The Opernhaus vorm Salztor (Opera house in front of the Salt Tower) was an opera house in Naumburg, then Saxe-Zeitz, that opened in 1701. The house was built during the regency of Moritz Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Zeitz, on his behalf. In 1716, it burned down and was not rebuilt. In the 15 years of its existence, at least 14 different operas and one play were performed there. One of them survived, Johann David Heinichen's Der glückliche Liebeswechsel oder Paris und Helena, and was revived in 2012 in a concert performance.
Background
The city of Naumburg had held a trade fair privilege from the emperor since the Middle Ages, which it made use of with the , held every year in June. Since Leipzig, 60 km away, also had such a privilege since 1669, the two cities were in competition. Leipzig had a functioning theatre for the entertainment of trade fair guests, the Oper am Brühl opened in 1693, in which operas were performed during three trade fair periods.
In order to increase the attractiveness of the Naumburg fair, Moritz Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Zeitz, in whose territory the town of Naumburg lay, had the opera house built. He only owned the so-called Residenzhaus and an official building, but had four plots of land requisitioned at the end of Neugasse near the Salztor in order to build an opera house.
Building
The opera house, opened in 1701, was about 27 metres long and 12 to 16.5 metres wide, thus the house may have accommodated about 400 people.
The building plans were probably made by the master builder , who was in the ducal service at the time. The house (in contrast to the Leipzig opera house, which was 10 metres longer) was built of masonry, had a basement and was equipped with various theatre machines.
On the Naumburg city map of 1701, the opera house can be seen as a cross-shaped building. Unfortunately, other depictions of the building no longer exist.
History
The opera house in front of the Salztor was ceremoniously opened on the afternoon of 28 June 1701 with the opera Orpheus und Euridice, possibly by Reinhold Keiser, "in front of all high princely lords". Other sources speak of an opening only in 1702. Opera performances in Naumburg were public, but were ordered, supervised and financed by the Duke. He also continued to own the house. Thus, unlike other civic operas of the time (for example Oper am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg or the Oper am Brühl), Naumburg took on a special role, as the opera house was not financed by citizens. Another difference between the Naumburg house and other princely theatres of the Baroque period was that the house was only used for performances during the Petri-und-Pauls-Messe, a trade fair named after Peter and Paul, around 29 June of each year. Like the Leipzig opera, performances were restricted to trade fair occasions. The Duke chose the composers of the operas to be performed and, as can be read in some biographies of the opera composers, moved to Naumburg with his entire court during the opera seasons. Some of the composers also wrote music for the ducal table before the opera performances.
The organisation of opera performances is rather poorly documented. The Naumburg-born composer Johann Theile, who had composed operas for the Hamburg opera, was in Naumburg around 1710, but there is only evidence of Theile acting as an intermediary in 1712 to Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, who was in Halle at the time to deliver the Duke's commission to compose the opera Valeria and could not direct the opera. Samuel Ernst Döbricht, the son-in-law of the founder of the Leipzig opera, Nicolaus Adam Strungk, is more likely to have been director. Döbricht delivered a message from the duke in Zeitz, dated 8 June 1709, to the ducal administrator in Naumburg, enclosing four keys for the opera house. In it, the Duke requested his representative to "inventory the machines and other things in the opera house" and then to hand over the keys to Döbricht. This handover initiated a guest performance by the Leipzig opera company, which was then to culminate in the performance of Johann David Heinichen's Olympia Vendicata at fair time in 1709. Also in 1711, Döbricht is mentioned in the personnel files of the Zeitz court orchestra as composer. Johann Christoph Frauendorff is also considered for the direction of the opera in the years 1704 to 1716, as he was a Saxe-Zeitz councillor and held the office of mayor of Naumburg in rotation for two years; he also wrote librettos for Georg Caspar Schürmann's operas. Whether the musicians of the Zeitz court chapel, which had been led by Theile's pupil since 1695, were used for the Naumburg opera performances or whether other musicians played is not clearly established.