Singer

"Since Bach's Mass in B minor and Beethoven's Missa solemnis , nothing has been written that can compare with Brahms' German Requiem in this field ," according to the influential music writer Eduard Hanslick. Transcending all denominational boundaries, Brahms created a work that most impressively expresses feelings of suffering and grief, consolation and hope, through a carefully considered selection of texts and with particular sensitivity in the way they are set. Music for Good Friday that reflects this day and simultaneously points beyond it.

EPSG:4326

Good Friday Concert

Berliner Philharmonie

The Viennese aristocracy are no strangers to family feuds: boorish Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau interrupts the morning tête-à-tête between his cousin, the Marschallin, and her young lover Octavian, to ask for her help with his wedding plans, which are steered more by financial gain than love. Ochs does not suspect that Octavian himself, who is chosen to deliver the engagement rose, will eventually fall in love with the bride.

Der Rosenkavalier

Bebelplatz

Concentus Musicus Wien im Musikverein 2026

Musikverein Wien

This season, the Staatskapelle Berlin and its General Music Director Christian Thielemann will perform at three venues and three renowned European concert halls: the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, the Munich Isarphilharmonie, and the Vienna Musikverein. In addition to Brahms's impressive German Requiem , they will perform orchestral songs by Strauss and Beethoven's Pastorale – music by composers with whom the orchestra is particularly familiar and with whom it has repeatedly and intensly explored for many years.

Staatskapelle Berlin: Guest performance in Hamburg

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Few works convey the human struggle in the face of mortality, between hope and despair, light and shadow, as movingly as Johannes Brahms's "German Requiem." With an individual selection of biblical passages, the composer created a thoroughly personal promise of comfort, which he himself said he would have preferred to call "human" rather than "German." Christian Thielemann, the "sound gilder" (Hamburger Abendblatt), conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin.

Brahms: A German Requiem / Christian Thielemann

With his German Requiem, Johannes Brahms found his own musical tone and expression. Deeply connected to the words and messages of the Bible and the spirit of Romanticism, and grounded in the achievements of tradition, he composed an astonishing work in his early thirties, intertwining vocal and instrumental parts to create a harmonious whole. He masterfully handled both the choir and solo voices, as well as the orchestra, with a multitude of haunting expressive moments that have secured the work a central place in churches and concert halls around the world since its composition in the 1860s.

Symphony Concert IV

Since its first performance in 1893, Humperdinck's most famous opera Hansel and Gretel has remained constantly popular, becoming over the generations almost synonymous with the first family visit to the opera. "Brother come and dance with me!“ – "Susie, dear Susie" – a dancing brother and sister, the Dew Fairy and the Sandman, the Witch and the parents: a collection of all the fairy tale elements of the 19th century. And yet this is also a tale of hardship, hunger and the desire for abundance with a clear moral: "When the need is greatest, God the Lord puts out His hand!“

Hänsel Und Gretel

Max-Joseph-Platz

Concert of the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna

The BSO begins the exploration of Boston in 1900 with two pieces that were composed at the same time Symphony Hall was being built.

Mahler Symphony No. 4 | Boston, Symphony Hall, & the BSO in 1900

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Concert in Lisbon

MEO Arena

What happens when, in times of war and destruction, even your own family becomes a battlefield and mistrust, desire and betrayal break out? The cruel, ingenious and at the same time megalomaniac King of Pontus, Mitridate, fights a hopeless war against the Romans, while his two sons are under pressure from their father and his fiancée Aspasia decides against her duty and in favor of her feelings and turns away from him. With Mitridate, the 14-year-old Mozart composed his first full-length opera seria according to all the rules of the time and at the same time a work in which his humanistic flair already shines through. In the arias, he gives the ensemble of singers ample opportunity to explore the depths of the human soul and display their vocal virtuosity. Preserving the essence of this historical operatic genre, but at the same time reinterpreting its form, the aim is to create something in which the orchestra is integrated both visually and in terms of content. In this way, the fate of the characters can be experienced directly through visible music-making.

Mitridate, re di Ponto

Staatsoper Hamburg

Friday 12th subscription - Nikola Hillebrand - Roberto González-Monjas

Opera Palace of A Coruña

Opera buffa in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte

Le nozze di Figaro

Opernhaus Zürich

Advance ticket sales will begin on September 10, 2024 at 10 a.m. via the ticket service of the Frauenkirche Dresden Foundation

ZDF Advent concert

Frauenkirche Dresden

A bohemian flat share in Parisian artist and student circles: the poet Rodolfo and his friends struggle through life between freedom, independence, art and financial hardship. When Rodolfo falls in love with the neighbor Mimì everything seems to be going for the better at first, but poverty and Mimì's illness overshadow the relationship. The two grow closer, separate again and finally only find each other when it is already too late. At the time of its premiere in 1896, what is probably Puccini's best-known opera offered a novelty in Italian opera thanks to its intimate scenery and everyday subject. In the production by director Christine Mielitz, Puccini's fourth opera is one of the most popular repertoire classics at the Semperoper Dresden.

La Bohème

Semperoper Dresden

Pedrillo, his lover Blonde and Konstanze, having been kidnapped by pirates and dragged into the seraglio by the Pasha, Bassa Selim, hope to be rescued. Konstanze’s fiancé Belmonte attempts to free them – but fails. Only the Pasha himself can grant them their freedom. Orientalism and Enlightenment meet colourful costumes and a fairytale backdrop in this production by the Dutch director and stage designer Michiel Dijkemas. In The Abduction from the Seraglio, which premiered in Vienna in 1782, Mozart gathered together numbers that are still some of the most famous in operatic literature such as Konstanze’s aria Martern aller Arten, Blonde’s Welche Wonne, welche Lust, Pedrillo’s Auf zum Kampfe or the exotic Chorus of the Janissaries.

Die Entführung aus dem Serail / The Abduction from the Seraglio

He asks the marshal for a suitable candidate to deliver a silver rose to his very young bride Sophie - daughter of the newly ennobled, rich Lord of Faninal. The Marschallin suggests Octavian. She reflects melancholically on the transience of life. With a »light heart and light hands«, she wants to let Octavian go one day..

Vienna State Opera

The Marschallin spends a night with her young lover Octavian. In the morning, Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau disturbs the idyll and asks her to find a suitable bearer of the silver rose for his bride Sophie, the daughter of the rich Faninal.

Der Rosen­kavalier

Singen mit Sir Simon

Circus-Krone-Bau

Turniergebäude

Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy begins with a dramatic piano solo, performed by the festival’s director, before Cristian Măcelaru takes up the baton. The Vienna Singverein delicately enters and everyone rises together to the anthemic conclusion.

Grafenegg: Beethoven and Orff with Cristian Măcelaru

Grafenegg Wolkenturm

Belmonte is looking for his fiancée Konstanze, who has been kidnapped with Blonde and Pedrillo by pirates and sold to Bassa Selim.

Die Entführung aus dem Serail

Intrigue, mistaken identities and amorous adventures in 19th century Vienna. The wealthy Gabriel von Eisenstein is sentenced to prison, but escapes his fate by going to a party.

Die Fledermaus

The beautiful Arabella doesn't want to make a commitment until she meets the right man, "who will one day stand before her".

Soprano

Nikola Hillebrand

Events

Upcoming events

9 - 18 May, 2026

Der Rosenkavalier · Wiener Staatsoper

May 9, 2026 - Feb 19, 2027

Der Rosen­kavalier · Wiener Staatsoper

5 - 12 Jul, 2026

Singen mit Sir Simon · Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Aug 14, 2026

Grafenegg: Beethoven and Orff with Cristian Măcelaru · Philharmonia Orchestra

15 - 23 Oct, 2026

Die Entführung aus dem Serail · Wiener Staatsoper

Past events

Apr 3, 2026

Good Friday Concert · Staatskapelle Berlin

Mar 28 - Apr 5, 2026

Der Rosenkavalier · Staatsoper Berlin

Future and recently performed repertoire

Singer in Symphony No. 4 by Mahler

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Singer in Carmina Burana by Orff

Philharmonia Orchestra

Sopran in Carmina Burana by Orff

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Singer in Nocturnes by Debussy

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Zdenka in Arabella by Strauss

Wiener Staatsoper

Aspasia in Mitridate, re di Ponto by Mozart

Staatsoper Hamburg

Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss

Staatsoper Berlin

Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Mozart

Wiener Staatsoper

Musetta in La Bohème by Puccini

Semperoper Dresden

Singer in A German Requiem by Brahms

Concentus Musicus Wien

Adele in Die Fledermaus by Strauss

Wiener Staatsoper

Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel by Humperdinck

Bayerische Staatsoper

Singer in Voices of Spring Waltz by Strauss

Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra

Singer in Medley by II

Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra

About

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Der Rosenkavalier · Wiener Staatsoper