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The Drottningholms Slottsteater or The Drottningholm Palace Theatre is an opera house located at Drottningholm Palace in Stockholm, Sweden and has been described by Per-Erik Öhrn, the theatre’s artistic director, as "the Swedish jewel in our European cultural heritage crown of centuries old theatres".
Currently, the reinvigorated theatre has acquired a growing international reputation as a summer festival theater by focusing on works by Haydn, Handel, Gluck and Mozart and emphasis on authentic performance. The theatre also has guest performances by the Royal Swedish Opera company.
Original theatre
Work began at the end of the seventeenth century under the architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and was completed by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger. The interior was decorated between 1665 and 1703, at first in a heavy, sumptuous baroque style, but later increasingly refined to French patterns. The 400-seat opera house was opened in 1766 by Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz for Queen Lovisa Ulrika, replacing an earlier theatre (destroyed by a fire in 1762). Its interior decoration is made from a mixture of stucco, papier mâché, and painting. The stage machinery, designed by the Italian, Donato Stopani, is still intact and it includes moving waves, trapdoors, cloud cars, lighting machinery and wind and thunder machinery.
After the assassination of King Gustav III in 1792 (which is the basis of the Giuseppe Verdi opera, Un ballo in maschera), the theatre was forgotten.
Twentieth Century restoration and revival
In 1920, under the direction of Agne Beijer, it was restored with the addition of electric light, which today is designed to flicker like candles. It re-opened on 19th August 1922 and today it is run by a private foundation, the Drottningholm Theatre Museum, and is funded by government and private grants.
Almost all of the equipment is original, and the stage is unusual for having a significantly greater depth than width. The operas are performed by musicians wearing period costume, and the orchestra performs using period or copies of authentic instruments. The stage effects include a wave machine, thunder machine, and a flying chair which is often used for deus ex machina effects. Most productions demonstrate some of the effects possible using the original equipment.
The reinvigorated theatre has since acquired a growing international reputation as a festival theater by focusing on works by Haydn, Handel, Gluck and Mozart and emphasis on authentic performance. The theatre also has guest performances by the Royal Swedish Opera company.
In 1991, the theatre, along with the Drottningholm Palace (the residence of the Swedish royal family), the China Pavilion and the surrounding park, became the first Swedish patrimony to be inscribed in the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites. Parts of the Palace and the Pavilion and Theatre are open to the public.
The theatre as featured in Bergman's The Magic Flute
The interior of the theater was originally planned to feature in Ingmar Bergman's 1975 film version of The Magic Flute. However, according to film historian Peter Cowie's notes for the DVD release of the film, while Bergman wanted to recreate as closely as possible the original 1791 production in the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, he had hoped that the film could be shot in the theatre. Introductory exterior shots of the theatre set the scene in the film. However, "the scenery was considered too fragile to accommodate a film crew. So the stage – complete with wings, curtains, and wind machines – was painstakingly copied and erected in the studios of the Swedish Film Institute".
See also
External link
Opera houses | World Heritage Sites in Sweden | Opera houses in Sweden | Buildings and structures in Stockholm | Culture in Stockholm
Théâtre du château de Drottningholm | Drottningholms slottsteater
"Drottningholm Palace Theatre"