Overview
- The proposal from SPD councillor Detlef Müller would refit the city’s opera house so opera, musical and spoken drama share one stage, using money from a federal special fund.
- City culture chief Dagmar Ruscheinsky called the idea an existential threat to the theatre structure and the building chief said the brief had been to find a better home for the playhouse, not to repurpose the opera house.
- Theatre leadership warned the opera house is not fit for spoken drama because the orchestra pit forces a long distance to the stage, sightlines and acoustics favor singing over speech, and rehearsals would tie up the only stage.
- Managers said a merger would at least halve the output, cut events like the Christmas fairy-tale shows and school theatre week, and remove thousands of seats that now let families, students and regulars attend at scale.
- The SPD group still backs exploring the concept in principle, while the theatre urges the council to restart the site debate for the playhouse as costs and plans remain unsettled for both the closed old venue and a possible new build at the Spinnbau, with an opera house renovation only loosely pegged at about €20 million.