THEATER BONN

The theatre of the Federal City of Bonn produces operas, musicals and concerts as well as spoken theatre and hosts international dance events. The theatre operates three stages, two of them located in the opera house at the banks of the river Rhine and the third located in Bad Godesberg, a district of Bonn.

Since 2013 Dr. Bernhard Helmich is the general manager and artistic director of the Theater Bonn. Andreas K. W. Meyer is the director of the opera and Jens Groß the theater director.

Having once been the German capital, Bonn is still the location of many international institutions. Today, as then the function of the Theater Bonn is to represent the city internationally. This means that a lot of international artists work at the Theater Bonn, that many international cooperations with other cultural institutions are carried out, and that the theater regularly shows guest performances abroad.

General Director： Bernhard Helmich

Bernhard Helmich was born on the 13th of August 1962 in Idar-Oberstein. After his A-level exams (Abitur) in Wuppertal, he studied stage directing with Götz Friedrich in Hamburg as well as music and literature in Cologne and Hamburg. In 1989 he completed his doctorate with a thesis on the director Hanns Niedecken-Gebhard, who developed a new directing style in opera including expressive dance and from 1936 on directed big National Socialist festivals.

Further stations in his career:

1989-1992 - Bernhard Helmich worked in Taipei/Taiwan at the national theatre as well as in the cultural department of the government, where he was responsible for international contacts and international guest performances. There he also directed productions at the opera studio of the national theatre and in theatres in Singapour. Bernhard Helmich also taught at the Fu Jen Catholic University.
1992-1993 - Dramaturge for music theatre and press officer at the theatre in Trier.
1993-1995 - Dramaturge for music theatre at the theatre in Bielefeld.
1995-2001 - Dramaturge and personal consultant of the General Manager John Dew at the theatre in Dortmund. Dramaturgical supervision of a series of rarely performed French productions from the 19th century, most of which were documented on CD and DVD and won a series of prestigious record awards.
2001-2005 - Head of dramaturgy and personal consultant of the General Manager Henri Maier in Leipzig. From 2003 on he was also the manager of „Musikalische Komödie“, Leipzig´s  operetta and musical theatre, and the “Robert Schumann Philharmonie”
2006-2013 - General Manager of the theatre in Chemnitz. During this period the theatre received numerous prizes and awards such as the German theatre prize „Der Faust“ or the prize of the association of the German stage and media publishing houses.

Since August 2013 Bernhard Helmich is General Manager of the theatre in Bonn. During this period, the theatre’s budget was reduced by 4,5 million euros. At the same time, both the number of performances and the revenues increased substantially, while artistic quality was maintained. In recent years, the Bonn Opera has collaborated with the ENO, the Vienna State Opera, the Opéra de Monte Carlo, opera houses in Bilbao and Linz and numerous other national and international opera houses. Thanks to successful networking with the opera houses in Dusseldorf and Dortmund, it has been possible to stage a large-scale family opera annually as a world premiere. The main focus has been on Verdi’s early works, German opera from the first half of the 20th century as well as contemporary works.