Where’s the performance?

Susanne knows everything there is to know about the opera house. And she also knows how to convey this information to the young participants on the family tour, which Gustavo has joined. Namely, by passing the ball to them – figuratively speaking. So, before we get into the history of the building’s construction, let’s introduce a couple of superstars who usually play to a completely different set of rules: “Messi and Ronaldo have also stood right where you’re standing now. Wow!’ says Susanne in the foyer of the opera house, and everyone pricks up their ears. ‘Yes, yes, they’ve come up these stairs.’ Because before the FIFA Gala moved to the Kongresshaus and later abroad, the world’s best footballers were honoured here. Lionel Messi stood on this stage. Cristiano Ronaldo too. That really hits home. Gustavo’s jaw drops. We’re following in Messi’s footsteps.

And yet there’d be plenty to talk about even without football. For example, the fact that the Zurich Opera House was actually meant to have been built in Kraków. When the former theatre on Hirschengraben burnt down on New Year’s Eve 1889/90, a replacement had to be found quickly. It was fortunate, then, that the Viennese architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer happened to have a largely finished theatre design lying in a drawer. They’d entered it into a competition in Kraków – and lost. The design was adapted for Zurich, and just 16 months after construction began, the new ‘Stadttheater’ stood ready. Complete with composers’ busts and ornamentation, chandeliers and boxes. Not bad at all. But architectural history has a tough time competing with Messi in the eyes of an eight-year-old.

Fortunately, Susanne has another buzzword up her sleeve besides football: gold. Real gold. That’s what the large chandelier – which actually dates back to 1891 – above the auditorium is coated with. The dimensions are impressive. Especially in directions you wouldn’t expect: the stage is almost as deep as the auditorium, which seats around a thousand smartly dressed opera-goers. And above them, the ceiling soars so high that you automatically tilt your head back.

Next to the stage: loads of equipment, loads of buttons that can be used to bring all sorts of people into the spotlight.

And then we head downstairs. We move into the annexe, which the people of Zurich have rather unflatteringly dubbed ‘Fleischchäääs’, and, after a quick visit to the cloakrooms, the tailor’s workshop and one of the ballet studios, we descend to the fourth basement level. Here we find ourselves below the surface of Lake Zurich. ‘Do you ever see fish down here?’ asks a child. No. Instead, this is where the city’s tallest lift is located: 7.95 metres high, with a load capacity of five tonnes. You could fit whole chalets in there. Or, to use a unit of measurement more suited to this tour: about 70 ‘Messis’. The children are impressed.

What’s almost even better, though, is everything else lying about down here. Stuffed animals, liturgical headdresses and lances. And a huge remote-controlled tortoise. It’s from Johann Strauss’s *Die Fledermaus*, sits there on an island and has a remarkable feature: its shell can be opened up. Beneath it is – no joke, no gag, no joke – a champagne bar. Real champagne? Of course not. Although: perhaps at the final performance.

Incidentally, we learn that the scale of the opera house far exceeds even that of these two buildings on Sechseläutenplatz. A large proportion of the costumes and props are stored in Oerlikon; singers rehearse at Escher-Wyss-Platz, and the orchestra at Kreuzplatz. Around 800 people work to ensure that, for a few hours in the evening, everything looks as though it were quite simple to stage *The Magic Flute* and stride through Sarastro’s palace.

When we find ourselves back on Sechseläutenplatz after a good hour, Gustavo has seen lances and spears, bird costumes, the Queen of the Night, a palace, a gigantic lift and a tortoise with a built-in champagne bar. “When does the performance start?” he asks.
He can hardly believe that’s all there is to it. Apparently, for him, all of that was just the prelude. He’s yet to see what will become of all this crazy paraphernalia when the curtain rises. Another time.

Family tours take place every Wednesday afternoon. In addition, the opera house offers, amongst other things, guided tours of the stage technology, the make-up department and the costume department.