Costume Designer

"He was your brother... You are avenged, Mother!"
Azucena
When Count Luna and the troubadour Manrico not only find themselves as enemies in a bloody civil war, but also fall in love with the same woman, a fatal tragedy unfolds: Leonora poisons herself, and Manrico is executed by Luna, who then learns that he killed his own brother, believed to be long lost. Manrico had grown up unrecognized by Azucena, who once witnessed the old Count Luna burn her mother at the stake. Deeply traumatized, Azucena swore revenge, kidnapped the count's younger son, and accidentally killed her own child in his place.
With his drama "El Trovador" ( The Troubadour) , Antonio García Gutiérrez wrote the most successful and popular stage work of the Spanish Romantic era in 1836. Giuseppe Verdi was so captivated by this dark romance of love and hate, jealousy and revenge that he used it as the basis for his opera Il Trovatore in 1849/50, without a commission and thus without a guarantee of a premiere . In it, he found the age-old motif of fraternal strife intertwined with the questions of fate, chance, and inner necessity that had always fascinated him. He knew how to carve his characters out of this bizarre story in a highly sophisticated way. His musical imagination was ignited by their contradictions, their imprisonment, and their longings.

The Troubadour

Staatstheater Hannover

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

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.

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Giulio Cesare in Egitto

Oper Frankfurt

Lulu's uniqueness challenges the norm. Is she real, a mythological figure or a figment of men's imagination? Innocent victim or a destructive demon? She's none of these things yet all of them. This feral, vulnerable, creature's struggle with the world, during which she's appropriated and exploited before being murdered, began when she was dragged out of her element.

Lulu

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

A bottle labeled "Drink me!" that shrinks you, a cake that makes you grow immeasurably after you eat it, a Mad Hatter who celebrates his unbirthday 364 days a year – these and many other curious adventures await Alice after she follows a rabbit and falls down a hole. Is it all really just a dream? Lewis Carroll's classic children's book has captivated generations of theater and filmmakers, including the Italian composer Pierangelo Valtinoni. His poetic music, as well as Nadja Loschky's imaginative and fast-paced direction, thrilled audiences at the Zurich premiere.

Alice in Wonderland

Opernhaus Zürich

“Are you human, or are you a fairy tale?” The water nymph Rusalka is in love with a prince. Only if she is transformed into a human can she be united with him. But the witch Ježibaba binds this spell to conditions: Rusalka must remain silent, and if the prince no longer loves her, she must kill him. The two plan to marry, but the prince is already troubled by her eternal silence, and soon he succumbs to the seduction of another woman. Rejected, Rusalka returns to the lake. When the prince shows remorse, the curse demands its price: one final kiss brings him death.

Costume Designer

Irina Spreckelmeyer

Events

Upcoming events

May 1 - Oct 9, 2026

Carmen · Semperoper Dresden

Nov 8, 2026 - Jan 17, 2027

Alice in Wonderland · Opernhaus Zürich

May 16 - Jun 5, 2027

Rusalka · Oper Köln

Past events

13 - 25 Jun, 2026

The Troubadour · Staatstheater Hannover

May 1 - Oct 9, 2026

Carmen · Semperoper Dresden

About

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