National Theatre of Greece

The National Theatre ( Teatro Greco Ethniko Εθνικό Θέατρο ) is a theater in Athens. After several years of renovations and temporary stages at the end of 2009 it returned back to the old theater building at Agiou Konstantinou - Street.

Building

The decision to build a new theater, was made around 1880 by King George I.. Ernst Ziller was tasked with the design and execution. The facade of the Neorenaissancebaus is based on the ancient Athenians Hadrian's Library. In 1890 the building was completed, the expansion continued until 1900. From 1930-31, the building was rebuilt again by the stage designer and designer Kleovoulos Klonis.

Fire regulations and lack of space made ​​a big need for alterations, which also parts of the old material had to be demolished. After eight and a half years was the end of 2009, the renovated and expanded National Theatre was put back into operation.

Institution

Attempts to establish a large stage, there were already under King Otto. 1856, however, rejected the Parliament from the requested any moneys for it. Queen Amalie was in 1862 instead of a ball in the Great Hall of the castle perform theater, where the society ladies were allowed to play by yourself. Andreas Syngros eventually funded the establishment of the Municipal Theatre, the long the only major stage of the city was (apart from Municipal Theater of Piraeus ). 1939, the building at the former Ludwig (today Kotziaplatz ) was canceled.

The Royal Theatre was founded in 1901 and officially opened with three events as the Royal Theatre. The first director was Angelos Vlachos. In 1908 it went bankrupt and the building was rented for theatrical event.

After the conversion took place in 1932 to reopen as the National Theatre. 1941 debuted at the theater Dimitris Horn. Maria Callas played from August 27 to September 2, 1942 in the piece Tosca. Melina Mercouri was hired in 1944 for a short time at the theater where she was, however, considered to be awkward .. A special feature was in the 1960s that it had a professional choir.