Special: Reopening of the Staatsoper

The Staatsoper is returning home to its magnificent opera house on Unter den Linden just west of the River Spree. After almost seven years of general restoration and improvements with new technologies, better acoustics, better visibility of the stage, and a retouching of the postwar design of architect Richard Paulick, the Staatsoper on Unter den Linden reopened on 3 October 2017. The Staatsoper will once again take to its historic stage on 7 December 2017 to mark its 275th anniversary.

The programme of the opening season

Thursday, 30.11.2017, 20:00 h

Berliner Philharmoniker

Thursday, 07.12.2017, 19:30 h

Birthday Concert 275 Years Staatsoper Unter den Linden

Friday, 08.12.17, 19:30 h

Premiere: Hänsel und Gretel

Fairytale play in three tableaus by Engelbert Humperdinck

Saturday / sunday, 09./10.12.2017, 18:00 h

L'Incoronazione di Poppea

Opera musicale by Claudio Monteverdi

Facts, figures, and history about Berlin's oldest opera house

Reasons for the renovation

• To extend the reverberation, the interior's ceiling was raised by four metres.

• This increased the volume of the hall from 6,500 to 9,500 m³.

• However, this change is not visible from the outside of the listed structure.

• The new reverberation gallery under the roof extends the reverberation time from 1.1 to 1.6 seconds.

A brief history of the Staatsoper

1742 - King Frederick the Great of Prussia opens the Royal Opera House

1788 - Remodeled by Carl Gotthard Langhans Sr.

1843 - A fire destroys the opera house down to its foundations

1844 - The opera house is rebuilt to plans by Carls Gotthard Langhans Jr.

1926-28 - The stage area is redesigned and the side stages enlarged

1941 - The opera house is severely damaged in a World War II air raid

1941-42 - The opera house is rebuilt, reopening with a production of Wagner's "Meistersinger" in the presence of Adolf Hitler

1942 - The opera house is destroyed in a second air raid

1955 - The opera house is reopened by the East German government with another production of "Die Meistersinger"

2009-2017 - Renovation and modernization

2017 - Reopening with "Scenes from Goethe's Faust", a choral work based on an unfinished work by Robert Schumann

What makes the Staatsoper building so special?

• Building an opera house outside the ruler's palace was a new and unusual idea in 1741.

• Its placement in the middle of the city was in keeping with the spirit of the Enlightenment: cultural offerings such as the opera should not be the preserve of the high aristocracy.

• The most beautiful and probably best known stage design is the blue night sky with golden stars for Mozart's "Magic Flute" created by Karl Friedrich Schinkel.