She has been a wheelchair user for decades. The three wheelchair seats in the opera are in the stalls, row 20 on the far left. As usual, Ms Q. drove into the underground car park a little early "to have a drink beforehand". But that didn't happen, because the lift was out of order.

The technician had been called, she and another wheelchair user were told. Allegedly, one of the service staff was also stuck in the lift, says Ms Q. It was getting later and later. Then they were told they had to find their own way to the opera entrance. She had to meander through the underground car park to find another exit. "At the entrance to the opera we faced the same problem - only half a floor higher, because the lift was still broken."

So slowly she was getting quite nervous. Luckily, a young woman took the whole thing in hand: Shari Herschel, who ran the evening service at the opera. She told the GA: "It's really not nice to witness the direct impact that the failure of the lift in the front building has on visitors with physical disabilities. Of course, I took care of the visitors directly and personally on Wednesday."

Ms Q. says that Herschel pushed her wheelchair through the catacombs and then suggested that she put it next to the third row in the stalls. What both women underestimated: The slope is so steep that it is impossible to place a wheelchair there. Herschel did not let up and asked whether the wheelchair users could go to the theatre manager's box on a mezzanine floor. It was through "the chaos path through the catacombs back to the manager's box and to an emergency lift that only fits one person," recalls Ms Q. The next surprise: the door was too narrow. "You couldn't have an artistic director in a wheelchair in Bonn," says Ms Q. as she tells the story. Meanwhile, the clock was ticking. It was eight o'clock. Start of the performance.

Herschel learned that the lift was working again. For the wheelchair users, it was back to the foyer and then up to the wheelchair seats by lift. The evening started ten minutes late with the company eVolution Dance Theater from Rome. "For us it was natural to wait for both of them to start the performance," says Herschel.

When the performance was over and the wheelchair users wanted to make their way home, the lift was broken again. "The opera emptied, we stood there," says Ms Q. The other wheelchair user let herself and her wheelchair be carried down by the helpers. This was not possible for Mrs Q. for medical reasons. "I'll stand here," she said, "I would have waited here until the fire brigade came."

Her friends, who had been waiting for Ms Q. in the "Opera" restaurant, came by the deserted opera house to check on her. "What's actually going on if there's an emergency here," she asks, "no escape route, no nothing?" Eventually the technician came back.

Herschel told the GA: "I sincerely hope that the evening was not too negative an experience for those concerned in retrospect and that we will soon be able to welcome them back to our theatre in Bonn." Rüdiger Frings, Commercial Director, expressed his deep regret about this incident to the GA: "Unfortunately, technical defects can never be completely ruled out despite regular maintenance. We are working on solutions for such special situations."

Original text: Thomas Kliemann

Translation: Jean Lennox