Studio Theatre Belvedere

Address
Schloss Belvedere (Wagner House)
99425 Weimar

City map with adress Belvedere (PDF, German)

Opening hours
Monday to Friday 7.00 am – 10.00 pm
Saturday  8.00 am – 6.00 pm (access with chip card)
Sunday  8.00 am – 6.00 pm (access with chip card)

The following activities take place at the Studio Theatre Belvedere
Rehearsals and performances of the opera school of the Department of Vocal Studies and Theatre

History of the studio theatre

The Weimar Opera School has its own studio theatre, which is unusual for Music universities in Germany. It is located in the idyllic park grounds of Belvedere Palace, above the city, in the immediate vicinity of the Beethoven House, where all other subjects of vocal training are taught. All scenic instruction and performances take place in this theatre, so that from the first day of their training, students can develop a feeling for the stage and an ever-present auditorium.

The theatre has around 140 seats. A retractable orchestra pit can accommodate an orchestra of about the size of Mozart's orchestras. The auditorium can be flexibly configured using adjustable lifting platforms, enabling different levels of communication. The 10 x 10-metre stage has a turntable, numerous fly bars and modern lighting, sound and video technology.

Today's studio theatre was built more than 170 years ago, initially as a workshop shed for the ducal family's carts and equipment. From 1929, the building housed a gymnasium for the barracks of the national police, who were accommodated in the Kavalierhäuser Belvedere for the new Free State of Thuringia. During the Second World War, the Nazis under Gauleiter Sauckel used the building as a rehearsal room for the ‘Reichsmusikzug der HJ - Gebietszug Thüringen’ from 1941.

After the war, the building was finally converted into a theatre in 1950. As early as 1947, in order to establish an exemplary training programme in the Soviet occupation zone, General Kolesnitschenko had ordered the ‘German Theatre Institute Weimar’ to set up its base at the Belvedere. However, this training moved to Leipzig as early as 1952, so that the studio theatre became a guest performance stage, including as a chamber stage for the German National Theatre in Weimar.

After decades of increasing decline, the studio theatre underwent extensive renovation from 1994 onwards, following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Since then, it has been used primarily by the Department of Vocal Studies and Theatre at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar as a training and performance stage.