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He is probably the most famous playboy of all time: Don Giovanni. According to his servant Leporello, he has seduced 1,003 women in Spain alone. But who is Don Giovanni really? “Chi son io tu non saprai”, seems to be his answer to Donna Anna at the start of the opera, after he has tried to win her over by force. “You’ll never know who I am.” Indeed, his character defies any precise definition; he always remains changeable and unpredictable. Because Don Giovanni is a character without any consciousness. He is the principle that raises human questions about good and evil, desire and duty, transgression and punishment.

Carmen is independent and won’t let anyone take her freedom. She makes her own decisions - nobody else! Carmen loves life. She lives entirely in the present, not in the past or the future. Carmen’s love has wings: when she loves someone, it is for precisely that moment and not for all eternity - her interest might turn to someone else the very next moment. Carmen quarrels and fights, she doesn’t shy away from the criminal milieu either, because property or standards of any kind don’t exist for her.

“Superheldennormalos” is the first community opera to be staged at the Kinderoper Köln. Around 100 children and young people between the ages of ten and eighteen, from, among other things, the ENBE youth centre, Holweide comprehensive school, Helios comprehensive school and Katharina-Henoth comprehensive school, developed the production in various workshops under professional artistic and educational guidance. Starting with the development of the theme and the writing of the libretto to the composition of the music and the creation of the stage and costume design, the “baton” was passed from one workshop group to the next. Finally, children and young people from the Dellbrücker Mauspfad comprehensive school, the Willy Brandt comprehensive school and the Kölner Domchor will also perform on stage alongside the singers of Oper Köln’s International Opera Studio and, accompanied by the Gürzenich Orchestra, will work on the opera with a professional production team. The result is “Superheldennormalos” – an opera about the search for identity, about the fears, wishes and dreams of children and young people, which adults are also likely to relate to. Tamina is out of her depth. At home, she has to babysit her siblings, maintain calm and keep on top of the ever-growing chaos. Though all she wants to do is write, retreat into her own four walls and give free rein to her creativity ... Max struggles every week at football training, where he is regularly picked on by the coach and his team-mates. Nevertheless, Max has a dream: he wants to become a designer and hold his own fashion show. Sammy longs to just be a child again, to feel safe, to dream. She is being drawn deeper and deeper into the pit of depression. Yet all she wants is for everything to be the way it used to be. Wisi spends most of her day looking after other people. And there’s so much to do. There’s the grandma she has to help across the road, the dog that has run away. And then there are Tamina, Max and Sammy, to whom she would like to be more of a friend. Because Wisi has a special gift: she can read people’s feelings. However, at the superhero workshop she learns an important lesson about herself. To direct this special project, which is produced in cooperation with the COMEDIA Theatre Cologne and the Rheinische Musikschule Köln, we have been able to recruit Manuel Moser, who has been head of the department of theatre for young audiences at COMEDIA since 2019. The general musical direction is in the hands of Rainer Mühlbach, director of the International Opera Studio since 2012/13 and musical director of the Kinderoper Köln. A production of the Kinderoper Köln in cooperation with the COMEDIA Theatre and the Rheinische Musikschule Köln.

Eine junge Frau, die von ihrem Bruder mit dessen Freund verheiratet wird, greift zum Messer, als der Bräutigam sich ihr in der Hochzeitsnacht nähern will. Im blutigen Nachthemd erscheint sie unter den Hochzeitsgästen – und rührt deren Herzen: Sie vermittelt dabei den alle ergreifenden Eindruck, die Stimme des größten Feindes ihres Bruders zu hören, den sie zu lieben scheint, und glaubt – offenbar dem Wahnsinn verfallen – nun Hochzeit mit ihm zu feiern.

The Principality of Silistria is highly coveted. Two European countries are vying for a trade agreement: Hungary and Turkey. But Silistria only wants to choose one partner. While the Hungarian ambassador Count Géza von Tököli is already courting the favour of the Silistrian Princess Petra, everyone is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Turkish ambassador. The latter’s appearance ultimately exceeds all expectations because, as it turns out, Turkey’s diplomat is a woman: Dschilli Bey! Gender clichés and cultural prejudices are now turned upside down and thoroughly shaken up. A competitive struggle full of intrigue, mistaken identities and surprising twists and turns ensues. Who comes out on top? See for yourself!

How far would you go for your ideals? The French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil spent her brief 34 years of life constantly pushing her personal limits. A strong will that was constantly subjected to failure. Born in 1909 into an upper middle-class Jewish family in France, Simone Weil first studied philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris - as the only woman alongside Simone de Beauvoir - and then worked as a teacher. However, she soon quit her job to work as a labourer in an electrical factory and experience the living conditions of the working class first-hand. But physically she was unable to take the strain. Her endeavours to fight on the side of the Republic in the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and to travel from England to France to fight against the Germans in 1942 also failed. Out of solidarity with the victims of the Second World War, Simone Weil finally rejected all food and died of hunger and heart failure in 1943. With “La passion de Simone”, the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who died in 2023, has erected a monument to her. The result is one of Saariaho’s most personal works. She herself described “La passion de Simone” as her musical testament. This is now the third collaboration with the French-Lebanese author Amin Maalouf, which began with “L’amour de loin”. The cooperation with the American opera director Peter Sellars, who staged the world premiere of “La passion de Simone” in November 2006 as part of his New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna, has also left its mark on this work. The oratorio for solo soprano, choir and orchestra consists of 15 stations that illuminate Simone Weil’s life and thoughts. The music features Saariaho’s typical impressionistic soundscapes, sometimes dramatically intensified by surprising bursts of percussion. During her lifetime, Saariaho herself argued in favour of performing the work scenically. “La passion de Simone” is now being shown at Oper Köln in cooperation with the Kölner Philharmonie’s “Acht Brücken” festival. The production is to be directed by the newcomer Friederike Blum, who received the Götz Friedrich Prize from Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2023 for her work “Tri Sestry” at the Hagen Theatre. Together with the stage and costume designer Lisa Kruse, she explores the spirit of Simone Weil and invites us to immerse ourselves in her life and thoughts. Christian Karlsen, a specialist in contemporary music theatre and artistic director at the Kaija Saariaho Festival in The Hague, has been engaged to conduct.

Astor Piazzolla was the king of Argentinian tango nuevo. From the 1950s onwards, he combined the old tango from the bars and streets of Buenos Aires with influences from classical and modern music, jazz and pop, adding sharp rhythms, unusual sound combinations and striking chords to create entirely new forms of expression that go far beyond the boundaries of pure dance music. The focus was always on the special character of the bandoneon, originally an instrument from the Rhineland, which only really became famous through Piazzolla’s tangos.

An heir to the throne is murdered. Shortly afterwards, the world is in flames, the “last days of mankind” have begun. Over 100 years ago, the Austrian writer Karl Kraus documented the developments of the First World War and transformed them into a megalomaniac drama for a “Martian theatre”: “Theatre-goers of this world will not be able to withstand it”, he prophesied. How the world can suddenly slide into war is something Karl Kraus tries to capture in the 220 scenes of his monumental tragedy, along with the interaction of propaganda, media, religion, education and corporate greed that fuels the global conflagration. Street conversations, newspaper reports, advertising posters, slogans and discussions are unleashed by Kraus as satirical bullets.

Power, love and intrigue prevail in ancient Egypt, as no fewer than three ruling houses are entangled in the country’s political turmoil: following the defeat of Giulio Cesare, his adversary Pompeo has fled to Egypt with his wife Cornelia and his son Sesto. However, King Tolomeo has Pompeo murdered immediately in order to hand Pompeo’s head to Cesare on his arrival. However, the “gift” misses its mark: Cesare is dismayed by so much malice. Cornelia and Sesto swear revenge on Tolomeo. Cleopatra, Tolomeo’s sister, also tries to win favour with Cesare. Tolomeo’s power threatens to crumble and the battle for the throne unfolds...