The Vienna Volksoper is located on Währinger Strasse at the corner with the Gurtel, half wrapped up in coverings and scaffolding. Underneath there is a new façade: it has been renovated, cleaned and, above all, is pink – with blue, handwritten “Volksoper” lettering. A new energy-saving LED lighting concept has been installed inside, and in the next few months a photovoltaic system will be installed on the roof, which is intended to cover a quarter of the electricity requirement. The Bundestheater-Holding will finance and carry out the work.
Not only the appearance of the second largest opera house in Vienna, but also the occupation of its executive floor is new. The Dutch music theater director Lotte de Beer takes over the artistic management and direction, the Israeli conductor Omer Meir Wellber the music direction, and the German-French director and dramaturge Maurice Lenhard the newly founded Openstudio.
Don’t be afraid of failure
The decision to go for a pink facade can be understood as a foretaste of the coming season. De Beer wants to arouse curiosity and not shy away from any risks: “Sometimes we also want to fail, we want to bring color into the world.” She wants to invite viewers to look at the world through the proverbial rose-colored glasses for a moment. Not to lie or deceive oneself, but to regain control of one’s own perception and to gain confidence, according to de Beer and the artistic director, Christof Hetzer.
It will start next Saturday, September 3rd, with the premiere of Millöcker’s operetta “Die Dubarry”, with Anette Dasch and Harald Schmitt, among others. This is followed by a family matinee on Sunday and the revival of Rossini’s opera “La Cenerentola” as well as the new production of Strauss’s operetta “Die Fledermaus” by Carsten Süss on September 6th.
The former “Kaiserjubiläums-Stadttheater”
De Beer is the 24th occupant of the director’s chair of the house, which was originally intended as a spoken theater to spread culture in Vienna’s outskirts. It was opened as the “Kaiserjubiläums-Stadttheater” in December 1898 in honor of the 50th anniversary of Emperor Franz Josef’s throne. After that, things went haywire for the house: the Volksoper experienced wars, crises and less successful directorships as well as artistic flights of fancy, the addition of its own ballet and financial successes.
From Maastricht to Vienna
At 41, de Beer is known as an established music theater director in Europe. After studying singing, piano and acting in Maastricht, she switched to directing in Amsterdam, where she completed her studies in 2009 at the University of the Arts. Through her collaboration with Peter Konwitschny, she opened up the German-speaking world and made her debut at the Leipzig Opera with a music-theatrical adaptation of Jelinek’s play “Clara S.” with the score by the composer Nicoleta Chatzopoulo.
In 2010 she founded the company Operafront, which wants to make the genre appealing to young people in particular. This was followed by honors in the “Newcomer” category at the International Opera Awards 2015 in London, the “Distinguished Artist Award” by the International Society for the Performing Arts in 2018, and a nomination at the International Opera Awards 2020 in the “Best Director” category. She has staged in Stuttgart, Leipzig, Amsterdam, Essen, Copenhagen, at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and at the Malmö Opera.
In Austria she directed Puccini’s “La Bohème” at the Vienna Chamber Opera in 2013 and Verdi’s “La Traviata” in 2016. From 2014 opera productions followed at the Theater an der Wien: Bizet’s “Les Pêcheurs des Perles”, Tchaikovsky’s “The Maid of Orléans” and most recently Janáček’s “Jenůfa” as a farewell production for the host Roland Geyer. De Beer takes over the Vienna Volksoper from Robert Meyer, the longest-serving director of the house with 15 years of service.
