Margravial Opera House

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Margravial Opera House Bayreuth
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List

Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, iv
Reference	1379
UNESCO region	Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription	2012 (36th Session)

The Margravial Opera House (German: Markgräfliches Opernhaus) is a Baroque opera house in the town of Bayreuth, Germany, built between 1744 and 1748. It is one of Europe's few surviving theatres of the period and has been extensively restored. On 30 June 2012 the opera house was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List.^[1]

History

It was built according to plans designed by the French architect Joseph Saint-Pierre (ca. 1709 – 1754), court builder of the Hohenzollern margrave Frederick of Brandenburg-Bayreuth and his wife Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia. It was inaugurated on the occasion of the marriage of their daughter Elisabeth Fredericka Sophie with Duke Charles Eugene of Württemberg.

Interior

The wooden interior was designed by Giuseppe Galli Bibiena (1696 – 1757) and his son Carlo from Bologna in an Italian Late Baroque style. The box theatre is completely preserved in its original condition, except for the curtain which was taken by Napoleon's troops on their march to the 1812 Russian campaign. The prince box was seldom used by the art-minded margravial couple, who preferred a front-row seat.

Princess Wilhelmine, older sister of the Prussian king Frederick the Great, had established the margravial theatre company in 1737. In the new opera house she participated as a composer of opera works and Singspiele', as well as an actor and director. Today she features in a sound-and-light presentation for tourists. After her death in 1758, performances ceased and the building went into disuse, one reason for its good conservation status.

More than one hundred years later, the stage's great depth of 27 metres (89 ft)^[2] attracted the composer Richard Wagner, who in 1872 chose Bayreuth as festival centre and had the Festspielhaus built north of the town. The foundation stone ceremony was held on May 22, Wagner's birthday, and included a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, directed by the maestro himself.

Parts of the 1994 biopic Farinelli were filmed in the Opera House. The theatre was the site of the annual Bayreuther Osterfestival until 2009. Each September from the year 2000 to 2009, the theatre also hosted the Bayreuth Baroque festival, with performances of early operatic rarities. The 2009 festival included performances of Andrea Bernasconi's festa teatrale, L'Huomo, to a libretto by the Margravine Wilhelmine.

The theatre closed in October 2012 for extensive refurbishment and redevelopment and is not expected to reopen for several years.^[2]

References

↑ "Margravial Opera House Bayreuth". UNESCO. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
1 2 "UNESCO-Weltkulturerbe Markgräfliches Opernhaus" [UNESCO World Heritage Site: Margravial Opera House] (in German). City of Bayreuth: Tourism, Culture and Leisure. Retrieved 22 January 2016.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Category:Markgräfliches Opernhaus.

Official Information (English)
Information on the annual Bayreuther Barock Festival held in the opera house

Coordinates: 49°56′40″N 11°34′42″E / 49.944371°N 11.578302°E / 49.944371; 11.578302

World Heritage Sites in Germany

For official site names, see each article or the List of World Heritage Sites in Germany.

Northern	Fagus Factory in Alfeld Berlin Modernism Housing Estates Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Berlin Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin Town Hall and Roland on the Marketplace of Bremen Mines of Rammelsberg, Historic Town of Goslar and Upper Harz Water Management System Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus District with Chilehaus in Hamburg St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Michael's Church at Hildesheim Hanseatic City of Lübeck Historic Centres of Stralsund and Wismar

Central	Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar and Dessau Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz ~~Dresden Elbe Valley~~ (delisted in 2009) Luther Memorials in Eisleben and Wittenberg Muskauer Park / Park Mużakowski¹ Collegiate Church, Castle, and Old Town of Quedlinburg Wartburg Castle Classical Weimar

Western	Aachen Cathedral Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at Brühl Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey Cologne Cathedral Upper Middle Rhine Valley Speyer Cathedral Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St. Peter and Church of Our Lady in Trier Völklingen Ironworks Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen

Southern	Abbey and Altenmünster of Lorsch Town of Bamberg Frontiers of the Roman Empire:² Upper Germanic & Rhaetian Limes Maulbronn Monastery Complex Margravial Opera House Bayreuth Old Town of Regensburg with Stadtamhof Monastic Island of Reichenau Pilgrimage Church of Wies Würzburg Residence with the Court Gardens and Residence Square Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps³

Natural	Ancient Beech Forests⁴ Messel Pit Fossil Site Wadden Sea⁵

¹ Shared with Poland ² Shared with the United Kingdom ³ Shared with Austria, France, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland ⁴ Shared with Slovakia and Ukraine ⁵ Shared with the Netherlands and Denmark

Authority control	VIAF: 127074908 GND: 4069201-2

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