Theater landscapes

The city where Till Eulenspiegel is said to have wreaked havoc is the city of Henry the Lion, who ruled from here.
Heinrich Julius, Duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, a theater enthusiast, founded the theater tradition in Braunschweig in the 16th century and was himself an author of plays.
Brunswick got its first public theater as early as 1690 at the Hagemarkt.
- It was founded by Duke Anton Ulrich, who at the time enjoyed a reputation throughout Europe as a patron of the theater.
The theater soon became too small, so in 1861 the Great House of the Braunschweig State Theater was opened not far from the castle.
It is still there today and has four sections: opera, dance, spoken theater and children's and youth theater.
Especially in summer, no one in Braunschweig can miss the theater when open-air operas are performed on Burgplatz.

The classics have a special place on the Braunschweig stage.
After all, the city can boast of having premiered two of the greatest playwrights: Lessing's Emilia Galotti premiered here in 1772.
In the magnificent library in nearby Wolfenbüttel, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was once a librarian and also wrote his best-known play Nathan the Wise.
Since then, Lessing's plays have had a regular place on the stage of the Braunschweig Theater.
The theater experienced its finest hour with the premiere of Goethe's Faust in 1829 - until then, the play was considered unplayable.
And "Faust" is still a challenge today.
Especially in Braunschweig.
But when Wolfgang Gropper staged the play again in 2003, it became one of the most successful productions of recent years.

In the 60s of the 20th century, the theater played in the upper leagues.
The Austrian artistic director Helmut Mathiasek even managed to bring two world premieres by Elias Canetti to Braunschweig.

Today, there is even a separate program series for Braunschweig topics at the Staatstheater, such as the production of Daniel Kehlmann's successful novel "Measuring the World".
An ideal partner for the program series is also the successful Braunschweig band Jazzkantine, with whom various projects with a local connection have been implemented.
However, Braunschweig, with its scientific character, is also not closed to avant-garde theater: for works such as Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Helicopter String Quartet", the theater sometimes takes to the air by helicopter.
Contemporary ballet also finds a place in the international festival "Tanzwelten" by ballet director Eva-Maria Lerchenberg-Thöny.

Esther Schweins presents Braunschweig's eventful theater history.
In addition to general director Wolfgang Gropper, trumpeter & orchestra director Martin Weller, bassist & composer of the Jazzkantine Christian Eitner, actor Götz van Ooyen, actress Anne Cathrin Buhtz and others have their say.