KAISERSLAUTERN
www.pfalztheater.de
Theatre:
The Pfalztheater (Palatinate Theatre, right) is a modern building opened as
recently as 1995 (replacing both the bombed-out prewar original and a
converted cinema that sufficed after the war), and is right in the
centre of town, a 20-minute walk from the Hauptbahnhof (down
Richard-Wagner-Strasse and then a right turn down the main
pedestrianised shopping streets). The comfortable 632-seater house of
Parkett and single Rang stages opera, theatre and ballet in fairly
spread-out runs of individual productions, and given the mix it's not
often feasible to combine different operas in a single short visit.
Yet the adventurous programming for a company this size (including,
for instance, rare Strauss and Schreker in 2014/15, Zemlinsky and
Wagner in 2015/16) makes it a considerable draw, and performance and
production standards are remarkably high for somewhere that feels, to
an outsider, out in the sticks.
Practicalities:
There isn’t the choice of hotel accommodation found in more
prominent places, perhaps, but as an alternative Kaiserslautern is
easily commutable from Mannheim and even Karlsruhe, since it lies
within the region’s extensive S-bahn network (and last trains to
Kaiserslautern from those two are quite early). Neustadt and der
Weinstrasse would also make a reasonable base, 20-30 minutes each
from Kaiserslautern and Mannheim. Connections westwards to
Saarbrücken and Trier are too minimal late evening to be worth
considering.
2015/16
repertoire:
Bluebeard’s Castle/Der Zwerg (Zemlinsky), My Fair Lady, Il barbiere
di Sivilgia, Eugene Onegin, Tristan und Isolde, Idomeneo.
Tickets:
€20–38.
Nearby (average journey times by train / per-hour frequency pre-performance / per-hour frequency post-performance): Karlsruhe (90/2/1), Mannheim (55/3/2).
KOBLENZ
www.theater-koblenz.de
Set at the confluence of the Mosel with the Rhine, Koblenz has always
been a strategic city historically and militarily (it is ringed by
historic castles and forts) and is now the major centre of tourism
for the region. There’s plenty of history to explore in its
attractive old town area and along the extensive river promenades. In
season, boats vie with each other to offer cruises up and down the
Rhine, from an hour’s viewing of local castles to the full Rhine
Gorge day trip.
Theatre: Koblenz is possessor of its original 18th-century
theatre – a rarity in this war-ravaged country. Opened in 1787,
Theater Koblenz has a tiny horseshoe auditorium seating just 469,
divided between ten short rows in the Parkett and three shallow,
two-row circles, the lowest of which, just above the Parkett level,
has the most expensive seats in the house. The compactness gives
intimacy to performances, though side circle seats offer better views
of the rest of the audience than the stage, as is often the case with
such designs. The auditorium has never been updated to incorporate
air conditioning, so it can get steamy in summer. The business side
of the theatre is modern, though, allowing the company to be
surprisingly adventurous with its repertoire for such a tiny nightly
audience (while not being at all expensive, tickets lack the really
cheap options found elsewhere – understandable in the
circumstances), and production and musical values are high. The
downside of size is the lack of a pit large enough for a full
symphony orchestra, which has necessitated it being positioned behind
the stage for larger productions. Runs of individual works are
usually quite long and there are usually a couple of operas in rep at
any one time, though as the theatre also houses spoken drama and
dance, performances may not be adjacent. Theater Koblenz is situated
about ten minutes’ walk east of Koblenz-Mitte station (the
Hauptbahnhof is a further 15 minutes away) and is handy for the
Altstadt restaurants and hotels, just across the main road (there’s
even a hotel and steakhouse right next door).
2015/16
repertoire:
Fidelio, My Fair Lady, Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny,
L’elisir d’amore, A Streetcar Named Desire (Previn), plus revival
of Die Zauberflöte.
Tickets:
€27.50–41. Advance ticket sales for the whole season open in late
August.
Practicalities: There are plenty of hotels at all prices, and
the Altstadt has more eating choices than most places of this size.
Despite its central position in the region, however, Koblenz only
just works as a base from which to travel to see other cities’
operatic performances – curtain-down time may prove crucial. Bonn
is the most practical, though even Frankfurt is workable if you can
face a two-hour, late-night return journey (last train back leaves
around 11.15pm). The Hauptbahnhof is a little to the south of the
centre, but is the main rail hub for the region, with lines southwest
towards Luxembourg and Mannheim (via the Mosel valley) and east along
the picturesque Lahn to Limburg, as well as along the Rhine corridor,
north to Bonn and Cologne, south through the gorge to Bingen and
Mainz. However, Koblenz-Mitte station is more convenient for the city
centre and theatre, and most local services call there (no facilities
other than platform ticket machines).
Nearby
(average
journey times by train / per-hour frequency pre-performance /
per-hour frequency post-performance):
Bonn (64/2/1), Frankfurt (115/2/1), Mainz (66/2/1), Trier (84/2/1),
Wiesbaden (90/2/1).
MAINZ
www.staatstheater-mainz.com
The city of Mainz, situated across the Rhine from the mouth of the
River Main, is one of Germany’s most historic settlements. A key
border fortress in the time of the Roman Empire, it subsequently
became the most important archbishopric north of the Alps, played a
key role in the Napoleonic Wars (briefly becoming a French
département – as it was again later, between 1919 and 1930)
and in 1946 was named capital of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
As birthplace of Johannes Gutenberg, the city has long been an
important centre of publishing, with the famous music publisher
Schott’s still a key player. Roughly 80 per cent of the city was
destroyed over the 33 air raids that hit it during World War II, but
the bulk of the red sandstone cathedral – which celebrated the
millennium of its consecration in 2009 – survived the onslaught and
has been sensitively restored as a masterpiece of Romanesque
architecture. The other main attraction is the Gutenberg Museum,
tracing the history of printing and featuring one of Gutenberg’s
rare bibles.
Theatre:
The original Mainz Court Theatre, built in the 1830s, was in the
neo-classical style, and its facade still fronts the present-day
building. Everything behind it, though has changed a fair few times.
The building was gutted in the wartime raids, rebuilt in 1951 and
almost completely redone again in 1998–2001 when the auditorium was
reconfigured to improve the acoustic and general facilities. It now
feels like an ultra-modern building inside an old one, with its
glass-decorated foyer, rooftop dome and restaurant. It now seats
approximately 1,000, in Parkett (14 rows) and two Ränge. The Parkett
has a gentle rake and rows 8 and back are overhung by the level
above, but this doesn’t feel too restrictive until row 10 (row 5
acts as a gangway, so has extra-generous legroom). One design flaw in
the latest rebuild is that the innermost first couple of seats in
each row of the side Ränge have their view of the stage impaired by
the transparent glass railing and its frame – but they are priced
as ‘restricted view’ accordingly.
As
opera shares space with theatre and dance, runs of performances can
be sometimes short and/or spread widely, but it’s often
possible to catch a couple of different operas on consecutive nights.
With so much local competition (Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Darmstadt),
production values are high and there’s a valuable emphasis on more
interesting repertoire in among the seat-fillers. Mainz State Theatre
sits on Gutenbergplatz in the centre of the Altstadt, about 15
minutes’ walk from the Hauptbahnhof and close to both the historic
Markt and the cathedral. Buses stop close by.
2015/16
repertoire:
Der Zwerg (Zemlinsky)/Gianni Schicchi, Faust, Der fliegende
Holländer, Rigoletto, Dialogue des Carmelites, Veremonda l’amazzone
d’Aragona (Cavalli), plus revivals of Tosca, Médée, Perelà
(Dusapin).
Tickets:
€15.50–44. Although the full season’s dates are listed on the
website, it’s usually only possible to book tickets in person or
online a month or two in advance of performances, except for long
runs of musicals (in 2015–16, Monty
Python’s Spamalot!).
Practicalities: Compared with Frankfurt, just 40 minutes or so
up the Main, Mainz feels approachable and human in scale. With its
proximity to the spa town of Wiesbaden, a few minutes by S-Bahn
across the Rhein, and to Darmstadt 30 minutes to the south, it makes
the ideal base for exploring the operatic stages of the region.
Accommodation tends to be cheaper than in Frankfurt, too, especially
when there’s a trade fair on in the financial metropolis, and it’s
become my own preferred ‘headquarters’ when in the area, even
when not visiting the Mainz Staatstheater itself. If you’re flying
to Germany, Frankfurt airport lies halfway between that city and
Mainz, while the Hauptbahnhof is a major stop on the ICE and
InterCity rail networks, as well as the hub of local S-bahn services
(Mainz-Römische-Theater is also convenient for the centre of the
city, while some destinations require a change in Mainz-Kastel across
the river, in Wiesbaden or at the airport station).
Nearby
(average
journey times by train / per-hour frequency pre-performance /
per-hour frequency post-performance):
Darmstadt (33/2/1), Frankfurt (38/3/4), Wiesbaden (10/6/4).
SAARBRÜCKEN
www.theater-saarbruecken.de
(forthcoming)
2015/16
repertoire:
Don Giovanni, The Pirates of Penzance (ENO/Mike Leigh production),
Platée, Rusalka, Peter Grimes, Rigoletto, Falstaff, plus revivals of
Un ballo in maschera, Die Zauberflöte, Madama Butterfly, Die
Dreigröschenoper.
Tickets: €18–47.
Tickets: €18–47.
TRIER
www.theater-trier.de
(forthcoming)
2015/16
repertoire:
Fidelio, Sweeney Todd, Die Grossherzogin von Gerolstein, Tosca, The
Excursions of Mr Brouček, The Arabian Princess (Arriaga), Falsche
Welt, Dir Trau Ich Nicht! (stage work from JS Bach cantatas).
Tickets:
€20–42.
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