Bavarian State Opera facts for kids
Nationaltheater München
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| Formation | 1653 |
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| Location |
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Intendant
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Serge Dorny |
The Bavarian State Opera (in German, Bayerische Staatsoper) is a famous opera company located in Munich, Germany. An opera company is a group of performers and staff who put on opera shows. Their main stage is the beautiful Nationaltheater München, and their orchestra is the Bavarian State Orchestra.
Contents
A Look Back: History of the Opera
The Bavarian State Opera started a very long time ago, in 1653. It began with a performance of L'arpa festante for Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy.
In 1753, another important theatre, the Residence Theatre (also known as the Cuvilliés Theatre), opened. This gave the opera company another great place to perform. While they also performed at the Prinzregententheater, their main home became the Nationaltheater München.
A special event called the Munich Opera Festival started in 1875. This festival brings many opera lovers together.
Over the years, many talented people have led the Bavarian State Opera. For example, Sir Peter Jonas became the general manager in 1993. He was the first British person to lead such a big German opera house. Later, Nikolaus Bachler became the general manager, and Kirill Petrenko became the music director.
The Bavarian State Opera has won many awards. In 2014, Opernwelt magazine named it the "Opera House of the Year." It also won the "Opera Company of the Year" award at the International Opera Awards in both 2018 and 2023.
Today, the opera company is led by Serge Dorny as the general manager and Vladimir Jurowski as the music director. They both started their roles in the 2021–2022 season.
Famous First Performances
The Bavarian State Opera has been the first place where many important operas were performed. These are called "world premieres." Some very famous composers had their new works shown here for the first time:
- In 1775, Mozart's La finta giardiniera had its first show.
- Mozart's Idomeneo also premiered here in 1781.
- Many operas by Wagner, including Tristan und Isolde (1865), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868), Das Rheingold (1869), and Die Walküre (1870), had their very first performances at the National Theatre.
- Later, operas by Richard Strauss like Friedenstag (1938) and Capriccio (1942) also premiered here.
Recordings and Space Travel
The Bavarian State Opera has made many recordings of their performances. These recordings are released by different music companies. In May 2021, they even started their own recording label called Bayerische Staatsoper Recordings (BSOrec).
Some of their recordings have won big awards. For example, a video recording of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen won "Best Video" in 1993. Another recording of Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier was highly praised in 2009.
One of the most amazing facts about the Bavarian State Opera is its connection to space! In 1977, a recording by the company was chosen by NASA to be put on the Voyager Golden Record. This was a special gold-plated record sent into space on the Voyager spacecraft. The record contained sounds and images to show aliens what life and culture on Earth are like. The recording from the Bavarian State Opera featured soprano Edda Moser singing "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" from Mozart's opera, The Magic Flute. Imagine, music from the Bavarian State Opera is now traveling through space!
See also
In Spanish: Ópera Estatal de Baviera para niños
