About ZIWA

ZIWA's Monthly Meetings offer many surprises, and last Wednesday's tour behind the scenes of the Zürich Opera House was one. Over 60 members took advantage of the visit to explore the inner secrets of the 19th century building with its modern stage fittings. Our guide, Esther Witmer, from the PR and publicity group, informed us that the building was commissioned from Viennese specialist architects Fellner and Helmer, after a fire destroyed the old theatre in 1889. The new building took 16 months to complete and opened in 1891, and is now under federal protection and owned by the canton. Subsidence in the 1980s led to recent renovations, but the baroque foyer with its ornate sculptures remains unchanged.

Frau Witmer explained that the Opera House is run as a repertoire theatre, which means that several shows may be in production at once, which makes life complicated for the stage manager. During our visit, the stage crew were building the set for Richard Strauss's Intermezzo, while the company were still performing Nabucco. Once the new set is complete, it is stored while another production is taking place. The theatre has "flies" above the rotating stage to hoist the sets out of sight when not in use.
The auditorium, which can seat around 1200 people, reflects the exterior of the building in its opulence, but the red plush seats are designed with minimal material to avoid soaking up the sound - the house has a "dry acoustic" which the renovations were intended to optimise, hence curtains and decorative medallions were removed from the upper stories of the auditorium. The best seats are at the back of the stalls for vision and at the top of the galleries for sound quality. The opera house stages 16 premieres per year, and aims to have 80% full houses; it earns 42% of its own revenue, the rest coming from sponsorship. There is a regular chorus of 50 people, a corps de ballet and a resident orchestra, with soloists commissioned by manager Alexander Pereira.

After visiting the auditorium and stage, we were able to delve backstage into the costume rooms, wigs and makeup departments; each wig is personally designed and made from real hair, for instance, and costumes are specially made up from the designer's drawings. A production team of stage director, artistic director and music director is invited to submit proposals for each new production, which may be conventional or avant-garde. After 4 weeks of rehearsal and preparation, the production is ready to go onstage. Old sets, costumes and wigs are stored offsite, unless the production has reached the end of its life, in which case the sets are destroyed. There is an annual sale of unwanted material. One production can cost up to CHF 750,000 to stage. A successful and popular show such as The Barber of Seville ran for 20 years. The next big event at the Opera House is the annual Opera Ball on 8 March.

See this link for more information: www.opernhaus.ch.