New ways of working in an old theatre

Part 1: the Building

The current season at the Berlin State Opera was officially opened on 7 December – 275 years to the day since the opera was first inaugurated. While restoring the house to its former glory, the hg merz firm of architects also took discreet but effective measures to increase audience comfort, and had a modern rehearsal centre built in the adjacent building, formerly the storeroom. All in all, the house’s operations have been thoroughly re-arranged.

The stage house was extended by a new, enlarged and completely re-equipped backstage (more on which in the coming issue of BTR). This extension set off a domino effect, requiring a new site to be found for the service rooms previously located there. They eventually found a new home in the house next to the State Opera, built in 1955 in the original style by architect Richard Paulick. Before renovation, this building had housed the offices of the artistic director, technical director and administrative staff, and the storeroom. More recently, a part of it had been made available to the newly founded Barenboim Said Academy. The architects scaled down the storeroom and relocated it underground. The space this left was turned into a new rehearsal centre, and the administrative offices remaining in the artistic director’s building were renovated. This is now the State Opera’s nerve centre and beating heart.         

The old rehearsal rooms had become far too small and were spread across several different buildings. They are now concentrated in one space and connected to the main building by clever logistical arrangements. The new rehearsal spaces make it possible for the orchestra, choir, ballet and soloists to rehearse in suitable surroundings with the corresponding technical equipment. To achieve this, the building was completely gutted and the interior rebuilt. Previously, main rehearsals took place on the stage, which meant that lighting rehearsals, for example, might be postponed to the night shift. Now all artists can rehearse simultaneously in adequate conditions. As it says in the book on the opera’s renovation, “Die Staatsoper Unter den Linden”, “the planners found them selves facing a surface-area problem, especially as part of the building had been given to the Barenboim Academy.” Asked about the biggest difficulty when planning, Hans-Günter Merz (the “hg” in the firm’s name) replied: “We had to get an incredible number of functions into a relatively small space. We only managed it by neatly stacking the spaces.”

Public areas

In the auditorium, the original polychrome was uncovered and decorative elements restored according to the designs by Richard Paulick, the architect responsible for the house’s postwar restoration. Now the auditorium shines resplendent in gilded stucco and pastel coloured walls. Efforts were made to improve suboptimal lines of sight as far as architecturally possible, but seats with restricted views could not be entirely eliminated. While resembling its historical predecessor, the new seating meets modern acoustic and ergonomic requirements. One major change that was made during restoration was the raising of the auditorium ceiling to improve reverberation time. To achieve this, the architects at hg merz installed a modern net structure under the ceiling, creating acoustically transparent spatial volume and lending the space a generous atmosphere. 

All the other public spaces, such as the foyer and the Apollo hall, were restored according to monument-protection requirements as well as taking modern demands of comfort and usage into account. New stairwells and approaches assure barrier-free access. The result is a State Opera that looks very much the same as before, but with a lot changed behind the scenes. 

Part 2: the acoustics

Improving the acoustics was a key objective of the Berlin State Opera’s restoration. Dutch-German acoustics firm Peutz Consult was commissioned to design the building- and room-acoustics. The company was also responsible for planning the media technology. 

Compared with other major opera houses, with its 6500 m³, the Berlin State Opera was one of the smallest in the world. To achieve a significant improvement in the sound, the acoustically effective spatial volume had to be substantially enlarged. Before restoration, until 2010, reverberation time was very short for an opera production – approx. 1.1 seconds – and more suitable for spoken-word theatre. Due to the limited spatial volume, the loudness in the auditorium was at a maximum. Restoration aimed to extend reverberation time to 1.6 seconds without increasing loudness. 

The auditorium is now extended above the third circle by a reverberation gallery. Reflection surfaces in the upper area absorb, reflect and transmit the sound to the audience. And thanks to the horizontal supporting structure, the elevation could be shaped like a mushroom and so contribute to increasing the volume.