.

Städtische Bühnen Dortmund

An interim theatre was inaugurated by Theater Dortmund on 12 September 1950, with a performance of Beethoven's ''

Fidelio ''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Opus number, Op. 72, is the sole opera by German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. The libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of ...

''. The

Intendant An intendant (; ; ) was, and sometimes still is, a public official, especially in France, Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. The intendancy system was a centralizing administrative system developed in France. In the War of the Spanish Success ...

was P. Walter Jacob, who pursued performances of Wagner's operas and more recent works. He staged and conducted Wagner's ''

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wo ...

'' during his first season and conducted ''

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 traditio ...

'' the following year. He staged

Hans Pfitzner Hans Erich Pfitzner (5 May 1869 – 22 May 1949) was a German composer, conductor and polemicist who was a self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera ''Palestrina'' (1917), loosely based on the life of the ...

's opera ''Das Herz'' (1930) and the drama ''Eli'' of

Nelly Sachs Nelly Sachs (; 10 December 1891 – 12 May 1970) was a German–Swedish poet and playwright. Her experiences resulting from the rise of the Nazism, Nazis in World War II Europe transformed her into a poignant spokesperson for the grief and yearn ...

(1950). In 1954 the musical comedy ''

Die stumme Serenade Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...

'' of

Erich Wolfgang Korngold Erich Wolfgang Korngold (; May 29, 1897 – November 29, 1957) was an Austrian composer and conductor, who fled Europe in the mid-1930s and later adopted US nationality. A child prodigy, he became one of the most important and influential comp ...

was premiered. In 1955 Jacob staged

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 Forty ...

's drama '' Jacobowski und der Oberst'' and played a leading part himself. The theater was mainly used for operas; plays were mostly performed at the ''Theater am Ostwall''. ''Theater Dortmund'' was called ''Städtische Bühnen Dortmund'' (Stages of the City of Dortmund).

Oper Dortmund

The new opera house

Opernhaus Dortmund Opernhaus Dortmund is the opera house of Dortmund, Germany, operated by the Theater Dortmund organisation. A new opera house opened in 1966, replacing an earlier facility which opened in 1904 and was destroyed during World War II. It was built o ...

opened in 1966 to serve as a venue for operas, ballets, concerts, and for plays which require a big stage. The first performance was ''

Der Rosenkavalier (''The Knight of the Rose'' or ''The Rose-Bearer''), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from Louvet de Couvrai's novel ''Les amours du cheva ...

'' of Strauss, an opera which had been performed first in 1911, the year of the works premiere.

Wilhelm Schüchter Wilhelm Schüchter (15 December 1911 – 27 May 1974) was a German conductor. Between 1959 and 1962, he was the music director of the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and is credited for raising its standards to an international level. He was Gener ...

conducted the

Dortmunder Philharmoniker The Dortmunder Philharmoniker (Dortmund Philharmonic) are a German symphony orchestra based in Dortmund. The orchestra of the Theater Dortmund performs opera in the Opernhaus Dortmund and concert in the Konzerthaus Dortmund. The orchestra was fo ...

. In 1967 he conducted the premiere of the opera ''Eli'' of Walter Steffens after the drama of

, a commission of the city of Dortmund. The orchestra used the opera house for concerts until 2002, when the Konzerthaus Dortmund was opened.

Schauspiel Dortmund

Since 1968, the post-war opera house serves as the main stage for plays. Theater Dortmund also operates smaller theaters for more experimental productions. Schauspiel Dortmund and collective

Tools for Action Tools for Action was an informal art collective working on the intersection of art and activism. As of 2019 it is formalized as Stichting Tools for Action Foundation. It acts as collaboration platform between artists, educators, activists and othe ...

won an award for Cultural Education of the Federal Ministry of Culture and the Media of Germany for 2017 for the project Mirror Barricade.

Konzerthaus Dortmund

Since 2002, the orchestra has been using the newly opened concert hall ''Konzerthaus Dortmund'' as a venue for the orchestra's concerts and guest performances. The planning and founding director was

Ulrich Andreas Vogt Ulrich Andreas Vogt (born 6 August 1952) is a German businessman who was director of the Vogt-Gruppe. He was a tenor at the Opernhaus Dortmund and founding director of the Konzerthaus Dortmund. Born in Dortmund, Vogt studied at the conservatory pi ...

. In the 2005/06 season

Rebecca Saunders Rebecca Saunders (born 19 December 1967) is a London-born composer who lives and works freelance in Berlin. In a 2017 ''Classic Voice'' poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000, Saunders' compositions received the third highest total ...

was composer-in-residence. In December 2008 the

Thomanerchor The Thomanerchor (English: St. Thomas Choir of Leipzig) is a boys' choir in Leipzig, Germany. The choir was founded in 1212. The choir comprises about 90 boys from 9 to 18 years of age. The members, called ''Thomaner'', reside in a boarding scho ...

and

Gewandhausorchester Leipzig The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Gewandhausorchester; also previously known in German as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig) is a German symphony orchestra based in Leipzig, Germany. The orchestra is named after the concert hall in which it is bas ...

, conducted by

Thomaskantor (Cantor at St. Thomas) is the common name for the musical director of the , now an internationally known boys' choir founded in Leipzig in 1212. The official historic title of the Thomaskantor in Latin, ', describes the two functions of Cantor ( ...

Georg Christoph Biller Georg Christoph Biller (20 September 1955 – 27 January 2022) was a German choral conductor. He conducted the Thomanerchor as the sixteenth Thomaskantor since Johann Sebastian Bach from 1992 to 2015. He was also a baritone, an academic teacher, ...

, performed Bach's ''

Christmas Oratorio The ''Christmas Oratorio'' (German: ''Weihnachtsoratorium''), , is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. It is in six parts, each part a cantata intended for performance in a churc ...

''. In November 2009

Ignat Solzhenitsyn Ignat Aleksandrovich Solzhenitsyn (; born September 23, 1972) is a Russian American conductor and pianist. He is the conductor laureate of the Chamber Orchestra of PhiladelphiaNordwestdeutsche Philharmonie The Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie (North West German Philharmonic) is a German symphony orchestra based in Herford. Founded in 1950, the orchestra is one of the ''Landesorchester'' of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, along with the ''Philhar ...

in works of Mozart including his ''

Great Mass in C minor ''Great Mass in C minor'' (), K. 427/417a, is the common name of the musical setting of the mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which is considered one of his greatest works. He composed it in Vienna in 1782 and 1783, aged 24-25, after his marriag ...

''. In June 2010

Cecilia Bartoli Cecilia Bartoli Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, OMRI (; born 4 June 1966) is an Italian mezzo-soprano widely known in the music of Vincenzo Bellini, Bellini, George Frideric Handel, Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart, Gioachino Ross ...

sang in concert the title role of Bellini's ''

Norma Norma may refer to: * Norma (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) ** Norma Lizbeth Ramos, a Mexican bullying victim Astronomy *Norma (constellation) * 555 Norma, a minor asteroid * Cygnus Arm or Norma Arm, a spiral ...

'' for the first time, in the original mezzo-soprano range, with conductor

Thomas Hengelbrock Hans Thomas Hengelbrock (born 9 June 1958) is a German violinist, musicologist, stage director and conductor. Biography Hengelbrock was born in Wilhelmshaven, the son of teachers Günther and Dorothea Elisabeth (Schliefert) Hengelbrock. He stud ...

. The Konzerthaus Dortmund is an independent institution, led by Artistic Director Benedikt Stampa since the 2005/06 season.

References

External links

*
Konzerthaus Dortmund
website

on the Dortmund website

on the RUHR2010 website {{Theatre companies in Germany 1904 establishments in Germany Concert halls in Germany German opera companies Theatre companies in Germany Dortmund Ballet venues