Art: ROCOCO IN MUNICH

I TREMBLE when I look forward to the reopening of the

Residenztheater,” said Rococo Theater Expert Dr. Giinther Schone, director of Munich’s Theater Museum. “I am afraid that the new gold leaf will shine too brightly and the walls will lack dust, the patina of age.” But after two years of detailed restoration, the interior of Munich’s rococo Residenztheater last week looked very much like the original—right down to the patina of age.

The jewel-box theater was built during the reign of Elector Maximilian III Joseph (1745-77), of linden wood from the forests of Murnau, following the design of French Architect Francois de Cuvillies. In 1781 it was the scene of the first performance of Mozart’s Idomeneo. But early in the 19th century the Bavarian court lost its taste for curlicues, and for a time the rococo theater served merely as storage place for scenery.

About 1830, workmen took down the theater’s interior, but some foresighted official, who knew that the world’s taste ebbs and flows, had each piece carefully numbered. In 1857 the tide turned, and the interior was easily reassembled. Twenty-six years later it became the first German theater equipped with Edison’s new invention, electric lighting, and in 1896 it boasted the first revolving stage outside Japan.

In 1943, the theater’s ornamental caryatids, palmettes, trellises, cartouches and balustrades were painstakingly removed and tucked away again, safe from falling bombs. Local Nazis deemed the mothballing a show of defeatism, called it a crime as bad as flight from the enemy—until Allied bombers wrecked the dismantled building in a March 1944 raid. After the war, with a new, big Festival Theater built on its old Residenz site, the administration chose a neighboring spot in the former royal Bavarian Residence, and set about rebuilding the rococo house.

A cement shell went up. The interior pieces were returned and artisans began a careful job of restoration. Damaged pieces were repaired, regilded where necessary, and, to match the old tints, rubbed by hand until the dull undercoating peeked artistically through. Then they were set into place again, using the 1830 numbers. Cost: more than $1,000,000.

One day this summer, with the performance of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, the Residenztheater was born anew, and with it, Munich launched a summerlong celebration of its Sooth anniversary. Last week, the Bavarian State Opera performed Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio as part of Munich’s opera festival. Said Residenztheater Restorer Sepp Huf: “We wanted to re-create the warm, glowing, golden tones of the 18th century as a present to the people of Munich on the occasion of their town’s Sooth birthday. I think they will appreciate it.”