Singer

How terrible must life be if you can’t laugh? Sergei Prokofiev’s opera The Love for Three Oranges is about a king who wishes to help his sick son. But only one thing can cure the malady of the heir to the throne: laughter. While the doctors are trying their luck, Truffaldino and Fata Morgana get into a fight, during which the latter is knocked over.

The Love for Three Oranges

Semperoper Dresden

Ruth Reinhardt is the newly appointed Chief Conductor-designate of the Rhode Island Philharmonic. Her tenure begins with the 25-26 season. She is the fifth chief conductor in the orchestra's 80-year history.

1st Performance Evening

Mozart’s most popular opera is a deeply humane story of adventure with heavenly music.

The Magic Flute

It is hard to believe that the people of Dresden once looked askance at the music of Gustav Mahler. And this despite the fact that Ernst von Schuch had very early programmed the Second Symphony: He conducted three movements in January 1897 and the entire work five years later. The critics were certainly unimpressed, sarcastically thanking von Schuch for not aping his colleague’s efforts at composing: »We have enough composers like Mahler but only very, very few conductors like von Schuch«. More than 120 years later, the picture is quite another: the »Resurrection Symphony«, which deals with the themes of life, death and redemption, is universally acclaimed as one of the most profound works of the late Romantic period.

9th Symphony Concert

The wedding of the servant couple Figaro and Susanna is imminent, and everything could be so wonderful, if it weren’t for the lecherous Count Almaviva, who has been stalking Susanna for some time, as well as the vengeful Doctor Bartolo and his housekeeper Marcellina, who all wish to prevent the wedding. After numerous twists and turns, Figaro and Susanna, with the help of the Countess and thanks to an ingenious plan of revenge, finally succeed in thwarting Almaviva using his own art of seduction so that, in the end, all couples are reunited. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s „The Marriage of Figaro“, which premiered at Vienna’s Hoftheater in 1786, is the first of the three Mozart-da Ponte operas. Despite its quick-fire comedic action, the work foreshadows some of the radical ideas of the French Revolution. In his staging, director Johannes Erath takes the audience on a journey through the different epochs of theatrical history from Commedia dell’arte to the modern age.

Le nozze di Figaro

In the fairytale forest, we encounter the familiar figures of the poor siblings who have lost their way as well as the Gingerbread Witch. The story comes to a head in the famous edible house, which is sweet on the outside but a death trap within. In 1893 Engelbert Humperdinck transformed the tale by the Brothers Grimm into a work which is probably the most famous fairy-tale opera in the repertoire.

Hansel and Gretel

Prince Tamino is being pursued by a wild serpent. At the last minute, he is saved by three mysterious ladies who have been sent by the queen of the night. When the bird catcher Papageno appears and boasts about the heroic deed they punish him. In contrast, they give the prince a portrait of Pamina, the daughter of the queen who is being held captive by the ruler of the temple of the sun, Sarastro. Tamino falls in love with her. The queen appears in person and orders him to rescue Pamina together with Papageno. A magic flute will protect him from any danger whilst a reluctant Papageno is given magic bells. Guided by three young boys, they set off on their way to Sarastro’s temple. Whilst the temple guards tell Tamino that Sarastro is not the evil tyrant that the queen has depicted, Papageno finds Pamino and tries to flee with her. With the help of the chimes, he is able to distract her guard Monostatos although his efforts are scuppered by the appearance of Sarastro. Papageno, Pamina and Tamino have to stay in Sarastro’s kingdom as Sarastro has something greater planned for Tamino: just as he has taken Pamina into his kingdom to protect her from her mother, he plans to get Tamino into his circle of insiders of the sun temple and, in this way, prepare him for future tasks.

Die Zauberflöte / The Magic Flute

EPSG:4326

Die Walküre

Bayreuth Festival Theatre

Richard Wagner's 1868 »Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg« is one of the composer's most popular works - and a wonderful musical comedy. This takes place around midsummer night in medieval Nuremberg, where the widowed shoemaker Hans Sachs, the town clerk Sixtus Beckmesser and the young aristocratic daredevil Walther von Stolzing sing, write poetry and also fight over Eva. Why? Because the goldsmith Pogner advertised his coveted daughter as a prize in the annual singing competition to make it clear how important art is to him. And so »Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg« becomes a musical masterpiece that poses the question of the importance of art – here music – for our lives and society. Reason enough for director Jens-Daniel Herzog

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Master-Singers of Nuremberg)

Siegfried, the son of Sieglinde, who was saved in Die Walküre, and Siegmund, who was killed, grows up on the edge of the world with Alberich's brother Mime. Mime hopes that Siegfried will fight for the powerful ring for him. But the ignorant Siegfried turns against his foster father, and after he has taken the ring from the killed giant Fafner, he also kills Mime. Guided by a forest bird, he awakens the sleeping Brünnhilde. Now the two could save Wotan's world of gods – if love weren't stronger than political reason. »Siegfried« is the most theatrical part of Wagner's tetralogy »The Ring of the Nibelung«. Director Willy Decker therefore created his Dresden stage cosmos as a theater within a theatre. However, those who flaunt themselves on the stage and who take the position of observer

Siegfried

The mermaid Rusalka loves the prince and wants to become a human being in order to be with him forever. With her voice, she pays the witch Ježibaba for the transformation and leaves home and family. Rusalka's appearance with the people initially depresses the prince, but the magical, voiceless being remains a foreign body in the human world and finally the lover turns away from her – which means death for him and banishment for her. In his fairytale opera, premiered in Prague in 1901, Dvořák set to music the contrasting worlds of the ghostly flowing underwater kingdom and the distanced stiff royal court with great music-dramatic verve. With the parable-like material about the value of one's own identity, the meaning of the human soul and the transformation of the main character Rusalka from a romantic mermaid to a loving person capable of suffering without a real home, the internationally working director Christoph Loy makes his debut in the Semperoper.

Rusalka

At the centre of Giacomo Puccini's Tragedia giapponese, set in Nagasaki at the beginning of the 20th century, is the young geisha Cio-Cio-San, called »Butterfly«. The American Naval Lieutenant Pinkerton enters into a short-term marriage with Cio-Cio-San – according to a possible practice in Japan at the time – and rents the right house for the stay. While for Pinkerton the liaison was planned from the outset as an erotic pleasure, for Cio-Cio-San it means not only the opportunity to escape poverty, but the love of her life ... Even today, the tragic love story, which premiered at La Scala in Milan in 1904, touches hearts, shaken by the realism with which the cultural misunderstandings and their deadly consequences are pointed out. Japanese director Amon Miyamoto, together with star designer Kenzō Takada, presents his own Eastern view of the Japanese-American liaison.

Madama Butterfly

Sparkling irony combined with sparkling champagne mood to the sounds of waltzes.

Die Fledermaus

The fool in Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s production of Rigoletto is clad in poisonous green, and equally toxic is his mockery of the gaggle of courtiers around the Duke of Mantua. But emotionally the fool is a mess, constantly worried about his daughter Gilda, whom he jealously shields from the clutches of the Duke, an infamous rake. When Gilda nevertheless falls victim to the Duke, Rigoletto swears bloody vengeance. But the plan backfires … The hugely successful premiere of Rigoletto took place at the Teatro La Fenice in 1851. Giuseppe Verdi created a score which he himself described as ”revolutionary“ in its ground-breaking musical and dramatic intensity. The end result is a deeply shocking work, and perhaps the best opera by the great Italian.

Rigoletto

The centerpiece of the ceremony is Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony – a work of timeless grandeur and visionary power that profoundly influenced Richard Wagner. The program is complemented by the prelude from "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" and the entrance of the guests from "Tannhäuser."

Symphony No. 9

The ring grows from a painful insult – a spark that ignites an unleashed force that can no longer be tamed. "Das Rheingold" opens the gate to an unstoppable chain reaction that sets everything in motion and irrevocably steers destiny.

Das Rheingold

A young man, unaware of his origins, resolutely breaks free from old ties. "Siegfried" unfolds the tense struggle of an individual fighting his way through a web of unfulfilled expectations, oppressive silence, and crumbling power.

What breaks cannot be put back together. But in "Götterdämmerung" it becomes clear that even in the shadow of failure, a profound meaning shines – beyond revenge and glory.

Mezzo-soprano

Christa Mayer

Events

Upcoming events

Aug 30, 2025 - Jul 4, 2026

The Magic Flute · Semperoper Dresden

8 - 30 May, 2026

Rigoletto · Semperoper Dresden

Jul 25, 2026

Symphony No. 9 · Bayreuther Festspiele

Jul 27 - Aug 12, 2026

Das Rheingold · Bayreuther Festspiele

Jul 30 - Aug 15, 2026

Siegfried · Bayreuther Festspiele

Past events

9 - 19 Oct, 2025

The Love for Three Oranges · Semperoper Dresden

Sep 4, 2025

1st Performance Evening · Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

Future and recently performed repertoire

Maddalena in Rigoletto by Verdi

Semperoper Dresden

Ježibaba in Rusalka by Dvořák

Semperoper Dresden

Suzuki in Madama Butterfly by Puccini

Semperoper Dresden

Prinzessin Clarisse in The Love for Three Oranges by Prokofiev

Semperoper Dresden

Third Lady in The Magic Flute by Mozart

Semperoper Dresden

Magdalena in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Wagner

Semperoper Dresden

Singer in Symphony No. 2 by Mahler

Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

Gertrud (Mutter) in Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck

Semperoper Dresden

Erda in Das Rheingold by Wagner

Bayreuther Festspiele

Singer in Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven

Bayreuther Festspiele

Singer in Wesendonck Lieder by Wagner

Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

Prinz Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus by Strauss

Semperoper Dresden

Erda in Siegfried by Wagner

Semperoper Dresden

Waltraut in Twilight of the Gods by Wagner

Bayreuther Festspiele

Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro by Mozart

Semperoper Dresden

Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro by Mozart

Semperoper Dresden

About

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