STAATSTHEATER

"Whether Kagel's State Theater will become a standard work? The cast is variable, even provincial theatres should be able to perform the play. That it is one of the most important works of musical theatre of the post-war period, one of the most necessary above all else, is certain." In his review of the premiere, published on April 30, 1971, Pope Heinz Josef Herbort went out on a limb - as far as subsequent productions of Mauricio Kagel's scenic composition are concerned, one may perhaps suspect a divergence of opinion: All too often, after the spectacular premiere in Hamburg's innovative Liebermann era, no large house has dared to attempt this veritable experiment. And this, although Herbort had also written that Kagel wanted to do two things with STAATSTHEATER: "Expose and thus help to eliminate the vain trappings of and around the opera, and in its place release a new activity, a new sense of quality, a new play instinct that had previously been inhibited by the apparatus. This in turn can only benefit the opera as a museum."

In 1971 the Hamburg State Opera was placed under police protection because of bomb threats - almost fifty years later (and under the special aspect of the celebrations surrounding the BTHVN, which Kagel also addressed) one should dare to try the work again. Director Jürgen R. Weber saved the production originally planned for April 2020 from the crisis and enriched it with thoughts resulting from it. STAATSTHEATER at the Bonn Opera, for example, is perhaps the first real theatrical reaction to the very recent past of both the republic and the city!