Singer

Director Barrie Kosky plunges us into a nightmarish, wildly exaggerated satire, with marching noses, rolling rickshaw tables, and caricatured protagonists in garish costumes that straddle folklore and historicism, all unfolding within a cold, bleak setting that feels claustrophobic despite its size. This surrealist story of the insecure and paranoid upstart Platon Kuzmich Kovalyov is transformed into a absurd, kaleidoscopic revue of the vanities, an unsettling collision of Wozzeck and Alice in Wonderland with its own ‘irrational’ logic.

The Nose

Schiller Theater

The celebrated singer Tosca lives only for art, until political intrigue suddenly disturbs her life and that of her lover, the painter Cavaradossi: When Cavaradossi hides the political refugee Angelotti, he is targeted by the unscrupulous police chief Scarpia, who has long had his eye on Tosca. To save Cavaradossi, Tosca not only has to betray Angelotti, but also give herself to Scarpia. Premiered in 1900, Puccini’s »Tosca« is practically unique in its close interweaving of political power and personal passions. The German premiere of this opera about love, jealousy, betrayal and tyranny was held in Dresden in 1902. Director Johannes Schaaf has found a timeless narrative style for his staging.

Tosca

Semperoper Dresden

Based on Voltaire’s satire „Candide ou l’optimisme“, Leonard Bernstein created a masterpiece of modern operetta about the madness of the world. In a witty and lively mixture of opera, musical and revue, he not only parodies traditional dance forms such as the gavotte, mazurka, polka and waltz, but also slyly sprinkles the score with the operatic quotations.

Candide

Prince Tamino is being pursued by a wild serpent. At the last minute, he is saved by three mysterious ladies who have been sent by the queen of the night. When the bird catcher Papageno appears and boasts about the heroic deed they punish him. In contrast, they give the prince a portrait of Pamina, the daughter of the queen who is being held captive by the ruler of the temple of the sun, Sarastro. Tamino falls in love with her. The queen appears in person and orders him to rescue Pamina together with Papageno. A magic flute will protect him from any danger whilst a reluctant Papageno is given magic bells. Guided by three young boys, they set off on their way to Sarastro’s temple. Whilst the temple guards tell Tamino that Sarastro is not the evil tyrant that the queen has depicted, Papageno finds Pamino and tries to flee with her. With the help of the chimes, he is able to distract her guard Monostatos although his efforts are scuppered by the appearance of Sarastro. Papageno, Pamina and Tamino have to stay in Sarastro’s kingdom as Sarastro has something greater planned for Tamino: just as he has taken Pamina into his kingdom to protect her from her mother, he plans to get Tamino into his circle of insiders of the sun temple and, in this way, prepare him for future tasks.

Die Zauberflöte / The Magic Flute

A rich man has commissioned a young composer to write an opera for a celebration: Ariadne auf Naxos. But because this tragic opera about Ariadne, abandoned by her lover Theseus, isn't entertaining enough for him, he invites a troupe of comedians to perform their farces concurrently with the tragedy. This is an imposition for the composer, but also an opportunity: the grief of the abandoned Ariadne clashes with the joie de vivre of the comedienne Zerbinetta. In his production of the work, which premiered in 1916, David Hermann brings the world of Greek tragedy into contact with the lightness of French Rococo. "Ariadne auf Naxos" is an opera about opera, about fidelity and change, and about the transformative power of love.

Ariadne auf Naxos (Ariadne on Naxos)

»The Nose« is the stroke of genius of the just 22-year-old Dmitri Shostakovich based on the novel of the same name by Nikolai Gogol. While Gogol's novella is a satire on tsarist officials, the opera, which premiered in 1930, brings to the stage an entire society in which an opportunistic official falls into the clutches of bureaucracy, a nose becomes a media sensation, and the police closely monitor its citizens. With dance music, balaleika sounds, Russian church music and the first pure percussion piece in music history, »The Nose« is no less grotesque than the strange occurrences it tells: the nose of college assessor Kovalev suddenly disappeared for no reason.

Tenor

Timothy Oliver

Events

Past events

Mar 15 - Apr 6, 2026

The Nose · Komische Oper Berlin

18 - 25 Oct, 2025

Tosca · Semperoper Dresden

Future and recently performed repertoire

Alchemist · Sultan Achmet · Crook in Candide by Bernstein

Semperoper Dresden

Scaramuccio in Ariadne auf Naxos by Strauss

Semperoper Dresden

9. Policeman / An old man / 6. Student in The Nose by Shostakovich

Komische Oper Berlin

Ivan, Kovalyov's valet in The Nose by Shostakovich

Semperoper Dresden

Spoletta in Tosca by Puccini

Semperoper Dresden

Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro by Mozart

Semperoper Dresden

About

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