Director

In Barrie Kosky's production of The Magic Flute, everything is straight out of a fairy tale, and every idea demonstrates the director's immense sense of humor, who must have thoroughly enjoyed the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When the red curtain opens, the audience sees only a white screen, where the frolics begin – the director imaginatively juggles, to the rhythm of Mozart's music, elements of silent film, slapstick comedy, and cartoon. The co-creators of this production – Suzanne Andrade and Paul Barritt of the "1927" ensemble – have combined film animation with live theater. The effect is dazzling. Here, Papageno, this bawdy simpleton, here portrayed as a sad clown in the style of Buster Keaton, gets drunk in the company of pink elephants honking cocktails from narrow glasses. The Queen of the Night is a giant spider, Monostatos appears as a pale vampire in a Count Dracula costume, and Pamina wears a black wig with fringe, which makes her resemble the actress and dancer Louise Brooks, a star of silent films.

The Magic Flute

Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera

When the nights are at their longest, frosty wind and snow storms sweep the land, it is the time of the Koliada – of the pagan winter solstice feast and the Christian-orthodox Christmas celebration in equal measure. In these magical “twelve days of Christmas” the barrier between the human world and the realm of dark beings becomes especially thin. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “true” Christmas song, Die Nacht vor Weihnachten, based on the eponymous story by Nikolai Gogol, also plays out in this very same period.

Die Nacht vor Weihnachten

Max-Joseph-Platz

Envy and hatred reign in Saul's heart. For he perceives in David a rival for the throne: After David's victory over the giant Goliath, King Saul finds himself compelled to welcome David into his house and to honour him as a hero. When his son Jonathan and his daughter Michal side with David, and eventually even his daughter Merab acknowledges the universally celebrated hero, Saul finally decides to remove David from his path. However, David enjoys divine protection. Instead, it is Saul whose star threatens to set. With SAUL, George Frideric Handel turned to a biblical subject from the Old Testament. The subject matter was certainly controversial, as around twenty years before Handel’s arrival in London, Parliament, during the “Glorious Revolution” of 1689, had offered the British crown to William III of Orange and Mary II in order to put an end to the rule of the absolutist King James II. Georg Friedrich Handel had so far achieved one box office hit after another in London, primarily with his serious operas. However, the audience gradually seemed to be tiring of Italian opera. Thus, Händel set out in search of new paths in musical theatre. The genre of the oratorio, which he had become acquainted with during his time in Rome from 1706 to 1709, seemed suitable for this purpose. And indeed, the premiere of SAUL on 16 January 1739 at the Haymarket Theatre in London was a success, not least due to the gigantic choral numbers and the English national language in which it was sung. That SAUL is also dramatic, stage-effective musical theatre is demonstrated by the numerous musical effects with which Handel brings the story of the tormented King Saul to life. From triumphal choruses to whispers of witches to the funeral march that is still played today at state funerals worldwide. The acclaimed production from the Glyndebourne Festival, in Barrie Kosky’s opulent and profound direction, presents the Old Testament fable of envy and resentment set in London during the Georgian era, when indulgence and misery, popular entertainment and humiliation existed side by side. At the podium of the Gürzenich Orchestra stands Rubén Dubrovsky, who has already demonstrated his flair for Baroque music in Cologne with GIULIO CESARE IN EGITTO and ORLANDO.

Saul

Cologne Opera

A political drama about a bloody seizure of power, namely the rise and terrible fall of the Scottish military leader Macbeth and his wife, are at the heart of Verdi’s opera, based on Shakespeare’s famous tragedy. Barrie Kosky's production is «an aesthetic milestone in the work’s reception» (NZZ). It radically concentrates on the protagonists’ inner perspective in a ghostly jet-black stage space. Gianandrea Noseda navigates Verdi’s bold score. Roman Burdenko and Ekaterina Semenchuk sing the roles of the couple shattered by fears and madness.

Macbeth

Zurich Opera House

When Don Giovanni tries to escape his pursuers and conceal his deeds, things get dicey. But in the end, he is called to account by a supernatural force and dragged to hell, while everyone else reflects on the transience of power and the justice of fate. The opera is a captivating portrayal of love, seduction, revenge and moral responsibility.

Don Giovanni

Vienna State Opera

A bet is made and Don Alfonso hires Despina, Fiordiligi and Dorabella's employee, to help with the intrigue. In disguise, the men finally succeed in seducing each other's fiancée. After Don Alfonso and Despina have broken up the intrigue, it is left to the four young lovers to deal with the consequences of the story.

Così fan tutte

A young woman who desires her own father and is transformed into a tree. A young man who loves himself so much that he fails to notice the advances of a nymph who ultimately exists only as a voice. A goddess who transforms her rival into a spider because of her flawless weaving skills. A man whose statue of a woman perfect for him comes to life. A legendary singer whose return his beloved awaits in the underworld.

Hotel Metamorphosis

House for Mozart

A revival of the Festival 2015 production

Glyndebourne

Meanwhile, in the realm of the gods, an epic battle ensues between their ruler Wotan and his rebellious daughter, Brünnhilde.

EPSG:4326

The Royal Opera: Die Walkure (ENCORE) – Cert TBC

Lighthouse, Poole's Centre for the Arts

Gods and mortals battle in the second chapter of Wagner’s Ring cycle. Conductor Antonio Pappano and director Barrie Kosky reunite to continue the mythical adventure that began with Das Rheingold in 2023.

Royal Ballet & Opera: Die Walkure Live

Swan Shopping Centre

The Royal Opera: Die Walkure – Cert TBC

Gods and mortals battle in the second chapter of Wagner’s Ring cycle.

Die Walküre

Royal Opera House

Murderous antihero Mackie Messer (a.k.a. Mack the Knife) slashes through Victorian London in The Threepenny Opera, Bertolt Brecht’s scandalous satire that electrified Weimar-era German audiences 400 times in just two years after its 1928 debut.

A century later, Brecht’s razor-sharp critique of unbridled capitalism still cuts deep—an eerily prophetic vision of a well-fed society teetering on the brink, propelled by Kurt Weill’s infectious, jazz-infused score.

Barrie Kosky’s Berliner Ensemble production is sly and perversely sexy, embracing seediness and cynicism with glitzy disillusion and more than a hint of danger. A master showman, Kosky manages to beguile us through the familiar rise and fall of Brecht’s sociopathic leading man, adding a knowing creepiness to his unrepentant antics.

The Threepenny Opera

Peter Jay Sharp Building

In 2017, Satyagraha celebrated its acclaimed premiere at the Komische Oper Berlin. Now another work from the opera trilogy by minimal music pioneer Philip Glass is being released, each of which centers on a personality who changed the world: this time it is the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten. The director is Barrie Kosky, who has shown not only with Moses and Aron how powerful and approachable the myth can be in contemporary sounds.

Akhenaten (Akhnaten)

Schiller Theater

Kurt Weill is known here primarily for the works he wrote together with Bertolt Brecht. But his oeuvre encompasses much more than just The Threepenny Opera and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny . And his musicals written for Broadway are no less revolutionary than the works he wrote in Germany. Influenced by the German musical tradition, the Jewish composer, who was born in Dessau, matured into an artist in the "wild" Berlin of the 1920s and was expelled by the Nazis, had a decisive influence on the new musical. In the Lonely House recital , Katharine Mehrling traces the songs from Kurt Weill's time in exile and brings them back to life, accompanied by Barrie Kosky on the piano.

Lonely House

Everything revolves around Hanna Glawari in Franz Lehár’s operetta Die lustige Witwe: She is emancipated, beautiful, clever and the heiress to 20 million... Vida Miknevičiūtė will bow in the title role in our revival of Barrie Kosky’s opulent production. The Lithuanian soprano began her distinguished career at the International Opernstudio at the Opernhaus Zürich. She can now be heard singing major Wagner and Strauss roles on stages including the Staatsoper Berlin and La Scala di Milano. She appeared as Lehár’s Hanna at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. Making his Opernhaus debut at the podium of the Philharmonia Zürich is conductor Ben Glassberg, a young British conductor who has been Music Director at the Volksoper Wien since 2024

Die lustige Witwe

Opernhaus Zürich

Dramma lirico in four acts by Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924)
Libretto by Domenico Oliva, Luigi Illica and others

Manon Lescaut

Life is great! And it is cold... on Christmas Eve around 1830, in the Latin Quarter of Paris. The bohemians do not have enough money for the rent, the firewood or the feast. They may be penniless, but they are full of zest for life and their hearts are ablaze - until the finality of death breaks into their easy life...

La Bohème

Transfigurations, a decadent party and lots and lots of champagne. Under the musical direction of chief conductor Lorenzo Viotti and directed by Barrie Kosky, Dutch National Opera presents the most beloved operetta by 'waltz king' Johann Strauss Jr. in the dark days of December.

That Fledermaus

National Opera & Ballet

A coming of age story and a story of love: The Queen of the Night persuades Prince Tamino to rescue her daughter Pamina from captivity under the high priest Sarastro. Tamino, who instantly falls in love with Pamina, is ready to set off. Involuntarily, bird catcher Papageno is also sent along with Tamino - as companion to the prince. After various trials of initiation, courage and perseverance Tamino and Papageno not only find their station in life as adults, but also each the woman to their hearts' content: Tamino gains the hand of Pamina and Papageno lives happily ever after with his Papagena. We show the legendary Magic Flute of the Komische Oper Berlin, which director Barrie Kosky staged with the theater video art collective "1927" in an astonishing video animation world for the whole family.

The Staatstheater Stuttgart

Giacomo Puccini composed his Il trittico as a triptych of one-act plays in which shudder, sadness and laughter are successively evoked. The three short operas are now being performed together for the first time at Dutch National Opera and are the culmination of the three-year Puccini series by conductor Lorenzo Viotti and director Barrie Kosky .

Il trittico

She lives in the here and now, one of the best-known heroines in operatic history, she makes sergeant Don José lose his mind, throwing his life into confusion. His attempts to make her tow the line fail because she can’t be tied down. They gradually drive each other into corners. Bizet’s music brings the differences in their perceptions of love and relationships into contrast again and again: Their downfall starts with light-hearted operetta music, but ends in tragedy. Barrie Kosky’s production quickly achieved cult status after it blasted onto the stage in  2015, and has lost none of its impact, taking the most performed opera in the world back to its roots - Opéra comique. The story’s interspersed and told using concise texts, steering us towards its tragic end. En route, romantic, amusing moments and wonderful dance routines share the stage. Kosky’s vision is fascinating, toying masterfully with usual Carmen and Spanish clichés.

Carmen

Oper Frankfurt

Barrie Kosky affords the “operetta of all operettas” a new look and focuses on its morbid side. The scene is Vienna, city of the golden operetta era, where Die Fledermaus celebrated its world premiere at the Theater an der Wien in 1874. The revenge of the bat becomes a nightmare for Gabriel von Eisenstein and many others. A society, an entire city dances towards the abyss. To take revenge on his friend Eisenstein, Dr Falke, alias the bat, orchestrates a misunderstanding with Prince Orlofsky. A marquis and a chevalier, a countess and budding artists meet here for a raucous party. Glasses clink, relationships are strained, there is loving, lying and dancing. They party ‘til the cows come home, always believing: “Happy are those who forget ...”

Die Fledermaus

Don Basilio pesters Susanna with his intercession for the Count, Marcellina wants to sue for the old marriage contract with Figaro and Doctor Bartolo supports her, also out of old anger against Figaro. And then there is the page Cherubino, who is in love with all the women and whom all the women want to have around, preferably disguised as a girl ... Only with the combined forces of Figaro's imagination, Susanna's cleverness and the support of the betrayed countess can this "great day" be brought to a happy end.

Le nozze di Figaro

A harrowing and powerful opera inspired by true events of the French Revolution.

The contrast between the quiet life of a convent and the sweeping, destructive forces of revolution lies at the heart of Poulenc’s opera, which is inspired by real events from the French Revolution.

Dialogues des Carmélites

Royal Danish Opera

Once upon a time, a prince awakens in a mysterious land with an even more mysterious task.  Armed with enchanted bells and (you guessed it) a magic flute, Prince Tamino sets off, bound and determined to rescue his lady love, the Princess Pamina—only to find that things aren’t what they seem, and the Queen of the Night who sent him on his quest just might be plotting his doom instead.

James Conlon ends his legendary tenure as LA Opera Music Director with the world's most popular opera in one of our most emblematic productions. Mozart's catchy melodies meet astonishing projected animations in our perennial crowd pleaser. Miles Mykkanen makes his LA Opera debut as Prince Tamino opposite Sydney Mancasola as the beautiful Pamina. Kyle Miller might just steal the show as the lovable sidekick Papageno, while Aigul  Khismatullina and Kwangchul Youn face off as the Queen of the Night and Sarastro.

Director

Barrie Kosky

Events

Upcoming events

Oct 16, 2025 - Jun 19, 2026

Così fan tutte · Wiener Staatsoper

Nov 23 - Dec 14, 2025

Saul · Oper Köln

Nov 29 - Dec 22, 2025

Die Nacht vor Weihnachten · Bayerische Staatsoper

Dec 3, 2025 - Jan 4, 2026

The Magic Flute · Polish National Opera

Dec 13, 2025 - Jan 31, 2026

Carmen · Oper Frankfurt

Past events

Dec 3, 2025 - Jan 4, 2026

The Magic Flute · Polish National Opera

Nov 29 - Dec 22, 2025

Die Nacht vor Weihnachten · Bayerische Staatsoper

About

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