Culture is a cornerstone of Berlin’s future development. And there’s more to culture than just the fine arts and leisure activities: culture, then, also requires strategic development. And that applies in particular to Berlin’s opera houses.

“Optimism and Vexation – The Situation of Berlin’s Opera Houses”

The situation of Berlin’s opera houses is more than paradoxical: on the one hand they offer artistic excellence, and on the other they are constantly mired in financial problems and personnel discussions. Neither policy-makers nor the opera houses themselves have made use of the Opera Foundation, which was set up in 2003, to solve the problems. What is needed is an overall strategic concept for Berlin’s opera landscape. What could that look like?

This question was addressed at a discussion entitled “Optimism and Vexation – The Situation of Berlin’s Opera Houses”, held on 16 February 2009 at the creative arts space “Radialsystem V” in Berlin and organized by the Stiftung Zukunft Berlin in cooperation with the journal “Opernwelt” (Opera World) and the German Academy of Performing Arts. Policy-makers, journalists and European opera house directors came to discuss the situation of Berlin’s opera houses.

The discussants included the directors of Berlin’s three opera houses, Jürgen Flimm, Kirsten Harms and Andreas Homoki, Vienna opera house director Roland Geyer, Paris and designated Madrid opera house director Gerard Mortier, long-standing Bremen opera house director Klaus Pierwoß, the President of the German Theatre and Orchestra Association and the Bavarian Theatre Academy, Klaus Zehelein, and the journalists Stephan Mösch, Albrecht Thiemann and Manfred Eichel. Rounding off the “all-star” panel were the policy-makers Monika Grütters (Member of the German Bundestag and its Committee on Cultural and Media Affairs), Barbara Kisseler (Head of Berlin’s Senate Chancellery), Alice Ströver (Chair of the Cultural Affairs Committee in Berlin’s House of Representatives) and Wolfgang Thierse (Vice-President of the German Bundestag).