Patrick Zielke threw himself fully into this new view of Ochs ⭐⭐ When the new opera house in Cologne opened in the 1950s, it was emblematic of West German reconstruction – cultural and physical – after World War Two. But the renovation of the theatre and its associated buildings, lasting nearly 14 years and with costs estimated at €1.5 billion, has been symptomatic of Germany’s less enviable recent record for going over budget and over time on large building projects. Still,