Cologne Opera | 1.5 billion later: The Cologne Opera is back

Lasers, fog and riot: The new stage technology at the Cologne Opera is supposed to achieve a lot. Photo: IMAGO/Panama Pictures At a large folk festival at the weekend, Cologne celebrated the return of its theaters from exile on the right bank of the Rhine to the old venue on Offenbachplatz in the city center with music, Kölsch and sunshine. Opera singers belted out arias across the square. Thousands sang Cologne songs together with the Cäcilia men's choir. The Moka Efti Orchestra from the cult series “Babylon Berlin” entertained the masses with jazz and ragtime. Visitors endured long queues with waiting times of more than 90 minutes in order to be able to see the opera from the inside.

It was not a foregone conclusion that the reopening of the four venues - the opera, two theaters and the new children's opera - on Offenbachplatz would be very well received. There is great anger in the city about the long construction period and the explosion in costs. Work began in 2013 and was scheduled to be completed in 2015. 285 million euros were budgeted for the basic renovation of the listed opera house, which opened in 1957. 14 years later, including the costs for the replacement venues, the bill is around 1.5 billion euros.

A Cologne popular song from the post-war period says: "Who should pay for it, who ordered it, who has so much pink, who has so much money?" The answer to the opera financial scandal is clear: the citizens, regardless of whether they are opera and theater fans or not.

The hole in Cologne's coffers this year is almost 450 million euros, out of a total budget of 6.8 billion. Mayor Torsten Burmester (SPD) has placed the red pen primarily in the social area, in promoting the independent cultural scene and in the Rose Monday procession. According to experts, Cologne's finances illustrate the tension between homemade risks worth millions and the structural underfinancing of municipalities by the federal and state governments.

Despite all the celebratory mood, the financial scandal was not ignored.

Despite all the celebratory mood, the financial scandal was not ignored. Andrea Trombelli stood as an individual activist in front of the opera house all Saturday and pointed out the misery with protest posters. "I'm the pimple at the opening party," she said. The millions for the renovation would have been better used for other projects such as homeless assistance, housing construction or women's shelters. “Many people stop, talk to me, think my action is right and courageous,” Trombelli said happily.

Conversations among visitors always turn to the architectural style of the Cologne star architect Wilhelm Riphahn. According to Trombelli, if she had had her way, the complex – called the “Tomb of the Unknown Intendant” – would have been demolished and replaced with a new building. For a man in a very colorful striped T-shirt, however, the Riphahn building is an “architecturally significant, important building and therefore worth preserving.”

Cologne is familiar with demolition. The old opera with 1,800 seats, which opened brilliantly in 1902 after just two years of construction, was hit by many a bomb during the Second World War. It was demolished in 1958 - like a large part of the old buildings in Cologne's city center in the post-war period - to make way for urban redevelopment.

The scandal over opera costs is not a blip. Public construction projects in Cologne are regularly delayed for decades and consume many times the planned budget. A mixture of poor planning, incompetence, bureaucracy and cliques is believed to be the cause. Trombelli calls for the opera renovation disaster to be dealt with in order to learn lessons for future major projects. But she also says: "That won't happen."

The stages of the city of Cologne will be officially opened with a festive gala next Thursday. At the inauguration of the Riphahn Opera in 1957, Federal Chancellor and Cologne's former mayor Konrad Adenauer did the honors. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor Friedrich Merz and North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst will not attend the ceremony in Cologne - although they were invited.

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