Press Release | Gütersloh, 10/13/2025

Bertelsmann Brings Multimedia Puccini Exhibition to Gütersloh for the City’s Anniversary

• Bertelsmann congratulates Gütersloh on “200 Years of City Rights” with an internationally acclaimed Puccini exhibition
• Thomas Rabe: “Gütersloh has been Bertelsmann’s home for 190 years. We are delighted to make a cultural contribution to the anniversary.”
• Exhibition is open to the public from October 30 to January 4 in the foyer of Theater Gütersloh

Gütersloh, October 13, 2025 – To mark Gütersloh’s 200th anniversary as a city, Bertelsmann is bringing its internationally acclaimed exhibition “Opera Meets New Media – Puccini, Ricordi, and the Rise of the Modern Entertainment Industry” to Theater Gütersloh. Starting today, the theater’s façade is being wrapped with a large-scale image based on 3D artist Hadi Karimi’s digital rendering of Giacomo Puccini, specially created for the exhibition. The striking installation will serve as a visible preview of the elaborate multimedia exhibition.

The exhibition, featuring exhibits from Bertelsmann’s Milan-based Archivio Storico Ricordi and innovative AI-generated installations, will be on display in the foyer of Theater Gütersloh from October 30, 2025 to January 4, 2026. Admission is free of charge every Thursday to Sunday from 4 to 8 p.m., and on performance days starting one hour before the doors to the performance open. Previously shown at Bertelsmann Unter den Linden 1 in Berlin and at the Museo Teatrale alla Scala in Milan, “Opera Meets New Media” had already met with an enthusiastic public response, attracting 70,000 visitors.

As a companion event to the exhibition, Puccini’s opera “The Girl of the Golden West” will be performed at Theater Gütersloh on November 15. The performance is sponsored by Bertelsmann and presented in partnership with Kultur Räume Gütersloh.

Bertelsmann Chairman and CEO Thomas Rabe said: “Gütersloh has been home to Bertelsmann for exactly 190 years. We are delighted to celebrate ‘200 Years of City Rights’ together with all citizens and to make a cultural contribution to this special anniversary. Gütersloh and Bertelsmann share a long success story. We congratulate our hometown and wish everyone continued enjoyment of an anniversary year featuring more than 200 events.”

“Opera Meets New Media” explores the interplay between opera and media in the early 20th century, illustrating the unique fusion of artistic creativity and entrepreneurial spirit that characterized the collaboration between Giacomo Puccini and his publisher, Casa Ricordi. The exhibition also highlights how the emergence of new media at the time posed challenges for copyright protection and rights management.

The exhibition is made possible by the extensive holdings of Archivio Storico Ricordi, which include artifacts related to Puccini’s operas published by Ricordi, as well as letters, business records, composition registers, magazines, and many other historical documents. Archivio Storico Ricordi is one of the world’s most important music archives, preserving over 200 years of Italian opera history – including 7,800 handwritten scores, more than 31,000 letters, 6,000 photographs and magazines, and 10,000 libretti.

As custodian of this valuable cultural heritage, Bertelsmann is committed to its careful preservation. The company is digitizing the archive’s contents according to the highest modern standards, making thousands of documents, stage and costume designs, libretti, and business correspondence accessible online.

For more information, visit www.archivioricordi.com  .

About Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann is a media, services and education company with about 75,000 employees that operates in some 50 countries around the world. It includes the entertainment group RTL Group, the trade book publisher Penguin Random House, the music company BMG, the service provider Arvato Group, Bertelsmann Marketing Services, the Bertelsmann Education Group and Bertelsmann Investments, an international network of funds. The company generated revenues of €19 billion in the 2024 financial year. Bertelsmann stands for creativity and entrepreneurship. This combination enables first-class media offerings and innovative service solutions that inspire customers around the world.