Prague's State Opera will reopen in January after a three-year renovation

The State Opera will open January 5, 2020, with a gala concert. It closed in 2016 for an extensive rebuilding of its infrastructure, other repairs and cleaning.

The historic building will have new technology and a rebuilt rotating stage. The building was last renovated in the 1970s.

“When you open the
door of the State Opera, it’s like entering a different world or a
beautiful church. It is a place where you will find a totally
different atmosphere, beauty, tradition,” Per Boye Hansen, artistic
director of the National Theater Opera and the State Opera, said.

A small exhibition outlining the renovation can be seen at the operational building of the National Theater on náměstí Václava Havla every weekday from 2 pm to 6 pm until November 15, 2019.

The exhibition includes a countdown clock to the opening, posters from the State Opera’s history, and details of the new stage curtain.

The monumental
murals by Eduard Veith on the ceiling of the auditorium and the
frescoes have been restored. New seats will be installed in the
auditorium with reading devices with variable subtitles.

Much of the
renovation work won’t be seen by the general public. On the second
underground floor, a modern rehearsal room with excellent acoustics
is being built, rehearsal rooms, ballet, orchestral and choir halls
and artists’ facilities were renovated. The operational part of the
building is acquiring a new look, with its glass façade.

The building should
be handed back to the National Theatre on December 15, 2019. The
program for the first half of 2020 will largely consist of reprisals
of previous works. “During the first half of the year we will be
testing the new stage technologies and the layout of the
reconstructed premises during the trial operation,” National
Theater director Jan Burian said.

Leading soloists of
the National Theater Opera and Czech and foreign guests such as Lise
Davidsen, Pavel Černoch, Eva Urbanová and Kateřina Kněžíková
will perform under the baton of the music director of the State Opera
Karel-Heinz Steffens.

Tickets will be hard
to get due to demand and the relatively small space. The evening will
be broadcast live by Czech Television and later by ZDF, Atre and
other European television stations.

Also in January
2020, there will also be an audiovisual show on the front facade of
the State Opera. The art group 3dsence will take advantage of the
specific location of the theater building on the highway.

The cars passing
through the highway in front of the State Opera building generate
video projections, light shows and music in real time on the facade
of the building. The position, size and speed of each car will be
recognized from the camera located on the State Opera building. The
data will be processed online and used to generate music composition
and visual effects. This will also be streamed to the web. More
details will be announced closer to the event.

Over the last two
years, the artistic director of the production section of the
National Theater, Martin Černý, worked in with stage design
students at DAMU. The curtain was created in the National Theater
workshops according to the design of the original 1888 curtain by
Eduard Veith, which mysteriously disappeared in 1945. The new curtain
will replace the one by painter Antonín Střížek, originally
intended for the 2002 production of The Magic Flute.