The music theatre is threatened with the end of the renovation of its headquarters. Former director Barrie Kosky sounds the alarm in an open letter.
Ruth Nauer-Kram during rehearsals for the musical “Chicago” at the Komische Oper in the Schillertheater, October 25, 2023 Photo: Brigitte Dummer/imago
“Anyone with scruples loses!” read a sign in front of the Schiller Theater in Berlin-Charlottenburg in December. The former theater currently serves as an intermediate stage for the Komische Oper while the building in Mitte is being renovated. The musical ‘Chicago’ was shown at the time, a spectacle with lots of glitter and glamour in which the characters have no trouble asserting their interests.
The ‘Chicago’ director also has no scruples Barrie Kosky, when it comes to his former workplace stand up. The former director of the Berlin Senate responded with an open letter to the Berlin Senate’s consideration of halting renovation work at the parent company of the Komische Oper for cost reasons. In it, he was “shocked and indignant” about a possible construction freeze, which would mean the end for the opera house.
A year ago, the house on Behrenstrasse, which opened in 1892, had to close for complete renovation. In 2018, the plasterwork fell off the ceiling. There are also new construction plans, with a roof terrace, shop and café. Actually a nice idea to breathe new life into the area around Friedrichstrasse. The project could fail because of the costs: these are said to amount to around 500 million euros.
The state of Berlin has no money and must save, was the conclusion during the plenary session of the House of Representatives in early July. Nothing has been decided yet, but Senator for Culture Joe Chialo (CDU) said that they wanted to achieve the 10 percent savings target and, according to his press spokesman, had to review everything.
Inseparably linked to their home
Kosky sees no solution in permanently housing the Komische Oper in the Schiller Theater building; it is neither the home nor the future of the Komische Oper: “Would you move the Berliner Ensemble from Bertolt-Brecht-Platz? Would you separate the Berliner Philharmoniker from the Philharmonie?” These institutions, like the Komische Oper, are inextricably linked to their homes.
The house’s co-directors, Susanne Moser and Philip Bröking, see it the same way. In interviews, they criticize the Schiller Theater’s lack of space and storage capacity and point to additional logistical efforts that cannot be managed financially in the long term.
It has often been discussed whether Berlin needs three opera houses. Berlin’s Senator of Finance Stefan Evers (CDU) put it this way in early July: “What can Berlin afford, what is the public provision of the state, and what is good to have?”
It’s not hard to guess what non-profit entertainment entails. But is good to have Isn’t that what once represented Berlin’s cultural diversity?