The following summary is a news extract made by Blumano via an English translation of the articles from lokalkompass.de and Deutsche Oper am Rhein regarding this story:
On April 5th 2019, the Theater Duisberg – Deutsche Oper am Rhein (German Opera on the Rhine) in Duisburg, Germany was accidentally flooded by 80,000 litres of water during routine maintenance work on the sprinkler system. The sprinkler system was accidentally triggered and flooded the theatre while submerging the stage area in water. The lower stage and technical lifts also suffered damage due to the flooding. However, the full extent of the damage is still being assessed and the theatre has had to cancel all of the performances that were scheduled in April and cancel rehearsals for shows scheduled at the beginning of May 2019.
The water from the flood has been removed from the theatre by the fire brigade and an independent drying company. Yet for safety reasons, the power to the building was shut down at the time in order to ensure safety on the ground for the fire brigade.
On the Deutsche Oper am Rhein website, theatre representatives stated that due to the damage it is «unclear» at the moment when the theatre will go back into operation. They’ve also said that the evaluation of the damage caused by the flood is still not complete.
In the meantime, the operators of the theatre are looking into alternative options for the future performances they had scheduled in the following weeks and have given refunds to ticket buyers for the performances that had to be cancelled.
[Local Compas Duisburg – original article]
[Deutsche Oper am Rhein – original article]
[Pictures – Local Compass Duisburg/City of Duisburg]
