place

Aalto Theatre

Alvar Aalto buildingsBallet venuesBuildings and structures in EssenModernist architecture in GermanyMusic venues completed in 1988
Opera houses in GermanyTheatres completed in 1988Theatres in Essen
Aalto Theater 01
Aalto Theater 01

The Aalto Theatre (Aalto-Theater) is a performing arts venue in Essen, Germany, and is home to the city's opera company Aalto-Musiktheater and the ballet company Aalto Ballett. The Essener Philharmoniker serve as the venue's orchestra. The theatre opened on 25 September 1988 with Richard Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and is mainly used for opera and ballet, but also for concerts and galas.The design by the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto was the unanimous winner in a competition in 1959, but the building was begun only in 1983, seven years after Aalto's death. A feature of the auditorium's design is its asymmetrical layout and the indigo blue colour of the seats. Conductor Wolf-Dieter Hauschild held the positions of both Intendant and Generalmusikdirektor in personal union from 1992 until 1997, followed by Stefan Soltesz from 1997 until 2013. Soltesz led the Essener Philharmoniker to the title Orchestra of the Year in 2003 and 2008 and the Aalto-Musiktheater to that of Opera House of the Year in 2008, following a survey of 50 critics by magazine Opernwelt. He was succeeded as Intendant by Hein Mulders and as Generalmusikdirektor by Tomáš Netopil.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Aalto Theatre (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.446944444444 ° E 7.0127777777778 °
placeShow on map

Address

Aalto-Theater

Opernplatz 10
45128 Essen (Stadtbezirk I)
North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
mapOpen on Google Maps

Phone number

call+492018122202

linkWikiData (Q300975)
linkOpenStreetMap (280397516)

Aalto Theater 01
Aalto Theater 01
Share experience

Nearby Places

Essen
Essen

Essen (German pronunciation: [ˈɛsn̩] (listen); Latin: Assindia) is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of 582,415 makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as the ninth-largest city of Germany. Essen lies in the larger Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region and is part of the cultural area Rhineland. Because of its central location in the Ruhr, Essen is often regarded as the Ruhr's "secret capital". Two rivers flow through the city: in the north, the Emscher, the Ruhr area's central river, and in the south, the Ruhr River, which is dammed in Essen to form the Lake Baldeney (Baldeneysee) and Lake Kettwig (Kettwiger See) reservoirs. The central and northern boroughs of Essen historically belong to the Low German (Westphalian) language area, and the south of the city to the Low Franconian (Bergish) area (closely related to Dutch). Essen is seat to several of the region's authorities, as well as to eight of the 100 largest publicly held German corporations by revenue, including three DAX-listed corporations. Essen is often considered the energy capital of Germany with E.ON and RWE, Germany's largest energy providers, both headquartered in the city. Essen is also known for its impact on the arts through the respected Folkwang University of the Arts, its Zollverein School of Management and Design, and the Red Dot industrial product design award. In early 2003, the universities of Essen and the nearby city of Duisburg (both established in 1972) were merged into the University of Duisburg-Essen with campuses in both cities and a university hospital in Essen. In 1958, Essen was chosen to serve as the seat to a Roman Catholic diocese (often referred to as Ruhrbistum or diocese of the Ruhr). Founded around 845, Essen remained a small town within the sphere of influence of an important ecclesiastical principality (Essen Abbey) until the onset of industrialization. The city then—especially through the Krupp family iron works—became one of Germany's most important coal and steel centers. Essen, until the 1970s, attracted workers from all over the country; it was the fifth-largest city in Germany between 1929 and 1988, peaking at over 730,000 inhabitants in 1962. Following the region-wide decline of heavy industries in the last decades of the 20th century, the city has seen the development of a strong tertiary sector of the economy. The most notable witness of this Strukturwandel (structural change) is the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, which has once been the largest of its kind in Europe. Ultimately closed in 1993, both the coking plant and the mine have been inscribed in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 2001. Notable accomplishments of the city in recent years include the title of European Capital of Culture on behalf of the whole Ruhr area in 2010 and the selection as the European Green Capital for 2017.