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When the revolutionary and painter Mario Cavaradossi secretly attempts to help a political fugitive to escape the city of Rome, his lover, the famed singer Floria Tosca, believes he is cheating on her with another woman. Her jealousy is exploited by Scarpia, the unscrupulous chief of police, in order to help him capture Cavaradossi. Scarpia then makes Tosca an offer: if she gives herself to him for one night, he will release her lover.

Sandra presents the results of her research on the melting polar ice caps in the form of stand-up comedy and hopes in this way to sensitize people to the alarming situation of our planet. While on the one hand applauded for her efforts, she is also constantly confronted with skeptical questions. Her warnings go unheard even in her own family, as is true of the mythical figure Cassandra who predicts the destruction of Troy in flames. The God Apollo grants her visionary powers, but because she refuses to give into his attempts to seduce her, he ensures that no one believes her prophecies.

Lieutenant Pinkerton has fallen in love with the geisha Cio-Cio-San, known as Madama Butterfly, and wants to marry her according to Japanese custom without entering into a permanent relationship. But Butterfly truly loves Pinkerton and has a child by him. For years she waits in vain for the lieutenant to return. When Pinkerton does return, he arrives with his new American wife to pick up the child, and Butterfly stabs herself with a dagger.

A storm rages off the coast of Crete, forcing King Idomeneo, who is returning from the Trojan War, to make an ill-fated promise to Neptune: if the enraged god lets him reach land safely, he will sacrifice the first man he meets. When Idomeneo arrives on the beach, he meets his son Idamante. But the unforgiving world of the gods seems determined to exact the king’s promise.

At his local Prague bar, the landlord Brouček has a reputation for being a petty philistine. He himself is tired of dealing with insolvent renters and dreams of getting away from all the daily hassle. When one night he has had one beer too many, his wish comes true in a miraculous way with two fantastic excursions: first, Brouček lands on the moon inhabited by a strange, overly intellectual society of artists. Then he finds himself in medieval Prague, stuck between the fronts of a battle between the confessions, and is about to go to war on the side of the Hussites.

In immersive soundscapes, musicians from Ensemble Modern and the Apollo Choir of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden invite the audience to explore the creative and transformative power of melancholic worlds.

Music from Giuseppe Verdi Text from Francesco Maria Piave with additions by Giuseppe Montanelliin the new version by Arrigo Boito after Antonio García Gutiérrez

The title Orbit: A War Series is a reference to the New York artist Nancy Spero: deeply moved by the photographs of the Vietnam War that were circulating in the media, Spero investigated the links between sexuality, violence, and power in The War Series (1966–70). The subject of oppressive power structures revealed in her art is horrifyingly relevant today. Orbit: A War Series appeals to the images in our minds: Brigitta Muntendorf’s immersive 3D audio space oratorio is like an electroacoustic series of narratives in which sounds, texts, voices, and space become transmitters of power structures.

Four times throughout the season, outstanding singers from the international opera world will be guests in the Great Hall of the Unter den Linden with solo evenings. The repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the modern era, and Schubert's Winterreise , a true "classic" of song literature, is also represented. Sonya Yoncheva, Camilla Nylund, Joyce DiDonato and Elīna Garanča will cast a spell over the audience with their personalities and the music itself.

The Grail Knights are a brotherhood sworn to strict chastity. They guard two relics that promise salvation and eternal life: the Holy Grail and the Holy Spear. However, after their king Amfortas breaks his vow of chastity with the mysterious Kundry, the spear falls into the hands of Klingsor, a former knight expelled from the order, who uses it to inflict an unhealable wound on the king. According to prophecy, only a "pure fool made wise by compassion" can save Amfortas from eternal agony and retrieve the spear. Gurnemanz, the brotherhood’s spiritual leader, believes that the naive Parsifal is this new saviour. But Parsifal has a long path of enlightenment to tread first …