Singer

In On the Town, three sailors are on shore leave in search of the sights of the city and a charming city dweller to accompany them. Not exactly an easy goal to achieve under time pressure ... Leonard Bernstein’s first musical, staged by musical professional Felix Seiler, offers not only catchy hits, but also humorously drawn characters to fall in love with – and plenty of fun and verve!

On the Town

Oper Graz

Can the past be denied and memories erased? After a mass shooting at an international school, pupils, parents and teachers are left horrified and traumatised. The teenage perpetrator is committed to a psychiatric ward. Ten years later, Stela is celebrating her wedding to Tuomas, who she met in her home country of Romania, together with his parents and a priest. She is so happy that she doesn’t ask why there are so few guests. But the waitress hints that there is something Stela doesn’t know – that her groom has another brother.

Innocence

Semperoper Dresden

Once the best marksman in the world, Max is on a losing streak. A single shot will determine his betrothal to Agathe – a much too important matter to leave to chance. At midnight in the Wolf’s Glen, Max, aided by the evil Casper, casts seven magic bullets which never miss their target, thus sealing a pact with the devil. Following the work’s premiere in 1821, Carl Maria von Weber proclaimed: »I’ve hit the hit the bullseye«. Soon »Der Freischütz« became regarded as the romantic German opera par excellence. Weber’s music reproduces the beauty of the German forest as well as its nighttime eeriness to create an atmosphere of uncertainty, doubt and fear. In his production, director Axel Köhler not only describes the fate of a young man driven to extremes by a fear of failure, but also paints the image of a society which, having lost its bearings, seeks stability in ritual and hierarchy. 

Der Freischütz Carl Maria von Weber

The combination of two requiems, one secular, one sacred, creates this fascinating programme, conducted by the ‘dynamic presence’ (The Times) of returning guest, Clemens Schuldt. Richard Strauss’s elegiac Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings was his response to the destruction of German culture that he witnessed in the final years of World War Two, its opera houses and concerts halls all in ruins.

EPSG:4326

Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem

The Bridgewater Hall

Cowboys, horse racing and the really big emotions! Emmerich Kálmán’s last operetta, premiered posthumously, brings all this and more to the stage of Graz Opera. Kálmán’s western operetta can be experienced for the first time in Austria in an exciting and emotional production.

Sunshine Ranch, Wild West: For Lona Farrell, ranch owner and horse breeder with Hungarian roots, work comes first. She takes a rather critical view of potential love adventures, although the world of men would love to fall at her feet. When the mysterious cowboy Roy Dexter takes over the vacant position of the overbearing foreman Jim Slaughter and the racehorse Arizona Lady seems to break new records under his care, Lona and Roy find it difficult to hide their romantic feelings for each other. A happy ending is already within reach, if it weren’t for Jim Slaughter and his new dubious boss McDumb ...

Arizona Lady

Philipp M. Krenn, director of Schlaflos in the 2023/24 season, is staging Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s melancholy global success, in which the soaring waltz melodies are just as much historical fiction as the timeless portrait of society full of arrogance, calculated intrigues and complex amours. The celebrated Hungarian soprano Polina Pastirchak returns to Graz Opera as the Marschallin, and former ensemble member Tetiana Miyus as Sophie. At her side: audience favourite Wilfried Zelinka as Ochs von Lerchenau.

The Rosenkavalier

With what is probably the most famous fragment in opera literature, four directing teams are presenting themselves for the first time at Graz Opera, immersing themselves in aesthetically completely different universes with very different artistic approaches – film animation, puppetry and choreographically moving bodies. In three episodes, dazzling worlds full of fantastic characters and events unfold. Always at the centre of the action as the protagonist and creator of the scenery: the poet himself.

Baritone

Markus Butter

Events

Upcoming events

Oct 25, 2025 - Feb 12, 2026

On the Town · Oper Graz

Mar 14 - Jun 20, 2026

Arizona Lady · Oper Graz

May 9 - Jun 26, 2026

The Rosenkavalier · Oper Graz

11 - 24 Jun, 2026

Hoffmann's Tales (The Tales of Hoffmann) · Oper Graz

Past events

Oct 25, 2025 - Feb 12, 2026

On the Town · Oper Graz

Mar 15 - Apr 11, 2025

Innocence · Semperoper Dresden

Future and recently performed repertoire

First Worker | Moderator | A Sailor | Rajah Bimmy in On the Town by Bernstein

Oper Graz

Mr. von Faninal in The Rosenkavalier by Strauss

Oper Graz

Harry Sullivan, Sheriff in Arizona Lady by Emmerich

Oper Graz

Schlemihl in Hoffmann's Tales by Offenbach

Oper Graz

About

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