Singer

La Fille du régiment, or the “regiment’s daughter”, is what they call the young Marie, who was found when just a child on the battlefield by soldiers. The troops commit to raising the evidently abandoned girl themselves. A young man of course must soon enter the scene and stir a special interest in her, and the secret of her origins will soon also be revealed. In the best tradition of French opéra comique, with his team of librettists, Gaetano Donizetti created a piece that in a truly original way combines Alpine idyll, patriotic enthusiasm and romantic love with comic situations and heightened conflicts. While Donizetti’s piece was at times extremely popular, the “regiment’s daughter” faded from favour somewhat in the 20th century. It can now be rediscovered, from the famous overture right through to the both amusing and cryptic music, in its first new production at the Bayerische Staatsoper in almost ninety years.

La Fille du régiment

Max-Joseph-Platz

Men don't fall in love with courtesans! That's the opinion of Alfredo's father after his son moves in with the mortally ill Violetta Valéry. In her love for Alfredo Violetta even agrees. She leaves him, dies poor, ill – still dreaming of the happiness of true love. One of Verdi's most beloved operas continues to hold the mirror up to society and its hypocritical morality. An exemplary production! See it!

La Traviata

As the template for his opera, Die Englische Katze (1983), Hans Werner Henze turned to a story by Honoré de Balzac from the early 1840s, illustrated by the famous caricaturist, Grandville. The libretto for Die Englische Katze was delivered by the English author Edward Bond, with whom Henze had already collaborated successfully with his previous opera, We Come to the River. If this was a passionate plea against the war, at first glance this animal parable, Die Englische Katze, appears to be apolitical, indeed, even harmless or amusing. The story about the ageing tomcat, Lord Puff, president of a vegetarian-nourishing “Royal Society for the Protection of Rats” and his young wife Minette, who falls in love with another, daring and exciting tomcat, Tom, ends tragically however, and serves as a wicked satire. Minette is drowned by the other cats, Tom is stabbed in the back, just after he has inherited a large sum of money. The insensitive, hypocritical cat society that only looks out for its own benefit gets off scot free.

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Die Englische Katze

Munich Residence

2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Gabriel Fauré. In his day, he was a highly estimated composer of Kunstlieder (art songs) and chamber music, as well as being the Director of the Conservatoire de Paris. His works can now be found in larger instrumentation arrangements on international programmes, and his Requiem in particular. His only opera, Pénélope, will now be performed for the first time at the Bayerische Staatsoper. The plot follows the final chants from Homer’s Odyssey, now a proverb as the eponymous hero’s years of wandering to reach his homeland, Ithaca, after the Trojan War. The opera revolves around his wife, Pénélope, who for years has successfully fought off the machinations of power-hungry men, who seek to usurp the throne of her given up for lost husband, Odysseus. With chamber musical transparency and the use of key themes inspired by Richard Wagner, the composer created a score in which the orchestra is applied thoroughly symphonically, where the human voice’s lyrical melodic expression and comprehensibility of text are front and centre. Director Andrea Breth addresses the question as to whether a reuniting of the regal couple, Pénélope and Odysseus (Ulysses), after years of separation can run harmoniously or must also endure disaffection and alienation.

Pénélope

Prinzregententheater

A poet has published a poem about a lonesome hunter, who he recently saw in the mountains. Josuke Misugi, who has recognised himself as the mountain hunter, subsequently contacts him. He sends the poet three letters, in which three women that are important for him tell of the long relationship he had with his sister-in-law, Saiko. A relationship of which nobody but they knew, or at least they thought so. Now we learn, however, that his wife Midori has long since known, and in her letter tells of the consequences. In her farewell letter, Saiko herself struggles with her long years of guilty conscience. And Shoko, Saiko’s daughter, also never wants to see her uncle again, as she has learnt of their secret from her mother’s diary. A man between two women – five views of the same facts. Yasushi Inoue’s 1949 novel could be set anywhere, and at any time. Modern people plot against each other, four lives turn out to be lies. At the end, one person is dead, and a successful businessman has become a lonely hunter in the mountains. For this chamber opera, which celebrated its world premiere at the Bregenz Festival in 2018, Austrian composer Thomas Larcher has been developing his sounds from the germ cells of music – a rhythm, an interval, a scale and singing, sometimes almost entirely silent, sometimes exploring the limits of the human voice.

Das Jagdgewehr

La Fille du régiment, or the “regiment’s daughter”, is what they call the young Marie, who was found when just a child on the battlefield by soldiers. The troops commit to raising the evidently abandoned girl themselves. A young man of course must soon enter the scene and stir a special interest in her, and the secret of her origins will soon also be revealed. In the best tradition of French opéra comique, with his team of librettists, Gaetano Donizetti created a piece that in a truly original way combines Alpine idyll, patriotic enthusiasm and romantic love with comic situations and heightened conflicts. While Donizetti’s piece was at times extremely popular, the “regiment’s daughter” faded from favour somewhat in the 20th century. It can now be rediscovered, from the famous overture right through to the both amusing and cryptic music, in its first new production at the Bayerische Staatsoper in almost ninety years

In a frenetic world where there never seems time 'to stop and stare', this evening of song celebrates the art of contemplation and what it means to be alive. Drawing inspiration from the poetry of the Romantics to the present day the programme will reflect 'On Man, On Nature and On Human Life'.

Samling Artists

Wigmore Hall

In the portrait concerts of the Opera Studio, two singers and a pianist from the Opera Studio present themselves. The program consists exclusively of song repertoire, which is selected by the singers in consultation with the pianists and, along with operas, forms an important part of the vocal repertoire. The portrait concerts offer the possibility to get to know the three artists in their own way and with their history in a nice atmosphere.

Portrait Concert 1

Artist House

Dressed as a man and calling herself “Fidelio”, Leonore surreptitiously gains the confidence of the jailer Rocco and his daughter Marzelline, thus gaining access to the high security tract where her husband Florestan has been despotically incarcerated by Don Pizarro. Florestan is in mortal danger, but this does not intimidate his wife, who is determined to liberate him. Finally, however, the two of them can only be rescued by an emissary from the monarch. At the end, a Utopia in the form of a final chorus sets the stage aglow, not only as a plea for freedom and justice, but also concurrently as a condemnation of the anxieties and restrictions of human existence.

Fidelio

Neither balsam, nor medicinal herbs can provide relief to the wounded and ailing Amfortas, ruler of the Grail kingdom. His path to recovery proves to be a complex one. No member of the Grail community can reclaim the spear which inflicted the wound, but only an outsider, a “pure fool”, enlightened by compassion. Only by the tip of this spear touching Amfortas’s wound can he be healed. On his journey of self-discovery, towards his destiny as chosen deliverer, Parsifal is accompanied, not only by the skilful Grail Knight Gurnemanz, but also by the enigmatic and seductive Kundry, who opens his eyes to sensuality and extrasensory experience.

Parsifal

Following their acclaimed production of Orfeo in 2022, we welcome back the same creative team to perform the second of Monteverdi’s opera trilogy. John Caird will direct and Laurence Cummings will conduct The English Concert on the stage, with a stellar cast lead by Cecelia Hall and Ed Lyon.

In the last five fruitful years of his life, Monteverdi wrote this opera for the carnival season of 1640, a time for music, dance and masquerading. His musical style, so astonishingly bold and innovative when he wrote Orfeo more than thirty years earlier, has developed yet further, with arias and duets that give full life and humanity to his characters.

Tenor

Dafydd Jones

Events

Upcoming events

Nov 5, 2025 - Jan 30, 2026

Die Englische Katze · Bayerische Staatsoper

Dec 14, 2025

Portrait Concert 1 · Bayerische Staatsoper

Mar 8 - Jul 18, 2026

Fidelio · Bayerische Staatsoper

5 - 11 Apr, 2026

Parsifal · Bayerische Staatsoper

Jun 12 - Jul 25, 2026

Il ritorno d'Ulisse · Garsington Opera

Past events

22 - 28 Nov, 2025

La Fille du régiment · Bayerische Staatsoper

11 - 20 Nov, 2025

La Traviata · Bayerische Staatsoper

Future and recently performed repertoire

Giuseppe in La traviata by Verdi

Bayerische Staatsoper

1. Gefangener in Fidelio by Beethoven

Bayerische Staatsoper

A Peasant in La fille du régiment by Donizetti

Bayerische Staatsoper

Mr. Keen / Der Verteidiger / Der Pfarrer in The English Cat by Henze

Bayerische Staatsoper

Third Squire in Parsifal by Wagner

Bayerische Staatsoper

Telemaco in Il ritorno d'Ulisse by Monteverdi

Garsington Opera

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