Dresden – Where Opera Never Ends Let’S Go to the Museum
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marketing.dresden.de Dresden Info Service Spring 2013 Dresden – Where Opera never ends Let’s go to the museum Dear friend of Dresden, Dresden sets new tourism record: in 2012, for the first time Dresden. Let’s go to the museum. 2 ever, overnight stays in Dresden broke the 4 million barrier. The Dresden State Art Collections – One reason for this is the top spot achieved by the city’s a world-class museum association. 3 hotels in the recent Trivago.com Reputation Ranking global survey: Dresden’s hotels have the most satisfied customers Richard Wagner’s 200th birthday in the world! And large numbers of these visitors discovered celebrated in museums . .4 for themselves the immeasurable riches in the city‘s 50 and Magnificent and brilliant. The SKD celebrate more museums. The State Art Collections alone welcomed two major openings in 2013 . 6 more than 2.5 million visitors in 2012. More than enough reason then for us to set out on the trail of Dresden’s leg- Oldest, youngest, largest, smallest – endary museums, where the passion for collecting and Dresden’s superlative museums . 7 displaying things of beauty is strikingly obvious, as are Don’t miss these! Exhibition highlights in 2013. .9 their ambitious, ground-breaking contemporary exhibition projects. The Dresden City Museum, the Book Museum Please touch the exhibits! in the Saxon State and University Library (SLUB), and the Interactive museum experience . 11 Wagner-Stätten-Graupa complete the harmonious circle of Dresden’s vibrant tradition. The 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner’s birth will be celebrated here, as it will be in the Semper Opera House, the Frauenkirche and concert Legal notice . 12 halls throughout the city. Touristic contacts and offers . 12 Accommodation statistics Dresden 2012 Further information. 12 Download Trivago listing Download Dresden. Where opera never ends – Highlight Info 2013 www.dresden.de Yours, with best wishes from Dresden, Dresden Marketing GmbH Dresden. Let’s go to the museum A visit to a museum is a must for today‘s visitors on a city break. However, museums were a fashion- able destination in Dresden long before the modern era. Hundreds of years ago, the Kunstkammer, the Chamber of Arts of the ruling house of Saxony, kept a register of visitors, for whom viewing the princely collections was something of an event. Records show that in 1650 there were 400 external visitors to the Kunstkammer, although most of these were guests at the Saxon court. Later, August the Strong opened his collections for limited public access – and an entrance fee was charged! He is thus regarded as the founder of modern public museums. Today, the Dresden museums are a top attraction for both residents of the city and visitors from around the globe. World of experience for the young – the children’s studio in the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden Spring 201 3 | Dresden Info Service | [email protected] 2 The Dresden State Art Collections – a world-class museum association August the Strong would surely be delighted with the museums of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections – SKD). This passionate collector who ruled both as Elector of Saxony from 1694, and as King August II of Poland from 1697, until his death in 1733, made it his life’s work to transform Dresden, his royal seat and capital city, into a magnificent European metropolis. The expansion and restructuring of the Kunstkammer, founded in 1560 in the Residenz- schloss (Royal Palace) by Elector August I of Saxony, was an integral part of this ambitious project. During his two-year Grand Tour, beginning in 1687, August the Strong was greatly impressed by what he saw in royal courts and artistic centres in France, Italy, Spain and Austria, which were to have a considerable/lasting influence on him. Above all, the Uffizi in Florence and the Schatz- kammer in Vienna served as models for his later concepts for the Dresden collections. From his accession as Elector of Saxony, he systematically developed and extended the collections, and even made his own sketches of plans for the museum. Under the direction of August the Strong, the Kunstkammer holdings were increasingly sub-divid- ed into separate specialised collections – including the Grünes Gewölbe (Green Vault), Skulpturen- sammlung (Sculpture Collection), and the Kupferstich-Kabinett (Cabinet of Prints and Drawings). Even more significantly, August did not collect purely for himself alone, but also allowed (at first still limited) access to selected members of the public to share his pleasure. His son and successor, Friedrich August II , who reigned from 1733 to 1763 (concurrently also as King August III of Poland), was principally responsible for the development of the Gemäldegalerie, which by the middle of the 18th century had become one of the most important painting galleries in Europe. Today, a total of 14 museums, the Kunstbibliothek (Art Library), the Gerhard Richter Archiv and the Kunst- fonds (Art Fund) comprise the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, one of the most important museum associations in the world. However, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden has no intention of resting on its laurels. As their Director General, Hartwig Fischer, says, ‘The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden are an extraordinary asset to the Free State of Saxony: many people come here just because of these museums. But Saxony has by no means exhausted its full potential. We can make it possible for many more people to share what we have here; they can of course still come here in person, but we can also go to them, using electronic media to create new kinds of access. This is the future Art lover and pioneer: for the great European museums.‘ today, the Dresden State The museums of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen can be explored with ease on your smartphone – Art Collections still bear the mark of August the new SKD mobile website is available at http://m.skd.museum in German and English versions. the Strong. Spring 201 3 | Dresden Info Service | [email protected] 3 The standard SKD website www.skd.museum (German) and www.skd.museum/en (English) language options have been extended to include versions in Russian, Italian, Czech and Polish. Topical tips Virtual panoramic tour of the Historisches Grünes Gewölbe (Historic Green Vault), Türckische Cammer (Turkish Chamber), Porzellansammlung (Porcelain Collection), and Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Old Masters Gallery) at www.skd.museum To mark the 450th anniversary of the SKD in 2010, transcriptions of four of the seven surviving inventories of the Saxon electoral Kunstkammer in Dresden (dated 1587, 1619, 1640 and 1741) were published by http://verlag.sandstein.de The museums of the SKD offer an extensive range of guided public tours. Bookings can be made at the museums or: by telephone +49 (0)351 – 49 14 2000 and online at [email protected] www.skd.museum/en Richard Wagner’s 200th birthday celebrated in museums Throughout the Richard Wagner Festival Year 2013, many institutions in Dresden (including the Semper Opera House, the Dresden Philharmonia and the Staatskapelle Dresden, among others) are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of the composer and court musical director with a series of special themed events under the banner ‘Where Wagner evolved into WAGNER’. A major component of the ‘Richard Wagner in Dresden – Mythos und Geschichte’ (‘Richard Wagner in Dresden – Myth and History’) exhibition in the Stadtmuseum (City Museum), which runs from 27 April until 25 August, is a topographical focus on sites associated with Wagner, his places of residence and private retreats. Prominent figures in Dresden’s intellectual and creative circles, as well as politicians and decision-makers of the time with links to Wagner are also highlighted. Wagner’s time in Dresden culminated in his participation in the May Uprising of 1849: the failure of this revolution forced his hasty flight into exile in Switzerland. The numerous myths surround- ing the chequered history of the reception of the composer‘s music in the 20th and 21st centuries is examined in another section of the exhibition. Appropriated by the National Socialists for its Richard Wagner wrote anti-Semitic tendencies and Germanic cult elements, it was, in contrast, also integrated in the ‘Lohengrin’ here in 1846. Today, the Lohengrin- socialist cultural heritage policies of the GDR due to its profession of social reform and progressive haus is one of the ideas. Even today, the myths surrounding Richard Wagner continue to be pervasive. Richard-Wagner-Stätten, Pirna-Graupa. Spring 201 3 | Dresden Info Service | [email protected] 4 Manuscripts by Wagner are displayed in the Schatzkammer (Treasure Room) of the Saxon State and University Library (SLUB), Dresden. The autograph score of Wagner‘s oratorio ‘Das Liebesmahl der Apostel’ (The Love Feast of the Apostles) can be viewed, as too can his household account books, in which, for example, details of Wagner’s well-stocked Dresden wine cellar can be discov- ered. In addition, historic maps and other documents make it possible to form a clear picture of Wagner’s life and work, and his surroundings. Wagner spent the summer of 1846 on a country estate in Graupa, today part of Pirna. The Lohengrinhaus, which is only 500 metres outside the Dresden city boundary, is the only surviving authentically preserved Wagner residence in eastern Germany, and – particularly during the closure of Haus Wahnfried in Bayreuth for renovation – a mecca for Wagnerians from all over the world. A small exhibition here deals with the creation of Wagner‘s opera ‘Lohengrin’, a substantial part of which was composed in the house. Only a few metres away, in the baroque Jagdschloss (Hunting Lodge) Graupa, the new Richard Wagner Museum, opened in January, presents the composer‘s life and work in Saxony.