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Long before the cinematic popularity of Downton Abbey or the Jane Austen craze, the ruthless inner world of the British landed gentry became the setting for Italian opera. With his 1835 setting of Walter Scott's successful novel The Bride of Lammermoor, Gaetano Donizetti created a lyrical drama that remains the epitome of Italian Romanticism. Set in Scotland around 1700, the tragedy is also the most famous example of the transformation of the virtuosic bel canto style into a highly expressive stylisation of extreme emotional states and contains what is arguably the most famous scene of madness in Italian opera. Filippo Sanjust’s production, with its painted scenery and spotlights, evokes the atmosphere of an operatic evening from the work’s original era. Michele Spotti, Principal Guest Conductor of Deutsche Oper Berlin, conducts the company’s ensembles for the first time in his new role. As Lucia we encounter the virtuoso Nina Minasyan, and one of the most brilliant bel canto tenors, Xabier Anduaga, returns to our stage as Edgardo.

Lucia di Lammermoor

Deutsche Oper Berlin

With The Magic Flute, Mozart wanted to write a piece for everyone – the blend of Viennese folk theater, Singspiel, and Italian opera makes it a favourite with audiences to this day. There's something for every taste, from catchy songs and arias to humorous spoken dialogue and fairytale elements. Günter Krämer’s production creates two contrasting worlds: the realm of the Queen of the Night and the temple of the Sun King. Between them travels Prince Tamino, accompanied by the bird catcher Papageno. On their adventurous journey, they traverse primeval forests inhabited by lions, rhinoceroses and snakes. Mozart’s opera imaginatively invites reflection on good and evil, dreams, fears and love. The lovingly crafted, partly mechanical set design creates stage magic. Renowned Mozart interpreter Tomáš Netopil conducts the Deutsche Oper Berlin orchestra. Our ensemble of soloists will enchant with their joy in acting and singing.

The Magic Flute

Look forward to a magical evening under the open sky when Opera Hedeland performs Mozart's beloved opera "The Marriage of Figaro" in the summer of 2025. Experience it under the open sky on August 8, 15 and 16, 2025.

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Opera performance in 2025: The Marriage of Figaro

Opera Hedeland

Verdi’s celebrated dramatic masterpiece is a triumph of opera, brimming with some of its greatest musical highlights.

Rigoletto has everything one could wish for in Italian opera: a gripping storyline and unforgettable melodies that stay with you long after the curtain falls—including the famous tenor aria La donna è mobile.

Rigoletto

Royal Danish Opera

The music in Mozart's Requiem is endlessly beautiful and poignant, but the story behind the work's creation is shrouded in mystery. It is a commissioned work, but Mozart did not know the person who commissioned it. It was a count, Franz Walsseg-Stuppach, who, through his lawyer, bought works from the leading composers of the time and had them performed as his own. The Requiem – the death mass – was intended as a tribute to his late wife, but it also became a requiem for Mozart himself, as he died before he could complete his masterpiece.

Mozart's Requiem

Aalborg Central Waterfront

Sounds like those Richard Strauss unleashed in Elektra with a gigantic orchestra were unprecedented until the opera’s premiere in 1909. And the radicalism and expressive ferocity of Elektra have lost none of their power to this day. The archaic subject matter both terrifies and fascinates: Elektra, an infinitely lonely young woman, is kept alive solely by the thought of avenging her mother’s murder of her father, Agamemnon. When her father is avenged and her brother Orestes has killed their mother and her lover, Elektra dances an ecstatic dance, at the climax of which she collapses dead. This is a roller coaster of an opera. Ricarda Merbeth, one of the most important Wagner and Strauss interpreters of our time, takes on the title role, while the charismatic Okka von der Damerau makes her debut as Clytemnestra. The Slovak conductor Juraj Valčuha, for years one of the most influential guest conductors at Deutsche Oper Berlin, conducts the monumental work.

Elektra

This oratorio tells the story of the last days in the life of Jesus Christ. Exactly three hundred years ago, Johann Sebastian Bach set the Gospel text to music: The premiere was held on Good Friday in 1727. Benedikt von Peter’s production takes the inherent tradition of the Stations of the Cross seriously: Bach’s double-choir masterpiece unfolds as an acoustic crucifix; the audience sits amidst the musical action, exposing their own bodies to this Passion and its unsettling beauty. Betrayal, mortal agony, sacrifice and forgiveness do not appear as a distant event of salvation, but as a sober question for our present: What are the sins for which the Son must be sacrificed year after year? Not the Evangelist, but children bring the parable to life. They shoulder the cross, prevent Judas’s suicide with an embrace, and put the value system of a Christian society up for discussion. Marc Minkowski, a renowned specialist in Baroque vocal music and a guest at the Deutsche Oper for the first time, conducts this special revival exactly on the 300th anniversary of the work!

St Matthew Passion

Oscar Wilde’s drama about the biblical princess who has the prophet Jochanaan beheaded so she can kiss his dead mouth unfolds a tableau of human depravity: From murder and necrophilia to sexualised violence, one shocking moment follows another. But it was not only these themes that made Strauss’s Salome a scandal, but also its radically modern, overwhelming music, which was far ahead of its time. The «Faust» Prize winner Claus Guth incorporates insights from psychoanalysis, which emerged around the time of the 1905 premiere, into his production and delves into Salome’s subconscious: Younger versions of her Self accompany Salome like shadows of past wounds, together struggling to cope with childhood traumas. In a stage design that maintains the illusion of a flawless facade, reality, dream and memory begin to blur – the path from victim to perpetrator seems inevitable. Marc Albrecht conducts, and Elisabeth Strid will be performing Barrie Kosky’s new London Brünnhilde as Salome for the first time.

Salome

Undoubtedly one of the most famous melodies in operatic history is the popular prisoners’ chorus «Va pensiero,» from Nabucco, which in Verdi’s time was even considered the unofficial national anthem of Italy. Beyond this, however, it was also Verdi’s unerring instinct for theatrically effective situations that made Nabucco the composer’s first major success; here, too, Verdi found his very personal musical-dramatic language. The powerful, contrasting choral scenes, which address the Babylonian-Hebrew conflict, the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile of the Jews are juxtaposed with the story of the disintegration of a ruling family: Abigaille and Fenena are half-sisters, both in love with the young Jew Ismaele. Their father, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, descends into madness and despair. The title role features the charismatic baritone Nicola Alaimo, deeply rooted in the Italian tradition, alongside the radiant Saoia Hernández as Abigaille. The fiery Verdi conductor Antonino Fogliani leads the performance.

Nabucco

The Chinese princess Turandot refuses marriage and demonstrates this with a gruesome ritual: Every suitor who fails to solve her three riddles is beheaded. This brutal cycle continues until Calaf breaks it. With his last, unfinished opera, Turandot, Giacomo Puccini created an unparalleled score that went beyond the famous «Nessun dorma.» To depict a fantastical, fairytale China, he blended traditional Chinese music, pentatonic scales, unusual timbres and stark dissonances into a soundscape that oscillates between lyrical delicacy and brutal force. Franco Alfano completed the opera and wrote an unusually conciliatory ending for Puccini, which is countered in this production by Lorenzo Fioroni: In a timeless state reminiscent of contemporary military dictatorships, brutality and trauma remain omnipresent. Camilla Nylund, known for her incomparable Wagner and Strauss portraits, can be seen here in the challenging title role in the Italian repertoire.

Singer, Actor

Nicolai Elsberg

Events

Upcoming events

Sep 2, 2026 - Jan 15, 2027

The Magic Flute · Deutsche Oper Berlin

6 - 17 Nov, 2026

Elektra · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Mar 25 - Apr 4, 2027

St Matthew Passion · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Apr 17 - May 4, 2027

Salome · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Apr 24 - May 14, 2027

Nabucco · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Past events

5 - 18 Sep, 2026

Lucia di Lammermoor · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Sep 2, 2026 - Jan 15, 2027

The Magic Flute · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Future and recently performed repertoire

A Mandarin in Turandot by Puccini

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Raimondo Bidebent in Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti

Deutsche Oper Berlin

First Nazarene in Salome by Strauss

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Sarastro in The Magic Flute by Mozart

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Sparafucile in Rigoletto by Verdi

Royal Danish Opera

Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart

Opera Hedeland

The Guardian of Orest in Elektra by Strauss

Deutsche Oper Berlin

High priest of Baal in Nabucco by Verdi

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Jesus in St Matthew Passion by Bach

Deutsche Oper Berlin

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