Posts Tagged ‘Theatre’

The Friedrichstadt Palast is one of the most famous of Berlin’s revue theatres and is located in the heart of the Mitte district of the city. Opening in 1867 the theatre has gone through various rebuilds and transitions and the current building dates back to 1984. The theatre hall houses 1895 people and boasts the largest stage in the world spanning a massive 2854 square metres. The space can even feature a pool with 140000 litres of water and an ice surface making it ideal for a host of performances.  As the change in entertainment changes with time, the theatre has also evolved and played host to some of entertainments biggest names as well as huge productions including huge fashion launches and award shows. The centre has a behind the scenes tour for visitors see their website for details. There’s also a very chic bar called La Diva which worth a visit to see the amazing décor alone.

Read the rest of this entry »

The thought of beer and sausages yesterday made me want to do another Munich story today. So thought I would talk about the National Theatre building which is on Max-Joseph Platz 2.  Used as an Opera House it has seating for 2100 people complete with a royal box and circular auditorium. The theatre is home to the Bavarian State Ballet and Bavarian State Opera who hold regular performances at the magnificent venue. It was destroyed in World War II bombing but rebuilt and the current building opened in 1963.  The opera house has had a huge list of world premiers including works by Wagner, Strauss to name just two.  For visitors not able to take in a show the theatre has hour long tours of the venue which happen most days at 2pm. It is a great chance to see one of the finest opera houses in the world so rich in history and tradition.

Since its opening by Queen Victoria on 29 March 1871 the Royal Albert Hall has played host to a multitude of different event s It has been estimated that the venue has been used for over 150,000 different events from Royal Gala performances to rock concerts. Some of the huge names in rock to perform the Royal Albert include The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Abba and Led Zeppelin and even some of the newer names like Muse, The Killers and Them Crooked Vultures.

The Royal Albert Hall is in Knightsbridge and only a short stroll from many of the other local attractions like Kensington Gardens and Harrods Department Store.

Although hard to depict in our photograph which we took at night the craftsmanship of the hall is magnificent. There are amazing mosaics frieze depicting The Triumph of Arts and Sciences around the rim of the hall. There are some 16 scenes. Many visitors are also interested in seeing the stones laid by Her Majesty Queen Victoria both as a foundation stone and at the opening of the hall, where she was too emotional to speak and left the opening remarks to her son Prince Edward the Prince of Wales. Interestingly the acoustics were pretty bad in the hall at opening and they didn’t get addressed properly for nearly 100 years in 1969.

Read the rest of this entry »

St Kilda is a seaside suburb of Melbourne Australia and is home to two of the city’s most iconic buildings Luna Park amusement park and the Palais Theatre. When built in 1927the theatre was one of the largest in the southern hemisphere and was used primarily for a picture theatre but today it is used for live performances hosting some of the world’s biggest names, they have included the likes of the Rolling Stones, Kiss, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and INXS who used the theatre in their Listen Like Thieves video clip. The building is one of Australia’s finest examples of Art Deco and has been placed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The building is planned to be restored to it’s former glory as part of a controversial redevelopment of the area surrounding the theatre. Read the rest of this entry »