In 1821, the unemployed wigmaker Johann Christian Woyzeck stabs his sweetheart to death in Leipzig. The trial against him drags on for years until, after his sanity has been examined twice, all appeals for clemency are rejected and Woyzeck is sentenced to death. Alban Berg saw Georg Büchner's dramatization of this case at the Vienna Kammerspiele in 1914. In the face of the outbreak of the World War I, the signs of human denaturation, which Berg addresses in his opera without turning them into blatant social criticism, became more evident.

Wozzeck

German Oper am Rhein

Every year in December, the anticipation grows for a festive occasion when you can get together with family and friends and treat yourself to something special. Our early Christmas present goes to our most loyal supporters: the members of the Friends of Deutsche Oper am Rhein. The Opera Studio of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Katharina Müllner, will present a special musical programme. Non-members of the Circle of Friends are also cordially invited to experience the concert in a festive atmosphere!

Christmas with friends

Tell me, Pinocchio, what are you saying? You've seen people turn into donkeys? You sat in the belly of a whale? And you've met the blue fairy, who is the very best anyway? You're teasing us! Don't you know that lies have short legs? Uh... Pinocchio, wait a minute! That can't be true! You made up all these stories!

Pinoc­chio

Katerina Ismailova is wealthily married and lonely, her husband impotent and her father-in-law a tyrant. She is trapped in a world where merciless brutality, despotism and cruelty reign. The woman with a lust for life and love gives way to her raw longing for freedom when Sergei starts working for the Ismailov family. She throws herself into a passionate affair with him and poisons her father-in-law's food. But the increasing radicalism of her desire for self-determination will claim further victims ...

Lady Macbeth von Mzensk

Count Almaviva is walking on suitors' feet. He would like to win the heart of the self-confident Rosina if there wasn't one problem: her money-hungry guardian Dr Bartolo has his own plans to marry his wealthy protégé and locks Rosina up. Good advice is expensive and Figaro, the enterprising barber of Seville, is happy to pay for it in hard cash. Figaro uses ludicrous schemes to trick the lovers through all the entanglements into marital bliss. Rossini's turbulent endurance race to the dream wedding is a true opera classic, also thanks to the famous "Figaro" aria.

Il barbiere di Siviglia

Violetta Valéry is beautiful, clever, warm-hearted - and terminally ill. Her life as a noble courtesan is preordained. There is no room for private happiness, not even for her love for the young Alfredo Germont, who conquers her heart and wants to save her from the vicious circle of venal love into a carefree private sphere. There she meets her doom in the shape of Alfredo's father Giorgio Germont....

La travi­ata

Theater Duisburg

At night, a fisherman thinks of the nightingale’s song, which makes him forget everything else. When the nightingale appears, it enchants him with its singing. That same night, an imperial delegation is on its way, sent by the Emperor to bring the nightingale to the imperial court. The nightingale accepts the Emperor’s invitation and appears before his throne. The Emperor has never heard anything more beautiful than the nightingale’s song, which makes him forget all his worries.

Constantin Moței

Events

Upcoming events

May 27 - Jul 18, 2027

The nightingale · Oper Köln

Past events

Jun 2 - Jul 1, 2026

Wozzeck · Deutsche Oper am Rhein

Dec 17, 2025

Christmas with friends · Deutsche Oper am Rhein

Future and recently performed repertoire

2. Journeyman in Wozzeck by Berg

Deutsche Oper am Rhein

Barone Douphol in La traviata by Verdi

Deutsche Oper am Rhein

Schoolchild Carlo / Fee in Pinocchio by Schötz

Deutsche Oper am Rhein

The Emperor in The Nightingale by Stravinsky

Oper Köln

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