Set Designer

Gustave Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary is considered a masterpiece of French realism and a pioneering work of literary modernity. Flaubert devoted five years to writing this work, which was published in 1856 and caused a scandal due to its unflinching portrayal of adultery and forbidden desires. With his precise, distantly observing style, Flaubert created a new form of storytelling that rendered inner states and social constraints with striking clarity.

Bovary

Deutsche Oper Berlin

The Dutchman is a cursed man, an outsider, a driven individual. Richard Wagner came upon the character of the famous drifter via Heinrich Heine, who lent the Romantic material his typically ironic touch. Wagner’s interest was tweaked not by Heine’s packaging of the story, which relegated the Dutchman-based action to the margins, but by the tale of the enigmatic mariner, which led to him writing his first opera about the man’s quest for a woman who could offer him redemption. The Dutchman, restlessly plying the borderlands between life and death, encounters Senta, who appears equally ill-at-ease and rootless and yearns for a masculine character, the Dutchman, a figment of her imagination.

Der fliegende Holländer

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

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

Die Walküre

Royal Opera House

In 1983, a cry for liberation resounded from Broadway to London and Berlin, heralding the triumph of a musical that demanded the right to a colorful life beyond stingy pettiness.

Georges runs the nightclub "La Cage aux Folles". The absolute star is his partner, the drag queen Zaza alias Albin. Then Jean-Michel, Georges' son from a previous relationship, shows up: he wants to marry Anne, the daughter of an ultra-conservative family, and, to Albin's great disappointment, asks Georges to go alone to the first meeting with the family. Albin is deeply hurt. But he insists on having dinner together in Jacqueline's restaurant...
Jerry Herman created a classic of the musical genre with an empowerment anthem that gave not only the queer scene the strength to fight for more openness and justice. Directed by Barrie Kosky, the piece becomes an ever-valid plea for the courage to stand up for yourself and for each other!

La Cage aux Folles

Helena, the most beautiful woman in the world and wife of King Menelaus, is bored at the court of Sparta when a mysterious - and incredibly attractive - shepherd suddenly appears and brings a lot of life into the shabby place. What else can Helena, the faithful servant of Venus, do but surrender to her fate?

The Beautiful Helena

Schiller Theater

The Flying Dutchman

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

Manon Lescaut

Opernhaus Zürich

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

Age recommendation: 12 and up Gustave Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary is a masterpiece of world literature that paved the way for modernism. When it was published in 1856, a scandal ensued. Flaubert was accused of «glorifying adultery and charged with violating public and religious morality and decency». The novel tells the story of a young country woman who wants much more than a suffocating provincial life at the side of her petit-bourgeois, unambitious husband. Emma Bovary rebels against her marriage, takes on lovers, loses herself in dreams of passion, luxury and debauchery – and it ends in disaster. She falls hopelessly into debt, ruins her family and finally takes a fatal dose of poison. ‹Bovarism›, a condition in which a person denies reality, is named after the protagonist of Flaubert’s famous novel: Emma Bovary escapes from her dull life in the provinces through excessive fantasies, which she cultivates by reading romantic novels and Parisian fashion magazines. Her extramarital affairs mirror this kitsch, fantasy world, as she lives beyond her means and loses sight of reality. Measured against its literary fame, Madame Bovary is rarely performed on stage, particularly as a ballet. Flaubert’s narrative style seems too cool and realistic for a stage adaptation. But precisely his detached, accurate language, combined with his total engagement with his subject matter, makes it so inspiring. The female figure as an outsider is at the centre of this new production, which does not tell Madame Bovary as a conventional story ballet but instead breaks up narrative structures and approaches the material through abstract choreography and intimate psychological observation. At the same time, it never loses sight of the tale. Christian Spuck’s dance piece Bovary is about the search for female self-determination, rapture and loneliness, substitutions for love, self-injury, hedonism and the fatal outcome when fantasy worlds and reality merge into one. The concept for this new production by the Staatsballett Berlin is to adapt the literary material using darkly poetic imagery and refined humour – to tell the story, not for the sake of telling it, but to enter the characters’ inner worlds and transform them into dance.

With "Manon Lescaut," Giacomo Puccini established a series of tragic female figures in whom passionate devotion and existential despair are intertwined. In four large, cinematically edited scenes, he depicts the stages of the title character's life: her intoxicating love for the student Des Grieux, a life in luxurious Parisian society, and finally, exile and death in an American desert. Director Barrie Kosky underscores the fleeting nature of this life by presenting the narrative as a continuous, feverish journey: Death is already on the coachman's seat at Manon and Des Grieux's first encounter. Following her acclaimed Tosca, soprano Sonya Yoncheva returns to the Zurich Opera House as Manon.

Director Barrie Kosky situates this rich apocalyptic drama in a contemporary world of dream-like turmoil. Antonio Pappano leads a cast headlined by Elisabet Strid, Andreas Schager and Mika Kares, who, with the full forces of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and Royal Opera Chorus, bring opera’s greatest journey to its shattering end.

Götterdämmerung

The biblical story of Samson and Delilah, set in ancient Gaza, illustrates how closely emotions and politics have always been intertwined. To break the power of the Hebrews, the priestess Delilah seeks to uncover the secret of Samson's strength and feigns love for him. But Samson's revenge is terrible when he brings down the temple of Delilah's people, killing himself in the process. Among the most poignant moments in Camille Saint-Saëns' most successful opera is Delilah's seduction scene, "Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix" (My heart opens to your voice). Mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb and tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac make their stage debuts in the title roles under the direction of Gianandrea Noseda. Evgeny Titov, who skillfully combines sensuality with psychological depth in his work, directs.

Set Designer

Rufus Didwiszus

Events

Upcoming events

11 - 26 Dec, 2026

Manon Lescaut · Opernhaus Zürich

Jan 21 - Feb 7, 2027

Götterdämmerung · Royal Opera House

Jun 13 - Jul 9, 2027

Samson and Delilah · Opernhaus Zürich

Past events

Sep 25 - Oct 10, 2026

Bovary · Deutsche Oper Berlin

18 - 28 Jan, 2026

Der fliegende Holländer · Deutsche Oper Berlin

About

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