The Prinzregenten Theater Re-reopens in Munich
Are you going to the opening of the Prinzregententheater?" someone asked me. Which opening? I remember the opening of the Prinzregententheater. It was back in 1988. After almost 25 years of neglect, the theater had risen, phoenix-like (theaters are always being equated with phoenixes), in all its former splendor. The interior decoration was truly gorgeous: intricate painted embellishments on the auditorium ceiling; a neo-classical frieze in the foyer, where the painted centaurs and satyrs bore the heads of local politicians, including State Intendant August Everding. The gala opening concert was televised live. Since then, the theater has been a venue for concerts, plays and song recitals. Das "Prinze" today Now, it seems, all this was only a foretaste of things to come. On November 10, the "new" Prinzregententheater is reopening with its own production of Tristan und Isolde, followed by a galare opening season, -ballet gala, opera gala, theater performances, and more-, in the weeks ahead. For while the first course of renovations restored the theater's appearance impeccably, there wasn't enough money to complete work on the stage and orchestra pit. The result was a "temporary solution," a lovely theater which couldn't stage anything that required live musical accompaniment (like opera or ballet) or complicated stage sets. This year's renovations are like reconstructive surgery, enabling the crippled patient to walk again. For Tristan und Isolde, no less an orchestra than the Bayerischer Rundfunk(conducted by Lorin Maazel) will be sitting in the brand-new orchestra pit, while their crack chorus and a cast of international opera stars will take the stage in a full-scale production designed by August Everding. Reopenings are nothing new at the "Prinze." Throughout its history, its career has been one of new beginnings. When it first opened in 1901, it was the quintessential expression of its era, which was called(no coincidence) the Prinzregentenzeit. The Prince Regent in question was Luitpold, who brought sanity and conservatism back to Bavaria after the excesses of his mad nephew Ludwig II; his reign was a period of prosperity, comfort and self-satisfaction. Yet even then, the Prinzregententheater's opening smacked of a re-opening: the theater was a copy of Richard Wagner's famous Festspielhaus in Bayreuth that was intended, like the original, to be a festival theater devoted to presenting Wagner's operas (to the outrage of Wagner's widow, Cosima, who wanted Bayreuth to have the Wagner monopoly). Starting out as a Festspielhaus in summer and a sometime playhouse in winter, the Prinzregententheater continued to experience new beginnings and reincarnations, -mirroring the city's history all along the way. After World War I and the short-lived Bavarian Revolution and Republic, it became the Volksbühne, or People's Stage, presenting works of spoken drama. In 1934, the organization "Kraftdurch Freude" (literally, Strength through Joy) took it over. A keystone of Nazi domestic policy, "KdF" was designed to provide entertainment for the masses and everything from cheap package vacations too fficially sanctioned theatrical events. As a "Cultural Center of the German Worker," the former Prinzregententheater was stripped of its Jugendstil ornamentation; Art Nouveau's organic curves and plant motifs were officially "degenerate." Right angles and plain colors for us. After World War II, the lightly damaged Prinzregententheater had a new lease on life as Munich's main venue for opera. The National Theater was destroyed; there was talk of tearing down its remains and building a modern edifice in its place, but there wasn't any money to do anything at all for years. From1946 to 1963, therefore, the Prinze was home to the Bavarian State Opera. Ignominiously deprived of its function when the (mercifully restored) National Theater reopened in November 1963, it was closed in1964 and sat empty for little less than a quarter of a century. Das "Prinze" in 1914 Its first reopening brought it back into the public eye, -but it didn't necessarily stay there. There's no question that the Prinzregententheater is a beautiful building. But its changeable history has left its function in the city's cultural landscape somewhat open to question. The National Theater does opera; the Kammerspiele does drama. The Prinzregententheater does ... well, I've seen a modern opera (with taped music) by the Gärtnerplatz company; heard Cecilia Bartoli give a recital; participated in a workshop held by the Munich Biennale; watched a cabaret duo perform songs from Theresienstadt; and missed Henry Kissinger's talk, part of an ongoing lecture series called "The End of the Century." Asked to define the theater's place in Munich's culture, most people would probably scratch their heads. "The best thing about the Prinzregententheater is the foyer," one woman who had attended a theater piece there helpfully informed me. "The foyer is really beautiful. In fact, it would have been better to stay in the foyer during the entire piece." One thing the renovations and reopening should remove is this sense of ambiguity. So, at least, hopes Intendant August Everding. In addition to his career as an opera director (his latest U.S. credit was the Ring cycle in Chicago), Everding's main claim to fame in Munich is his long-time service as GeneralIntendant of the city's opera houses; in 1993, he was shifted over to the more ambiguous post of Staatsintendant (in English, read "figurehead") and President of the Bavarian Theater Academy. This was fine with Everding, because it allowed him to devote more time to his pet projects, the Academy and the Prinzregententheater. The two go hand in hand. For while the Prinzregententheater will continue as avenue for a variety of events, one of its main functions will be as a theater for student productions from the fledgling Academy. Founded in 1993, the Theater Academy is unusual, if not unique, in Germany. It trains students in everything having to do with theater: not only acting and singing, but directing, set design, light design-,even criticism. Its students are enrolled in other Munich institutions (the Filmhochschule, the Musikhochschule, the University, and others); the acting department is the only one the Academy operates autonomously. What the Academy offers is a kind of hands-on practical experience that's all too seldom a part of German conservatory training. In the new Prinzregententheater's opening weeks, there'll be plenty of chances to see how well this project is bearing fruit. On November 11, for example, the house's second stage (the Studiobühne) will open with the Munich premiere of Die Stunde, da wir nichts voneinander wußten ("The hour when we didn't know anything about each other"), a recent work by author Peter Handke, which scored signal successes last season in Berlin and Paris, and is given here by the Academy's acting department. Non-German speakers, take note: the piece, which depicts a day's activity in a village square, is completely without words. Not that the theater is going to be used for students alone. As the star-studded Tristan signals, there are going to be major professional events here as well. The Prinzregententheater will stage at least one new opera production every year. Other fixed points on the schedule include a work for children in the pre-Christmas season (this year's will be an adaptation of Orwell's Animal Farm) and the festival dubbed "The Ideas of March"-, including lectures and plays, -which has already been held at the Prinzregententheater in two past Marches. However, the Prinze's state subsidies don't completely cover the operating costs of a repertory house with a permanent ensemble and orchestra; in fact, they aren't even enough to fund a full-length season. Therefore, the house relies on private money, sponsors, and nonresident companies to rent it out. The Bavarian State Opera, the Bavarian State Ballet (which will use it mainly for modern dance), Gärtnerplatz, other select troupes, -past visitors have included the Royal Shakespeare Company-, and various Munich concert promoters will all present works there. Since its birth in 1901, the Prinzregententheater has led at least six distinct lives, including its initial role as Munich's Festspielhaus and its National Socialist stint as "Cultural Center for the German Worker", and culminating with its present grandeur, revived and refined with a November 1996 reopening New or old, the Prinzregententheater is very much a "Munich" venue and still breathes some of the self-satisfaction of the Prinzregentenzeit, even in today's air. Munich's relationship to its theater can still besummed up in the words of contemporary writer Alexandra Braunschild, describing the theater's construction by architect Max Littmann: "To create a theater that was not just one more ornamental building, but an artistic achievement, a high-water mark of the architecture of our age; further to develop the idea of the amphitheater of Antiquity... and to monumentalize it, as Wagner had intimated: this was a task after Max Littmann's own heart. With elation, he surveyed the rich field of discovery represented, in Wagner's words, by the theater of the future, lying before him, and felt himself called to test his own throbbing strength within this arena." No one's ever talked like this about the Gasteig. And if you substitute "Everding" for "Littmann" in that last sentence, the words hold true today. "So," my friend repeated impatiently, "are you going to the opening of the Prinzregententheater?" Which opening? The first opera production on November 10, or the open house on the 8, which includes the reopening of the Theatercafé, closed since the 1930s? Or maybe the Academy's first production on the 11? Even in its new incarnation, the Prinzregententheater will continue to have a number of different faces, -reflecting the spirit of the city around it, for better or worse. Which is, perhaps, just the point. The box office and information center for Prinzregententheater events is at Maximilianstraße 13 (tel. 29 16 14 14).The Theatercafé is open to the general public, serving light meals and snacks daily from 9:00 until midnight. Academy students will occasionally present afternoon musical programs or cabaret even