"This is not our quality"

"This is not our quality"

328,100 people visited the national theater in 2018. This is the worst result since the opening of the musical theater in April 2013.

Hermann Schneider. Image: Volker Weihbold

With 328,100 visitors during the 2017/18 season, the Landestheater (musical theater, theater, Kammerspiele) had to publish yesterday the worst result since the opening of the musical theater in April 2013. Compared to the season 2016 / 17, productions attracted 11,780 fewer visitors. The sale of subscriptions also proves the slightest interest: 15,734 subscribers signify a fall in popularity among the target audience (2016/17: 16,361 subscribers).

"I am shameless, but the quality of our work is not," said the director of the Landestheater, Hermann Schneider, on request. With "La Traviata", "Carmen" and "Zauberflte", he lists the operas programmed by his predecessor Rainer Mennicken, all of which are "blockbusters". "This program was more popular, we proposed a larger repertoire with" Woman without shadow "," The Damnation of Faust "or" Death in Venice ", so we reached a respectable number," said Schneider. The second reason is that the hype around musical theater is "back to normal," said Schneider. In any case, the director ensures a balance between popular and demanding productions, "until now, my artistic direction will not change". Quality is decisive. Schneider: "We can not say: we do not care about quality – the main thing is that visitors come." Everything else is also a matter of affordability, as with guest singers. Schneider: "I can not go through international production with provincial singers."

Use of 81.79%

Financially, the personalities do not affect at the moment. Uwe Schmitz-Gielsdorf, the director of the provincial business district who is leaving this week, expects an increase in the number of cards to 9.87 million euros (9.55 million in 2016/17). Among other things, the increase in ticket prices dampened the weakness of the visit. The net profit per card was 30.09 euros (2016/11: 28.11 euros). With its own coverage of 24.6%, the Landestheater continues to be one of the European leaders. Capacity utilization deteriorated 2.1 points to 81.79%. What Schmitz-Gielsdorf also did during the separation: a balanced result for the year, despite budget cuts of 10% from the state and an additional subsidy of 1.4 million euros in real terms of State. The grant for the theater / orchestra in 2017/18 was 38.01 million euros. Schneider: "No one is asking you to take advantage of hospitals or universities." (P)

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