Zurich Opera House 5 April 2024 - The Cellist | GoComGo.com

The Cellist

Zurich Opera House, Zurich, Switzerland
All photos (5)
Select date

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Important Info
Type: Modern Ballet
City: Zurich, Switzerland
Starts at: 19:00
Overview

With ballets by Cathy Marston and Marco Goecke, the Ballett Zurich pays tribute to two shining artistic stars of the 20th century: Jacqueline du Pré and Vaslav Nijinsky. Using the artists’ biographies as models, both pieces trace the essence of creative work.

Cathy Marston’s ballet The Cellist was created for the Royal Ballet in London, and follows the life story of English cellist Jacqueline du Pré. For a fleeting moment, her star lit up the musical sky, before it inexplicably went out. Today, du Pré’s musicality, her genuine naturalness, and her presence are the stuff of legend. She had her first cello lessons at the age of four, revealing herself to be a "Wunderkind" and played her way to the top in the 1960s. She was exceptional, not only as an instrumentalist, but as a woman. She encroached upon masculine spaces, and consistently followed her own path. When she met the young conductor Daniel Barenboim, her bliss seemed complete. The two gave concerts across the globe, but a multiple sclerosis diagnosis ended du Pré’s career, and she died in London in 1987. Her playing continues to inspire generations of cellists today.

Cathy Marston places Jacqueline du Pré’s nearly symbiotic relationship with her instrument at the center of her ballet. In intimate, desperate, existential pas de deux, she gives the cello the contours of a dancer, baring the creative soul of this exceptional artist. In his ballet music, Philip Feeney arranged compositions from the cellist's repertoire, including works by Edward Elgar, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Venue Info

Zurich Opera House - Zurich
Location   Sechseläutenplatz 1

Zürich Opera House is a main opera house in Zürich and Switzerland. Located at the Sechseläutenplatz, it has been the home of the Zürich Opera since 1891, and also houses the Bernhard-Theater Zürich. It is also home to the Zürich Ballet. The Opera House also holds concerts by its Philharmonia orchestra, matinees, Lieder evenings and events for children. The Zürich Opera Ball is organised every year in March, and is usually attended by prominent names.

The first permanent theatre, the Aktientheater, was built in 1834 and it became the focus of Richard Wagner’s activities during his period of exile from Germany.

The Aktientheater burnt down in 1890. The new Stadttheater Zürich (municipal theatre) was built by the Viennese architects Fellner & Helmer, who changed their previous design for the theatre in Wiesbaden only slightly. It was opened in 1891. It was the city's main performance space for drama, opera, and musical events until 1925, when it was renamed Opernhaus Zürich and a separate theatre for plays was built: The Bernhard Theater opened in 1941, in May 1981 the Esplanada building was demolished, and the present adjoint building opened on 27/28 December 1984 after three years of transition in the Kaufhaus building nearby Schanzengraben.

By the 1970s, the opera house was badly in need of major renovations; when some considered it not worth restoring, a new theatre was proposed for the site. However, between 1982 and 1984, rebuilding took place but not without huge local opposition which was expressed in street riots. The rebuilt theatre was inaugurated with Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the world première of Rudolf Kelterborn’s Chekhov opera Der Kirschgarten.

As restored, the theatre is an ornate building with a neo-classical façade of white and grey stone adorned with busts of Weber, Wagner, and Mozart. Additionally, busts of Schiller, Shakespeare, and Goethe are to be found. The auditorium is built in the neo-rococo style and seats approximately 1200 people. During the refurbishment, the issue of sightlines was not adequately addressed. As a result, the theatre has a high number of seats with a limited view, or no view, of the stage. This is unusual in international comparison, where sightlines in historic opera houses have been typically enhanced over time.

Corporate archives and historical library collections are held at the music department of the Predigerkirche Zürich.

The Zürich Opera House is also home of the International Opera Studio (in German: Internationales Opernstudio IOS) which is a educational program for young singers and pianists. The studio was created in 1961 and has renowned artists currently teaching such as Brigitte Fassbaender, Hedwig Fassbender, Andreas Homocki, Rosemary Joshua, Adrian Kelly, Fabio Luisi, Jetske Mijnssen, Ann Murray, Eytan Pessen or Edith Wiens.

Important Info
Type: Modern Ballet
City: Zurich, Switzerland
Starts at: 19:00
Top of page