Staatstheater Darmstadt

The Darmstadt State Theatre is a four-division house with opera, dance, drama and concerts. The intendant since the 2014/15 season is Karsten Wiegand. The theatre is sponsored by the state of Hesse, with the city of Darmstadt participating with an operating-cost subsidy of 48 %. In the 2010/2011 season the State Theatre celebrated its 179th season as well as the jubilee of 300 years of theatre tradition in Darmstadt. The State Theatre emerged from the former Landestheater, which looks back on a long tradition in the grand-ducal, formerly landgravial residence of Darmstadt. The city's long theatre tradition began in the 17th century, when knightly games and sung ballets were part of the landgraves' courtly ceremonial. At the wish of Landgravine Elisabeth Dorothea, the first theatre building arose in Darmstadt: the riding hall at the Herrngarten was converted into a "Komödienhaus", and in 1711 — after a further rebuild by the architect Louis Rémy de La Fosse — it opened with Christoph Graupner's opera Telemach. This Baroque theatre flourished only briefly, however, as financial crises largely brought operations to a standstill.