Set Designer

The two closely related powerful women, whose graves now lie right beside each other in London’s Westminster Abbey, were “Of One Blood”, so of the same blood. Both were of course as conceivably far apart as possible during their lives. Elizabeth I ruled for almost half a century as Queen of England and Ireland, while Mary Stuart reigned over Scotland for a quarter of a century. A bitter power struggle between the Protestant hegemony and the Catholic opposition and ultimately the pressure of parliament forced the English Queen to have Mary Stuart executed.

Of One Blood

Max-Joseph-Platz

Is Carmen’s gaze only to be compared with that of a wild animal? The French writer Prosper Mérimée explored this question in his novella Carmen, which was the basis for Georges Bizet’s (1838-1875) final opera, which premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875. Carmen’s air of seduction is both her weapon and her downfall, for in the end she dies at the hands of her jealous lover, Don José. Carmen refuses to be told what to do and certainly doesn’t want to be rescued by Don José in the shifting sands in front of the bullfighting arena. She prefers death to having her life decided by others. In the extremely popular and passionate “Habanera” aria, which is our first encounter with Carmen, she paints a picture of herself: “Love is a rebellious bird that none can tame.” Her indomitable desire for freedom is stamped in her DNA.

Carmen

Semperoper Dresden

Who are we, who do we want to be? How far will longing for more power, wealth and a more elevated position in society make peope go? Triggered by a curious encounter, which he thinks is a prophesy, Macbeth’s wife goads him into murdering King Duncan. The throne falls to him, but remorse and hallucinations throw him deeper and deeper into turmoil, while Lady Macbeth urges him to carry out more atrocious deeds. But her feelings of guilt ending up destroying her too. R.B. Schlather’s production traces the extraordinary actuality of the protagonists, just as Verdi was fascinated by Shakespeare’s King and Queen. The Director studied the gruesome events surrounding a childless couple in an elegant but cheerless atmosphere of an imposing residence: global politics mirrored in private lives. In the end the oppressed put a violent end to the Macbeth’s autocratic regime.

EPSG:4326

Macbeth

Oper Frankfurt

Jacques Offenbach carries us off to a world of bandits in his wonderful operetta. Falsacappa, their chief, is having trouble keeping his men’s moral up: recent forays raked in next to nothing. Now he’s planning an outrageous coup. Taking advantage of complicated events concerning an envoy from Granada, wanting to claim a debt from the court of Mantua, and sneaking into Mantua, is disguise, to swipe the money for themselves. The carabinieri, in their heavy boots, always arrive too late. But Falsacappa's gang ends up empty-handed: the Duke of Mantua's coffers are empty … criminal activity at court far outclasses the bandits’.

The Bandits

Handel turned one of the world’s most famous love stories into one of his greatest hits. An opera, which is a dramatic love story and political thriller. When Cesare and Cleopatra met in Alexandria in BC 48 both were caught up in power struggles – he for supremacy in Rome, she for the Egyptian throne. The dramatic events taking place around them turn, in matter of seconds, into situations resulting in murder and manslaughter.

Giulio Cesare in Egitto

Mozart and his librettist, and kindred spirit, Lorenzo da Ponte’s third opera revolves around six people. The lives of two couples are thrown into confusion in the space of 24 hours: Guglielmo and Ferrando are persuaded to make a bet with cynical Don Alfonso about their lovers’ Fiordiligi and Dorabella’s fidelity. Don Alfonso’s convinced that, with their maid Despina's help, he can prove both sisters are fickle. The young men dress up as foreigners, to seduce their best friend’s lovers. Feigned and real emotions start getting all mixed up. The »wrong« couples even celebrate a sham double wedding, before the sisters discover their husbands' true identities. All six draw seemingly happy and conciliatory conclusions, but the laughter sticks in their throats. Can things return to how they were? Which feelings were and are real anyway?

Così fan tutte

Very useful and informative introductory talks about the next new production - during which a singer, or singers, from the cast sing something from the opera in question. These are held in German but English is sometimes spoken as well, as not all the artists involved speak German.

Opera Extra

Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium on May 17 to conduct Strauss’s one-act tragedy, which will be transmitted live from the Metropolitan Opera stage to cinemas worldwide. Leading the company’s first new production of the work in 20 years, Claus Guth, one of Europe’s leading opera directors, gives the biblical story a psychologically perceptive Victorian-era setting. South African soprano Elza van den Heever leads a celebrated cast as the abused and unhinged antiheroine, with Swedish baritone Peter Mattei as the imprisoned prophet Jochanaan; German tenor Gerhard Siegel as Salome’s lecherous stepfather, King Herod; American mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung as his wife, Herodias; and Polish tenor Piotr Buszewski as Narraboth.

Salome

Shalin Liu Performance Center

Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts his first Met performances of Strauss’s white-hot one-act tragedy, which receives its first new production at the company in 20 years. Claus Guth, one of Europe’s leading opera directors, gives the biblical story—already filtered through the beautiful and strange imagination of Oscar Wilde’s play—a psychologically perceptive Victorian-era setting rich in symbolism and subtle shades of darkness and light. Headlining the new staging is soprano Elza van den Heever as the abused and unhinged antiheroine, who demands the head of Jochanaan, sung by celebrated baritone Peter Mattei. Tenor Gerhard Siegel is Salome’s lecherous stepfather, King Herod, with mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung as his wife, Herodias, and tenor Piotr Buszewski as Narraboth. Derrick Inouye conducts two performances in May.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

What Macbeth thinks are prophesies are expressions of his own suppressed dreams and fears. Goaded on by his wife, who’s no less ambitious, he commits murder, which leads to more murders, creating a gruesome system of oppression. But the tyrant Macbeth and his wife are plagued by pangs of conscience. They’re both psychologically shattered - in different ways. In the end, the oppressed populace rebel, putting an end to an unjust regime.

In a domestic setting surrounding this childless, murderous couple, mechanisms of violent rule become apparent that can be found on a larger scale: World politics are reflected in a private sphere. From this perspective the story of a medieval Scottish despot seems frighteningly relevant today.

Based on the novel of the same name by Polish author and Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz, Weinberg created an opera about guilt and renewed confrontation with the past. In his opera, completed in 1968 but only staged for the first time in 2010, the Polish-Jewish composer, who lost his parents and sister in the Shoah, combines late romantic opulence with twelve-tone technique, folk songs and dance music to create a haunting memorial against obfuscation and forgetting.

Die Passagierin

Staatstheater Mainz

Can one man heal a broken society? A bold new production by Evgeny Titov features a stellar cast including Stanislas de Barbeyrac, Ekaterina Gubanova, Christian Gerhaher and Brindley Sherratt. Jakub Hrůša conducts.

Set Designer

Etienne Pluss

Events

Upcoming events

May 1 - Oct 9, 2026

Carmen · Semperoper Dresden

1 - 17 Oct, 2026

Parsifal · Royal Opera House

Past events

May 10 - Jun 29, 2026

Of One Blood · Bayerische Staatsoper

May 1 - Oct 9, 2026

Carmen · Semperoper Dresden

About

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