Theater St. Gallen is regarded as the oldest professional theatre still operating in Switzerland. After a first performance in 1801, Landammann Karl Müller-Friedberg founded a company in 1805 that laid the basis for opera, drama and dance. In 1857 the ensemble moved into Johann Christoph Kunkler's building on the Bohl, which opened with Mozart's Don Giovanni. The present house by Claude Paillard, whose plan is based on the hexagon, was inaugurated on 15 March 1968 with Beethoven's Fidelio and is a Swiss heritage site of national significance. After a complete renovation from 2020 to 2023 it reopened in October 2023; the main auditorium seats 741. The St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra plays for opera and musicals, and the theatre is known for musical premieres such as Frank Wildhorn's The Count of Monte Cristo.
The St. Gallen Theatre, opened in 1968 in Swiss post-war modernist style, is home to the St. Gallen Symphony — the unusual hexagonal floor plan is an architectural trademark.
At a glance
- Type
- Multi-genre theatre
- Location
- St. Gallen, Switzerland
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