SentryGlas Expressions decorative laminated glass used at Erfurt Theatre

The newly-constructed Erfurt Theatre in the historic city of Türingen, Germany, commissioned a new opera, Luther, for its opening in October 2003. A part of the opera score has been immortalised within SentryGlas Expressions decorative laminated glass so that music-lovers of the future will be reminded of the theatre´s glittering opening season.

The Luther score is composed of 16 unique images and carries the fine lines for over 40 m.

The Erfurt Theatre has a contemporary look, using a lot of laminated glass in the façade in dramatic contrast to the surrounding medieval architecture of this small city in Saxony (between Frankfurt and Dresden).

The enlarged score of Luther is laminated into a striking, 50 m-long (45 cm wide) counter top at the theatre´s cloakroom, where people check in their coats and hats. To see the whole score one has to walk along the counter. The counter-top is striking and the effect is good.

According to Flachglass, it used 16 pieces of laminated glass, 14 with a length of 2.4 m and two slightly smaller pieces at the two ends. As each glass panel displays a unique image, a different few bars form the opening libretto of Luther, this was an ideal application for SentryGlas Expressions.

The score is in black while the background is in translucent white. The glass for the project was supplied by Glas Wiedemann of Weissensee, Germany.

The main production challenge in this particular application included being able to hold fine lines of about 1 mm thick - the musical score lines - along the 50 m of the entire laminated glass counter top.

Screen printing would have been a lot more complicated and expensive because the pattern on each pane of glass is different and but equally because the quality of the fine music score lines achieved would have not been possible with screen printing.