The famed Berlin State Opera House is scheduled to undergo a major renovation beginning in 2010, officials announced Monday.
The opera's acclaimed music director and conductor Daniel Barenboim, staffers and officials have long called for modernization of the venerable facility.
Staatsoper officials told reporters Monday that a planned three-year renovation will be extensive.
The project is expected to cost approximately $200 million, with funding coming from Germany's federal and Berlin's state governments, as well as a "friends of the opera house" association.
"We expect that we will restore the building from September 2010," said general manager Peter Mussbach. "Everything must be taken out — this is a gigantic task.
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Opera officials are in the process of determining an alternate venue where they can stage productions while the Staatsoper building on Unter den Linden Boulevard is under renovation.
It has been about 20 years since the Staatsoper's last revamp.
The opera house opened in 1742 with a performance of Carl Heinrich Graun's Cleopatra e Cesare.
A fire destroyed the original facility in 1843, but construction began on a new building immediately and it reopened the following year.
During the Second World War, the Staatsoper was again destroyed after being bombed twice. This rebuilding task took much longer than the first.
The facility eventually reopened in what was then East Germany in 1955.
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Keywords: Opera House, State Opera, Berlin State, Berlin State Opera, State Opera House
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