Set Designer

Sometimes it’s time to throw a party! With this music theatre creation, Eric Gauthier invites you to celebrate with us and explore why we humans actually celebrate. To this end, he brings a celebration to the stage with singers and dancers, the Staatsopernchor and the Staatsorchester. To be more precise, many celebrations: La Fest is a journey through the various festive occasions in a person’s life, full of memories of dinner parties, birthdays and dancing through wedding nights, of surprise guests and inevitable farewells. The celebrations of a life as opera. Or the other way round: opera as a celebration of life, its highs and lows. And an embrace of its transience. No celebration without music: Benjamin Bayl has put together a diverse mix of arias, choirs and dances from over 200 years of baroque music. Let’s celebrate!

The Fest

Stuttgart Opera

Sir John Falstaff is an anarchist who obeys only the reign of his own enjoyment, an egoist who feeds only his power-hunger and his own flesh, and who would prefer to raze the small-minded morals of his contemporaries like the walls of a fortress – by seducing two women at the same time. Needless to say, his plan is thwarted, but those trying to expose him also fail to emerge unruffled from the confusion they unleash around him – which only the audience can keep track of, barely. “Tutto nel mondo è burla,” but these jokes are only funny because falling into the abyss actually does pose quite a serious risk. Arrigo Boito, the librettist of “Otello”, distilled a sophisticated, ingenious libretto from Shakespeare’s original, driving Verdi to highly complex compositional heights.

EPSG:4326

Falstaff

Staatsoper Hamburg

Pagliacci tells the story of an acting troupe: the aging actor Canio learns that his younger wife Nedda is having an affair with another man. Nevertheless, he has to put on a good face every evening on stage as “Bajazzo”. Canio threatens to break because of it.

The ability of the composer Ruggero Leoncavallo to reconcile the playful theater-on-the-theater level, the ambiguous emotional situation and the dark mood makes this opera a thrilling crime thriller.

In Giacomo Puccini's first opera Le Villi, the composer's talent as a melodist and harmonizer - his typical "melancholic tone" - can be clearly heard. Anna and Roberto celebrate their engagement. Soon afterwards, Roberto has to travel to Mainz to collect an inheritance, where he falls for a seductive stranger. Anna feels betrayed by him and dies of grief. Her soul unites with the Willis, the souls of dead women who suffered a similar fate. Roberto finally returns full of remorse, but he is drawn into a frenzied dance by the Willis...

Le Villi / Pagliacci

Staatstheater Mainz

Pagliacci tells the story of an acting troupe: the aging actor Canio learns that his younger wife Nedda is having an affair with another man. Nevertheless, every evening he has to put on a good face on the stage as "Bajazzo" and play the game. Canio threatens to break up.

In Giacomo Puccini's first opera Le Villi, the composer's talent as a melodist and harmonist - his typical "melancholic tone" - is clearly heard. Anna and Roberto celebrate their engagement. Soon after, Roberto has to travel to Mainz for an inheritance, where he falls for a seductive stranger. Anna feels betrayed by him and dies of grief. Her soul reunites with the Willis, the souls of dead women who have suffered a similar fate. Roberto eventually returns, full of regrets, but the Willis engage him in a frenzied dance...

Set Designer

Susanne Gschwender

Events

Upcoming events

Nov 20 - Dec 31, 2025

The Fest · Staatsoper Stuttgart

Past events

Nov 20 - Dec 31, 2025

The Fest · Staatsoper Stuttgart

Apr 3 - Oct 15, 2025

Falstaff · Staatsoper Hamburg

About

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