Singer

The opera begins like a mysterious fairy tale. A woman mourns her child, another consoles: "Find a happy person in this world and cut a button off his sleeve." Do it before night, and your child will live. A happy person. You have time until night. Finding a happy person seems easy. However, one disappointing encounter follows another. Happiness is like a mask that quickly falls when you look more closely. Then the path leads to the threshold of a wondrous and charming garden. PICTURE A DAY LIKE THIS is the new work by composer George Benjamin (*1960) and playwright Martin Crimp (*1956), who, since the triumphant premiere of WRITTEN ON SKIN, are considered among the most important authors of contemporary opera internationally. After two large-scale works, Benjamin and Crimp return to chamber opera with their fourth joint work. PICTURE A DAY LIKE THIS develops a story as touching as it is surprising about human nature. This creates a fine mosaic of music and narration. The production of the world premiere at the 2023 Festival Aix-en-Provence by Daniel Jeanneteau and Marie-Christine Soma alternates between realism and dreamlike fantasy and has since captivated audiences in France and England. Now the co-production with the Cologne Opera can be experienced as a German premiere at the Staatenhaus. "PICTURE A DAY LIKE THIS addresses the most existential questions in just one hour." […] George Benjamin's music is on point in every beat, with every note, and from the tightly held ensemble, he conjures a richness of colour that is astonishing. [...] To this end, Daniel Jeanneteau and Marie-Christine Soma create a subtly crafted Gesamtkunstwerk with enchanting lighting direction as well as high scenic density and elegance." (BR-Klassik)

EPSG:4326

Picture a Day like this

Cologne Opera

Moral outrage one moment, coquettish expediency the next. The intrigues of the powerful interwoven with the desperation of hapless refugees. When it comes to the gamut of human emotion and modes of behaviour, few operas of the baroque period can touch Handel’s GIULIO CESARE IN EGITTO, which premiered in London in 1724. This tale of the love affair between the ageing Roman general Julius Caesar and the young pharaoh Cleopatra was one of Handel’s greatest triumphs within his lifetime and remains his most performed opera. That is not just down to the base material – one of the best-known historically attested love stories, which has been given treatments ranging from Shakespeare to Liz Taylor and Richard Burton and “Asterix und Cleopatra” – but also to a sophisticated libretto that provided the inspiration for a string of great arias and memorable character studies, for aside from the Roman-Egyptian pairing of Caesar and Cleopatra GIULIO CESARE IN EGITTO features another pair who are busy not with flirting but with the serious business of staying alive: Cornelia, the widow of Pompeius, a murdered rival of Caesar, and her son Sesto. Both have sought refuge in Egypt but have become pawns in the scheming between Cleopatra and her brother Tolomeo.

Giulio Cesare in Egitto

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Irina can't bear it any longer; it bursts out of her: "My God! Where has it all gone? I've forgotten everything." Then, as if suddenly: "We'll never move to Moscow." Neither the past with its memories nor the future with its hopes offer any support. Time erodes and shrinks to the present—and here emptiness, dissatisfaction, pain, loneliness reign. A condition that haunts almost all the characters in Peter Eötvös' opera Three Sisters (1998)—they are those from Anton Chekhov's drama of the same name. The reactions are varied: repression or relativization, resignation or escape, and, of course, new dreams, hopes, or even plans. Yet a seemingly unbridgeable gap remains between today and the longed-for tomorrow. Why don't these people make it to Moscow, a symbol of a different, better, more meaningful life? What obstacles—internal, external—hold them back? It's a question we continually find ourselves confronting anew, one that brings us so close to Chekhov's and, by extension, Eötvös's characters. It becomes all the more acute in the face of a suddenly spreading fire—a catastrophe that challenges us to take concrete action, that confronts us with destruction and suffering, with death, and the awareness that our own life could end sooner than we imagined.

Three Sisters

Felsenreitschule

This new production of one of the most fascinating contemporary works of music theater celebrates its premiere at this year's edition of the Salzburg Festival. Based on Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, Claus H. Henneberg and Peter Eötvös contributed the libretto for the opera in three sequences. The Klangforum Wien Orchestra performs under the direction of Maxime Pascal and Alphonse Cemin.

Salzburger Festspiele – Tri Sestri

Classical Pride, now in its third year, exists to spotlight queer composers of the past, present and future, giving a voice and a platform to this community that has been instrumental in the development of the genre.

Classical Pride: Voices of Joy & Sorrow

Barbican Centre

Bollywood meets Baroque in this utterly original retelling of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar’s tempestuous love affair.
Handel’s masterpiece, full of seduction, dazzling spectacle and vocal fireworks, is given the all-singing, all-dancing treatment in this Glyndebourne classic.

Giulio Cesare

Glyndebourne

Tafelmusik’s treasured Sing-Along Messiah makes a triumphant return, directed by none other than G.F. Handel himself. Messiah’s stirring choruses get the surround-sound treatment with a massive audience joining our own choir, orchestra, and guest soloists.

Tafelmusik presents Sing Along Messiah

The Royal Conservatory of Music

Nothing says Christmas like Tafelmusik’s Messiah! A moving, often joyous reflection on the life of Christ, Handel’s oratorio surges with emotion, drama, and poignancy.

Performed in the style and spirit of the composer’s own productions, Tafelmusik’s Messiah “radiates brilliance and energy, along with an emotional depth that fully enhances the work’s expression” (AllMusic). Messiah’s core message of good will, hope, and humanity resounds as eloquently today as it did in 1742.

Tafelmusik presents: Handel Messiah

Set within the ruins of St. Boniface Cathedral, this season finale features Winnipeg’s own Andriana Chuchman in a homecoming performance alongside Persian-Canadian countertenor Cameron Shahbazi. Together, they bring Pergolesi’s emotionally charged Stabat Mater into dramatic relief.

Ukrainian-Canadian soprano Andriana Chuchman has earned much acclaim for her performances in a wide range of repertoire including the heroines of Mozart and Handel, 20th century masterpieces, and the premieres of new operas and orchestral works. Born in Winnipeg, Ms. Chuchman received her Bachelor's Degree in Voice Performance from the School of Music at the University of Manitoba, where in her final year she won the Zita Bernstein Lieder Competition.

Rising countertenor Cameron Shahbazi, praised for his “full, voluminous” voice and “personal and beautiful” timbre (De Trouw), is celebrated for his acclaimed interpretations of both baroque and contemporary music. In 2023, he was awarded the prestigious Opus Klassik Award in the Innovative Concert of the Year category for his brainchild, entitled Woman. Life. Freedom: A Benefit Concert for Human Rights in Iran.

Countertenor

Cameron Shahbazi

Events

Upcoming events

May 19, 2027

8 / Vox Sacra · Manitoba Chamber Orchestra

Past events

10 - 24 May, 2026

Picture a Day like this · Oper Köln

Apr 25 - Jul 8, 2026

Giulio Cesare in Egitto · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Future and recently performed repertoire

Masha in Three Sisters by Chekhov

Salzburger Festspiele

Singer in Stabat Mater by Pergolesi

Manitoba Chamber Orchestra

Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare in Egitto by Handel

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Masha in Tri Sestri by Eötvös

Klangforum Wien

About

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