Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1965 - 7

tons of singers and scenery, Zimmerman countered
with the observation that this would merely encourage
designers and directors to pile more tons of scenery
on the turntable. The two great advertised advantages
of the turntable were that f ewer men wou Id be required for scene shifts-s ince they could be done at
leisure out of sight of the audience-and that more
astonishing effects could be achieved. Zimmermann,
in his impetuous youth, correctly guessed that more,
not fewer, men would be used, given the additiona I
capacity of the novel stage machine. That apparently
irritated Linnebach. What annoyed him even more
was the discovery, after the great revolving stage
had been constructed, that the hoped-for miraculous
scene changes were far too noisy. It is worth noting
that no one asked for a two-story-or even a one-story
revolving stage as part of the restoration of the
National Theatre to its former glory. It is possible

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instead to set up a movable turntable atop the elevators, which also allows the revolving stage to be
in more than one place.
Obviously, the increased capability of the new stage
can encourage some scenic extravagances. The opera
maintains, after all, such workshops as a metal working studio where real wrought iron grills are made, a
plastic studio where everything from baroque cherubs
to classic statuary can be handi Iy turned out, and a
carpenter shop which can make stage staircases and
furn iture wh ich are someti me s sturd ier a nd better
looking than the real thing. The big question mark is
whether the opera's designers will be swept awayby
all the machinery to such an extent that the singers
get lost in acres of setting. If they can maintain the
light touch and good design sense the late Helmut
Juergens consistently showed in the Cuvillies and
Prince Regent Theatres, all may yet be well. Initial
results, as will be mentioned later, have not been too
promising.
In the meantime, the backstage is a technician's
paradise. Instead of one light bridge and a fly-rail
gallery, the stage house has two light bridges and
four galleries completely surrounding the main stage.
Siemens-Schuckert has seen to it that the latest
lighting equipment is hung: 450 separate pieces of
equipment, with 40 projectors, Dual controls for
lights, stage wagons, and elevators are located on
both sides of the proscenium opening. (Control rooms
for radio and TV broadcasts are built into the back
of the auditorium.) Forty-five overhead lines are
hydraulic; twenty-three are hand-operated. There are
five sets of lines for lights. Overhead on the side
and rear stages are electric tracks for suspending
and moving ceiling pieces and other scenery. One
long track makes it possible to move flats and set
pieces electrically offstage into the huge long storage dock which stretches behind the Residence Palace, to which the theatre is joined. At the end of
this dock is a long, gradually sloping ramp, designed
to accommodate a custom-built trailer. Thus scenery
going to outside storage docks-even this big dock
cannot hold sixty productions at one time-can be
loaded without being exposed to Munich's capricious
weather.
There are some six floors of offices and dressing
rooms, all attractively modern. A complete system
of alarm signals and fire apparatus is at the ready
to repel those disasters which destroyed the theatre twice-in 1823 and in 1943. The theatre is completely air-conditioned and heated. Each seat, in
fact, has two hot-air ducts under it-not to mention
provision for hearing aids.

With all of this, one would have thought the architects could have squeezed in a rehearsal stage.
They did manage to seat the orchestra on a wooden
deck, atop an oval bowl which looks very much like
a ship in cross-section. This device successfully
avoids the "dead" floor which has affl icted orchestras in New York's Philharmonic Hall. Still, without
a rehearsal hall in the house, it means that musicans

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