Resurrection on Unter den Linden

The grand reopening of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden after a seven year refurbishment was undeniably an event of the highest importance in the cultural life of Berlin, but it was also only the latest in a long series of resurrections. Berlin’s oldest opera house, which opened officially in 1743, was first destroyed and restored a century later when it was gutted by fire. During the Second World War it was damaged by a bomb and quickly repaired, only to be almost completely destroyed in an air raid three years later. Although the East German authorities of the post-war era cleared away the ruined shells of many buildings, the opera house survived and was restored in 1955 to a version of its neo-classical splendour.  

When the Staatsoper Unter den Linden closed its doors in 2010, it was due to nothing so drastic as bombs or fire, just the…