Stage Bern | July 2, 2022
The music theater division, as it was still called at Konzert Theater Bern, has a difficult time in the capital of Switzerland. Already in the 2018/19 season, the numbers dropped by a whopping 12,000 spectators. Now the Berne stage under the directorship of Florian Scholz will probably have to report another decline at the end of 2022. Three out of five opera productions were badly to very badly frequented. It seems as if the Berne theaters have lost their opera audience. Nadine Borter, President of the Foundation Council of the cultural site, comments on pressing issues.
The opera audience at the Bern stage stays away, the performances are sometimes only a third or less attended.Photo: Andreas Gerber
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Vincenzo Bellini, who wrote a deeply moving bel canto opera in 1830 with his opus “I Capuleti ei Montecchi”, did not deserve this. But the Romeo and Juliet story staged by David Hermann does not go down well with the Bern audience. When the last performance took place this Saturday and the 2021/2022 opera season came to an end, around 200 visitors were seated in the Bern City Theater, which has space for 650 people. That’s bizarre, because there are around 150 people on and behind the stage to make the whole thing work.
The occupancy rate at Bern Theater for “Capuleti ei Monecchi” for Saturday, July 2, as of Friday, July 1, 2022, 3:00 p.m.Foto: Screenshot
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Desolately empty
Even before the coming dernière, the Bellini opera was not a box office hit. A spectator says: “It was so poorly attended on a weekend that all the visitors sat down in the front of the stalls to give the performers the feeling that they weren’t singing into an empty room”. There is an opera that doesn’t catch fire at every house. In Bern, it is currently also due to the fact that on warmer days people prefer the pub on the Aare to the dark shaft for the “Bellini stage” (a dark shaft at the end). The management of Bühnen Bern, including artistic director Florian Scholz and co-opera director Rainer Karlitschek, like to attribute the decline in audience to the pandemic. But is this assessment correct, as the President of the Bern Foundation Council, Nadine Borter, puts it in the field?
Excellent season at Tobs
At the Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn (Tobs) there is no talk of a decline in the audience, quite the opposite. Director Dieter Kaegi: “We had one of the most successful seasons, both in drama and music theater. Our performances of Vincenco Bellini’s “I Capuleti ei Montecchi”, which Yves Lenoir staged for us, were always sold out in the large Nebia Hall as well as in the smaller venues”. If you look at Zurich, there is a similar picture, there too the house is mostly fully booked, even for contemporary operas such as “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Stefan Wirth and now even more so for the successful reading of Jan Philipp Gloger for Mozart’s ” The Marriage of Figaro».
Not a box-office hit, but rather a viewer flop: Idomeneo (Mozart).Foto: Florian Spring
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Reasons must be on the table
It is true that the theaters in Switzerland will generally have to cope with a 25 to 30 percent drop in attendance in the current season. This was reported, among other things, by the NZZ on Sunday. The corona pandemic and the measures imposed certainly have a part to play here. However, the situation in Bern is unusual and equally worrying: in contrast to ballet, which is doing excellently, drama and opera are on IV drips.
This also provided for lively discussion at the administrative directors’ conference of the Swiss Stage Association, which took place in 2022 in the Grandhotel Giessbach, Brienz. The reasons for this must now be all the more on the table. Is it because of the programming of predominantly serious opera material in Bern, too many Wagner works, or the often difficult implementation of the mostly historical material, which in the case of Mozart’s “Idomeneo” has to be described as amateurish?
Soon a house without a reputation?
The fact is that a permanently poor utilization pulls bad strings. An audience that has repeatedly been disappointed by overly ambitious productions or has no desire at all for the plays that are planned, gives up their love for their house and does not come back so quickly. It is also becoming increasingly difficult to find good artists and conductors, because here, at least among the prominent representatives, no one has an interest in appearing in front of empty spectator stands or at most damaging their careers because it is perceived as degradation in the scene. Some media have already turned away and only report very selectively about the opera work at Berne’s stages. This can also be seen from the fact that the four-division house always quotes the same critics on its website and does not even mention unpleasant journalists.
Bellini’s “I Capuleti ei Montecchi” by director David Hermann is a dark affair in Bern.Photos: Tanja Dorendorf
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Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy) cannot bring the Bernese to the opera either.Photo: Janosch Abel
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This newspaper asked Nadine Borter, the CEO of the advertising agency Contexta, who also holds a mandate as president of the board of trustees at Berne Bern, a few urgent questions:
- Three out of five opera productions in Bern were poorly attended. After Mozart’s “Idomeneo” and Debussy’s “Pelléas et Mélisande”, it is currently the performances of the Bellini production “I Capuleti ei Montecchi” that are sometimes practically unattended. The completely canceled contemporary opera “Love Song” was cast in such a way that no one else could sing the role in case of illness. Are you already in discussion with management about these fatal developments?
- Is there a kind of monitoring on the part of the foundation board that constantly monitors the situation?
- Have measures already been taken to proactively counteract the loss of viewers?
- To what extent will you ask for a say in the programming of the 2023/2024 season should the coming season produce similarly poor numbers?
- What is the rule with subsidized houses if a line is unsuccessful in more than one category and the number of viewers is far below expectations?
Nadine Borter, President of the Board of Trustees of Konzert Theater Bern, speaks at a media conference on Thursday, June 20, 2019 in Bern.Photo: Keystone, Peter Schneider
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Nadine Borter, President of the Bern Foundation Board:
Of course, we are in constant contact with the management of the theater and orchestra, whose work we fully support and share. The effects of the corona pandemic are an important topic, which also includes bringing our audience back to the way they were before the pandemic. As far as the commissioned opera “Love Song” is concerned, the only option for us in Bern is a premiere with Claude Eichenberger and Robin Adams. One of the tasks of the Board of Trustees is to carefully follow what is happening at Berne Theater. In the future too, the way to the success of the Bern Theater will be a striving for the highest artistic quality, as is the case at present, i.e. directors, choreographers, choreographers, conductors of the first guard and stage artists of world renown. In addition, we approach our audience with all the means of a contemporary theater business, but above all I see great and passionate personal commitment in the Bern Theater team. Artistic direction will continue to be the responsibility of the artistic director and the division heads.
Peter Wäch, culture editor of the Jungfrau Zeitung.Photo: zvg
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A replica by Peter Wäch:
It may be that the pandemic is a key issue at Berne Theater. But in contrast to other theaters and opera venues, which have to accept a 25 to 30 percent drop in audience, the Bern stage is downright dramatic and constant in both the opera and drama categories. Then you have to be able to ask yourself why, of all times, during a pandemic of the century, an opera that only two soloists can sing is included in the program. Isn’t that extremely daring, because you have to expect more failures due to Corona? And why is there another contemporary opera by the same composer on the program six months later? The artistic quality in Bern is good, but it certainly does not meet the highest artistic standards. That doesn’t have to be the case either, Berne stages are an average player who simply cannot afford Cecilia Bartoli, who performs regularly at the Zurich Opera House. Stage artists of the highest rank do not perform in Bern, that was the case under Eike Gramss in the past, and today it still applies at most to the concerts in the Casino with star conductors and instrumental soloists. Finally, it is also important to consider whether the means of a “contemporary” theater operation are not being pushed too much into the foreground, because it cannot be that for an opera production you need instructions in book form like you need a laptop of the latest generation.
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