Modest Mussorgsky’s national folk drama centres on a grim episode of late 17th-century Russian history. Ivan Khovansky, leader of the musketeer corps (streltsy), and his son Andrei, are planning a conspiracy, but the ambitious Prince Vasily Golitsyn, the boyar Shaklovity and cleric Dosifey also get involved in the struggle for power.

Khovanshchina

Bebelplatz

How terrible must life be if you can’t laugh? Sergei Prokofiev’s opera The Love for Three Oranges is about a king who wishes to help his sick son. But only one thing can cure the malady of the heir to the throne: laughter. While the doctors are trying their luck, Truffaldino and Fata Morgana get into a fight, during which the latter is knocked over.

The Love for Three Oranges

Semperoper Dresden

How terrible must life be if you can’t laugh? Sergei Prokofiev’s opera The Love for Three Oranges is about a king who wishes to help his sick son. But only one thing can cure the malady of the heir to the throne: laughter. While the doctors are trying their luck, Truffaldino and Fata Morgana get into a fight, during which the latter is knocked over. When her mishap causes the Prince to laugh, she quickly places a curse on him: he is destined to fall in love with three oranges. The Prince and Truffaldino immediately set off on a hair-raising journey that finally takes them to a desert – a trip that can be seen as a balancing act between fantasy and reality. Here parody is tinged with tragedy and a touch of the grotesque.

Sometimes as a cautionary tale of a wrongdoer who eventually gets his comeuppance, sometimes as an allegory of a freedom-loving, unconventional libertine who questions the moral and religious ideas of his day: The figure of the irresistibly attractive yet unscrupulous Don Juan (or Don Giovanni) is a modern myth, among whose numerous adaptations Mozart’s "dramma giocoso" stands out.

Don Giovanni

He commands a world empire and yet he is deeply unsettled. Philip II of Spain not only fears losing command but also feels betrayed and deserted by his wife Elizabeth von Valois: she and his son Carlo are in love. Over all this hangs the threatening shadow of the Inquisition. In vain, King Philip seeks trust in a hostile world.

Taras Shtonda

Events

Upcoming events

6 - 25 Feb, 2026

Don Giovanni · Staatsoper Berlin

5 - 26 Jun, 2026

Don Carlo · Staatsoper Berlin

Past events

2 - 23 Nov, 2025

Khovanshchina · Staatsoper Berlin

9 - 19 Oct, 2025

The Love for Three Oranges · Semperoper Dresden

Future and recently performed repertoire

Komtur in Don Giovanni by Mozart

Staatsoper Berlin

Köchin in The Love for Three Oranges by Prokofiev

Semperoper Dresden

Köchin · Herold in The Love for Three Oranges by Prokofiev

Semperoper Dresden

The Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlos by Verdi

Staatsoper Berlin

Dossifei in Khovanshchina by Mussorgsky

Staatsoper Berlin

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