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We're in the foyer of the Schillertheater, in the Charlottenburg area,
the temporary home of the Berlin Staatsoper.
It's still based in the East, on Unter den Linden avenue,
but it moved here for the next three seasons
because of renovations to the imperial opera house.
The Schillertheater is the home of another great musical figure here.
We all know Sir Simon Rattle of the Philarmonic.
Daniel Barenboim has been musical director here since 1992,
and a few years ago, he was named chief conductor for life.
So you can see that in Berlin, some myths, or fantasies, persist.
Of the three main opera houses in Berlin,
this might be the richest, in every sense of the word.
It's the most financially endowed of the three.
Its season, while not the longest, certainly features the most...
expensive and impressive projects.
A lot has been said about Wagner's tetralogy
that Robert Lepage is staging in New York.
They're also beginning the tetralogy here
with The Rhine Gold, coproduced by La Scala in Milan.
A quick glance at the 2010-11 program reveals a splendid season
with many new productions. That's probably what sets apart
this house from the Deutsche Oper and the Komische Oper:
the great number of new productions
directed by some of the biggest names working nowadays
in the German or the international theater world.
- Is there a strong competition among Berlin opera houses?
- It's interesting. I'd say it's a healthy competition.
It's all related to the recent history of the city, to the fall of the Wall.
We musn't forget
that although there already was an opera company
in the Western part of Berlin in the early 20th century,
the Deutsche Oper was inaugurated only after they built the Wall.
The Staatsoper being in East Berlin,
West Berlin opera fans were suddenly deprived of all musical theater.
With the reunification and the fall of the Wall,
unavoidably, some issues were raised.
Even nowadays you can still feel this tension,
because the three houses are vying for pieces of the same pie.
They all get their financing, which is admittedly very generous,
from the municipal government.
So they have to share the same resources.
Even if the importance given to culture in this city
is almost unequalled in the world, those resources aren't infinite.
- So now we go to the Deutsche Oper?
- Absolutely. It's an amusing situation.
Now that the Staatsoper has moved West
to the Schillertheater,
it's almost next door to the Deutsche Oper,
which has been at the same address for nearly 50 years.
- Let's go! - OK. �