Oedipus confronts the secrets of the oracle, Macbeth confronts the prophecies of the witches: a sudden utterance from another world—and a few words change an entire life. The moira is revealed. While Oedipus seeks to flee the tragic fate promised to him, a twofold process is triggered in Macbeth. First, he reacts to the announcement that he will soon become king by attempting to ascend to the promised heights and acts accordingly: He kills. Having attained dominion and power, he then defies the second part of the prophecy: He kills again. Afterward, he becomes the plaything of his madness, his fear, his moral fall: He kills again and again.

Macbeth

Great Festival House

In Leoš Janáček’s opera, Kát’a Kabanová, the eponymous heroine is ensnared at the heart of an ominous mesh of relations. Her domineering mother-in-law, Kabanicha, oppresses and controls her son Tichon, whose marriage to Kát’a suffers massively from heteronomy. Because Kát’a finds no fulfilment in this family, she flees and fulfils her unsatisfied erotic desires in an affair with Boris. As composer and librettist, Janáček bundles the plot of the literary template, Alexander N. Ostrovsky’s drama, The Storm. The libretto largely dispenses with the portrayal of the external social circumstances, from whence Kát’a’s essence and choices are decisively determined. Instead, Janáček traces the development of the title character in a psychological-sensitive musical language. Kát’a’s feelings of guilt increase continuously until they discharge into a public confession as an emotional storm. The turbulent and in places fanciful music opens the space for passages of lyrical grace and allows us to experience the essence of the characters. In Kát’a, director Krzysztof Warlikowski sees an outsider, who is denied a life in harmony with her desires, and at the end prefers death over lies. The destructive power of religion behind it all is not only found in a small Russian town on the banks of the Volga in the 1860s, where the libretto places the plot, but rather can also be seen everywhere all over the world.

Káťa Kabanová

Max-Joseph-Platz

"How beautiful Princess Salome is tonight!". Oscar Wilde's French drama, arranged as opera text by the composer himself, was a stroke of genius of the fin de siècle, a scandal on one hand and an absolute hit on the other, both an artistic and a financial success which allowed Richard Strauss to buy his villa in Garmisch. Salome demands the head of the prophet, John the Baptist, who has rejected her, from her lustful stepfather – and bound by an oath, he cannot deny her. And so the zealous admonisher dies, and with him the princess is undone – "Kill this woman!". Krzysztof Warlikowski is convinced that Salome recounts many of the contradictions of the period of origin, that in this piece, however, much is also dismissed of that which at the time was still the future: "It's not just what's in the work of art itself that is important, whether it be Oscar Wilde or Richard Strauss, but rather the whole context, which Christianity and the history of the 20th century add to this piece."

Małgorzata Szczęśniak

Events

Upcoming events

Feb 23 - Mar 5, 2026

Salome · Bayerische Staatsoper

Past events

9 - 29 Aug, 2025

Macbeth · Salzburger Festspiele

Mar 17 - Jul 7, 2025

Káťa Kabanová · Bayerische Staatsoper

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