Coburg’s alternative site will be finished later than planned, and there are also delays in Würzburg. And the Nuremberg Opera Ball is canceled due to structural defects. What’s going on at Franconia’s big stages?
The historical fragmentation of Franconia is often described as a weakness, but even the most skeptical of Coburg’s Schlossplatz will recognize that there are other sides to this: you won’t find such an imposing building as the Landestheater in many cities in Europe with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants. The legacy of duo dec princes and powerful city-states? Culturally, it’s a huge pound.
And so those who don’t know the theaters don’t know Franconia. Nuremberg? There isn’t a multi-sector building of this size in the entire Free State. In Würzburg and Schweinfurt people are similarly proud of their houses and in Hof the theater is considered the dominant building in a region.
But the pride of the cities also means work – and at the moment the theater gods seem to be getting together for all sorts of practical jokes and having fun in Franconia. To return to Coburg straight away: It’s a nice idea to move into a chic “Globe” theater while the venerable building is being renovated. It’s just stupid when the company responsible for the stage technology goes bankrupt, the interim stage is probably only finished a year later than planned, but the state theater’s operating license is about to expire. A way out of the malaise? Not in sight.
The architecture office in Würzburg has just said goodbye
Würzburg is also being renovated and until recently people dreamed of being able to reopen in lush splendor soon. But now an architect’s office has said goodbye. And now it could be as long as 2026 before the game starts again at the parent company. The problems aren’t that big in Schweinfurt’s example theatre, but people are just recovering from the shock triggered by a penalty order from the public prosecutor’s office: a long-standing manager apparently had a relaxed relationship with hospitality receipts.
In Nuremberg, on the other hand – this is Bavaria’s largest multi-sector house – the opera ball had to be cancelled. Reason: defects in the building fabric. And in Hof, an external employee accidentally flooded the theater with a sprinkler system, probably costing millions.
In Bayreuth they have to endure a lot (Wagner), but for once they don’t have such problems there. Why? There is no larger multi-sector building in Upper Franconia’s capital. These days you should be happy about it for the first time.