“Love and hope! […] Romeo, I hold you. You hold me. Now we are happy! Let us die this way!” – Georg Anton Benda, who became Kapellmeister of the Gotha court orchestra in 1750, was particularly known for his melodramas, which were strongly influenced by Rousseau's Enlightenment spirit. Among these is “Romeo and Juliet,” the very first musical adaptation of Shakespeare's drama. The melodramatic singspiel premiered on September 25, 1776, in Gotha, in what is now the Ekhof Theater. Although the Leipzig publisher described the work as an “opera” on the title page, this so-called “drama with songs” became one of the most popular pieces of its kind well into the 19th century. The strikingly virtuosic solo parts certainly contributed to this success. Even Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is said to have been impressed by “Romeo and Juliet.” Unlike Shakespeare's tragedy, the work ends with a happy ending. This was a risky undertaking for Benda, but the librettist Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter recognized the potential for genre-specific advancements. With "Romeo and Juliet," Benda achieved a particularly nuanced musical realization of the otherwise tragic love story. The work is characterized by its soulful melodies, vivid characterization, and emphasis on the characters' inner conflicts. Benda utilized the possibilities of instrumentation to amplify moods such as love, despair, and tension, and placed great emphasis on the musical portrayal of psychological subtleties.

EPSG:4326

ROMEO AND JULIE – Ekhof Festival – Baroque Impulse

Schloss Friedenstein Gotha

Achievements of global significance spread from Thuringia throughout the world: In 1521/1522, Martin Luther translated the New Testament from the Greek original into German at Wartburg Castle, making a decisive contribution to the language and the Reformation. He wanted everyone to be able to read and understand the Bible in German. Luther also wrote numerous hymns in German to make church services understandable and edifying for the congregation. He was clearly also aware of the healing power of music: "Musica is the best solace for a troubled person, through which the heart is once again content, refreshed, and invigorated." The places where this visionary and revolutionary worked are fascinating testimonies to that era: Whether hiking the Luther Trail, visiting museums at the sites associated with his life, or taking special guided tours – there are many ways to connect with the famous reformer.

CHANSON D'AMOUR – Wandelhalle Eisenach

Wandelhalle

As a topos, love in music history is both an ideal and a contradiction: it is the object of aesthetic shaping, yet always already permeated by the conditions of social existence. The chamber concert "Chanson d'amour – A Musical Declaration of Love" explores this concept historically – from the ornamental figurations of Jean-Philippe Rameau to the expressive chansons of Edith Piaf – and reveals how the image of love changes in the mirror of musical practice. In the Baroque era, love appears as a harmonic fiction, an art that embeds feeling within the structures of courtly convention. Every ornamental figure, every shift in affect marks the boundary between the private and the represented, between individual longing and social order. Later, in the Romantic tradition of arias and songs, love begins to speak – the "I" comes particularly to the fore. Finally, the chansons of the 20th century bring love to the stage as an existential experience: raw, immediate, and passionate.

CHANSON D'AMOUR – Ekhof Festival

The symphony concert "In the Paradise Garden of Sounds" invites you on a sensual journey of discovery to Asia – a musical excursion that ignites the imagination and touches the soul. Selected works bring the exoticism of Asian soundscapes to life in diverse interpretations and adaptations by composers from both the Far East and the West – a feast for the senses that presents Asia in all its magic, grace, and complexity. Like a "Chinese garden," a place where mind and nature are in harmonious exchange, this program unveils the multifaceted Asian sound techniques and colors: pentatonic scales, gongs, and exotic percussion. These blend with the symphonic texture to create a tapestry of sound full of mystery, mysticism, and beauty. This music opens spaces for the imagination and awakens a deep, yearning feeling within us. Like a dream between reality and imagination, the exotic melodies inevitably transport you to distant landscapes, mystical temples, and blossoming gardens beyond the everyday.

In The Paradise Garden Of Sounds

Stadthalle Gotha

Jerusalem during the Crusades: The Christian knights prepare for battle, but their plans are thwarted by the Saracen king Argante and the powerful sorceress Armida. Rinaldo is particularly devastated when his beloved Almirena is abducted. Armida, disguised as Almirena, attempts to seduce him and win him over to her side. Caught between love, duty, and temptation, Rinaldo becomes a pawn in a game of opposing forces. Will he be able to resist the allure of power and magic?

Rinaldo

Halle Opera House

Opera Café

Like no other 18th-century composer, Christoph Gluck paved the way for the intellectual world of Romanticism and, consequently, for Richard Wagner's great mythological narratives. The connection between Gluck and Wagner is unique in the world of opera: Wagner revered Gluck and paid him homage with his new orchestration and German translation of "Iphigenia in Aulis." This arrangement forges a musical bridge between the operatic aesthetics of the 18th and 19th centuries and reveals Gluck as a crucial precursor to Wagner's Romantic music drama.

Iphigenia In Aulis

Friedrichsforum, Bayreuth

Vespasianus that prompted the legendary lyricist Pietro Metastasio to choose this historical figure as the title character of an opera libretto. With "La Clemenza di Tito", the former "Poeta Cesareo" of the Viennese imperial court achieved a literary and theatrical coup that enjoyed great popularity, especially in aristocratic circles, as a "mirror for princes". The libretto was to become the basis of over 50 operas in the course of music history and inspired composers such as Antonio Caldara, Johann Adolph Hasse, Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to create new musical settings. Christoph Willibald Gluck, who made a name for himself in 1762 with his reform opera "Orfeo ed Euridice", had already devoted himself to this historical subject of Titus Vespasianus ten years earlier. What fascinated Gluck about Metastasio's work was the philosophical question of whether "good people" or "good rule" could even exist. Compositionally, "La clemenza di Tito" already shows some of the elements of Gluck's later "reform operas"; the virtuoso coloraturas and musical contrasts in the casting of the vocal parts are also impressive.

Ekhof Festival 2024: "Baroque Impuls" "La Clemenza Di Tito"

A gem of Baroque music, one of the oldest still widely performed and popular operas, the first world-class English opera ... These are among the attributes of Henry Purcell’s best-known work, whose genesis is not yet clear, a work that has not survived in its entirety. The opera was probably first performed in 1689 at the dance master and choreographer Josias Priest’s boarding school for young gentlewomen in Chelsea, London. Some scholars have, however, argued that Purcell wrote the piece for the English court, either for James II or, even earlier, for Charles II. Still others claim that the opera bears within a covert allegory, veiled in a mythological story, with the witches symbolising the Catholic Church, highly unpopular in the England of the time ...

Aco Bišćević

Events

Upcoming events

2 - 13 Dec, 2026

Dido and Aeneas · Národní divadlo

Past events

Sep 27, 2026

ROMEO AND JULIE – Ekhof Festival – Baroque Impulse · Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach

Sep 13, 2026

CHANSON D'AMOUR – Wandelhalle Eisenach · Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach

Future and recently performed repertoire

Witch in Dido and Aeneas by Purcell

Národní divadlo

ROMEO in Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach

A Christian magician | Herald in Rinaldo by Händel

Staatskapelle Halle

Achilleus in Iphigénie en Aulide by Gluck

Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach

About

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