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Cuvilliés Theater
The city’s hidden rococo theater
The Cuvilliés Theater is Munich's oldest and most beautiful opera house. Even though the auditorium gleams with its original 18th-century grandeur, it is the only remaining part of the theater. The opera house itself was relocated and rebuilt 50 years ago, which explains its hidden location in the Brunnenhof of the Residence.
Before 1945, the Cuvilliés Theater stood adjacent to the Residence, in the spot where the new Residence Theater building resides today. Commissioned by Elector Max Joseph III in 1751, the design of the opera house was assigned to Françoise Cuvilliés. The architect enjoyed a great reputation at that time. His work was in demand by many German royals and clerics after his successful completion of the interior of the Residence and Nymphenburg castle’s Amalienburg on behalf of the Munich court. Cuvilliés was a purveyor of Bavarian rococo, and the old Residence Theater was a stunning example of his mastery in this area. The auditorium, which still exists with its horseshoe-shaped floor plan, consists of four circles divided into boxes. According to the common 17th-century Italian model, the circles were an expression of the absolutist class society, and the audience members’ respective social status was marked by the box ornaments. The ground circle—where the city nobility used to be seated—is only discreetly adorned. The first circle—the piano nobile for the high nobility—boasts beautiful gold-plated carvings. The pillars of each box are supported by two figurines allegorizing the four seasons.
Flanking the Electoral Box, a couple wearing a floral headgear symbolizes Spring. The "Summer" couple at the third box—flanking the Electoral seating area—is crowned by grain ears.
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