Festhalle Pirmasens

With 780 seats, the Festhalle is the principal room for cultural events in Pirmasens, and the city's culture office programmes it from the Forum Alte Post a few streets away. The season mixes subscription theatre, cabaret and concerts with Euroclassic, the festival Pirmasens shares each autumn with Zweibrücken, Blieskastel and, across the French border, Bitche. It is also where touring opera companies play when they reach this Palatinate shoe-making town: Puccini's Turandot came in January 2008, Verdi's Otello in January 2012, both with chorus and orchestra on a floor that otherwise serves civic occasions.