“Forum Opera House of the Future” with Wim Wenders at Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
The fourth edition of the “Opera House of the Future” event series, organized by the state capital Düsseldorf together with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, took place on Tuesday, November 26, 2024, with a prominent guest:
In the Robert Schumann Hall of the Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf filmmaker Wim Wenders and Miriam Koch, Comissioner of Culture and Integration of the State Capital of Düsseldorf, exchanged views on their personal relationship with opera. Lord Mayor Dr. Stephan Keller had previously warmly welcomed the 750 guests in the packed hall.
In addition to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the “opera house of the future” in Düsseldorf will also include the Clara Schumann Music School and the music library of the city’s central library. Against the backdrop of the plans, Wim Wenders and Miriam Koch drew a varied arc from Berlin, San Francisco, Havana and Beijing to Düsseldorf’s twin city Palermo. There, the lavishly renovated opera house is an important symbol of the fight against the mafia and impoverishment.
Among other things, Wenders talked about a bar in San Francisco where there was a jukebox that only played opera arias. He told how he first came across George Bizet’s opera “The Pearl Fishers” there, a work with which he made his debut as an opera director many years later, in 2017, at the Berlin State Opera in the Schillertheater with Daniel Barenboim conducting. According to his own statement, he also experienced how an opera house filled with over 5,000 young people night after night during another production of Perlenfischer in Beijing.
Miriam Koch explained the aspirations and challenges of the “Opera House of the Future” project. The new venue “Am Wehrhahn” is intended to offer not only a first-class opera house, but above all a place that attracts the entire diverse urban society and in particular a young audience.
Find the interview as a free stream here!