It already has the legendary Sunday Fischmarkt, the epic concert hall Elbphilharmonie and glorious city beach bar StrandPauli, and now Hamburg will become home to a brand-new, world-class opera house on the waterfront in HafenCity.
The opera house is set to become the next cultural hotspot in Germany’s second-largest city, which is already brimming with great things to do. If Hamburg wasn’t already on your travel bucket list, its latest addition will make you think again.
While the state-of-the-art venue will become the future residence of the Hamburg State Opera, the Hamburg Ballet and the Philharmonic State Orchestra, it will offer visitors more than just captivating live performances. Designed as a multi-faceted destination, the opera house will have layered rooftop gardens – open to the public, not just ticket-holders – with panoramic views over the River Elbe and the HafenCity. All in all, it’s shaping up to be the perfect spot to go for a stroll, grab a slice of Stollen (fruit bread), and sip on Helbing Kümmel (a local liquor made from caraway seeds) while taking in the splendour of Hamburg.
The opera house has been designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), which beat off multiple other architectural firms to win the contract. After a competitive process, an independent jury – made up of the City of Hamburg, the Kühne Foundation and external experts – unanimously chose BIG thanks to its ‘architecturally striking’ plans for a ‘welcoming space for both residents and visitors’, according to the Hamburg Tourism Board.
It’s not clear yet when the opera house will open its doors, but over the next two years, the design will be fine-tuned in close cooperation with the City of Hamburg, the foundation and the Hamburg State Opera.
As the Hamburg Tourism board said, when the opera house is ready to welcome visitors, the city ‘will further strengthen its reputation as a cultural metropolis’. And of course, this is the same city that helped launch The Beatles into global fame – and with its latest cultural landmark, it looks more than ready to kick off a new musical chapter.
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