Venue: Opernhaus Wuppertal
Town: Wuppertal, DE

The Opernhaus Wuppertal (Wuppertal Opera House) is a German theatre in Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia. It houses mostly performances of operas, but also plays, run by the municipal Wuppertaler Bühnen. The house is also the venue for dance performances by the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch company created by Pina Bausch. The house was built in 1905 on a design by Carl Moritz as the Stadttheater Barmen. It was partially rebuilt after being severely damaged during World War II and again restored over the period 2006-2009. The theatre is located in the center of Wuppertal-Barmen, served by the Wuppertal Suspension Railway and Wuppertal-Barmen station. The original building was the Stadttheater Barmen, an all-purpose theatre for opera and plays built in 1905 before Barmen was merged into Wuppertal. It was designed by the architect Carl Moritz in a style drawing on neo-Baroque and Jugendstil. It was completed in 1907. The theatre was severely damaged during a World War II air raid on the night of 30 May 1943, which destroyed the hall completely and also damaged the stage area. It was rebuilt from 1954 to 1956, but with restricted Jugendstil elements which the leader of the project termed "schwerverdauliche Formensprache" (a language of forms hard to digest). The house reopened on 14 October 1956, one of the first war-damaged theatres in Germany to resume operations, with a gala performance of Paul Hindemith's Mathis der Maler. The theatre was extended in the 1970s and renovated from 2006 to 2009. Since 1989, the building has been protected as an architectural monument. World premieres have included Yvonne, Prinzessin von Burgund by Boris Blacher, after the play by Witold Gombrowicz, which debuted on 15 September 1973. Die fünf Minuten des Isaak Babel (The five minutes of Isaac Babel) by Volker David Kirchner, subtitled A Scenic Requiem, premiered on 19 April 1980, conducted by Hanns-Martin Schneidt and staged by Friedrich Meyer-Oertel. The first complete performance