Singer

“Don‘t you know the horrible dark place, don’t you know the evil one lives there?” Hastily, their parents set out for the woods to save Hansel and Gretel from the witch Rosina Leckermaul. As they feared, the children have got lost in the woods and found the gingerbread house. They cannot resist the sweet temptation – and fall straight into the trap of the witch, who likes children so much she could eat them up… literally.
As in most tales of the Brothers Grimm, in Engelbert Humperdinck’s setting of the fairytale all ends well: until that point, however, Humperdinck’s romantic music accompanies the children deep into the dark forest of legend. Here it invokes magical beings, calls on 14 angels to protect the siblings and allows the witch to ride her broomstick through the air.

Hansel and Gretel

Hamburg State Opera

Iris ter Schiphorst's opera for children was premiered in Vienna in 2010. Together with her librettist Helga Utz, the Hamburg-born composer created a touching and captivatingly imaginative work of music theater from the Grimm fairy tale. A princess, accompanied by her maid, sets off from the protection of her parental home to meet her bridegroom. Despite a difficult journey and numerous obstacles, everything turns out well in the end and she is able to marry her prince. Tobias Kratzer is staging Die Gänsemagd as part of the opening of the opera stabile's artistic direction and season one day after Das Paradies und die Peri, the opening production on the main stage. Musical theater for the youngest generations is not a niche product for him, but a top priority. Here, young audiences experience it at close quarters: As a flock of geese, the children become part of the action, immersing themselves in the story together with the musicians and ensemble singers - opera as a lively, accessible art form full of enchanting melodies that shows how valuable resilience, self-confidence and trust in others are on the journey through life.

The Goose Girl

Opera Stabile Werk/Wirkbühne der Staatsoper

Inspired by his romantic love for Mathilde Wesendonck, Richard Wagner created one of the most beautiful operas in music history. This season, the Hamburg State Opera revives its legendary production by Ruth Berghaus of 1988.

EPSG:4326

Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde)

Staatsoper Hamburg

Sir John Falstaff is an anarchist who obeys only the reign of his own enjoyment, an egoist who feeds only his power-hunger and his own flesh, and who would prefer to raze the small-minded morals of his contemporaries like the walls of a fortress – by seducing two women at the same time. Needless to say, his plan is thwarted, but those trying to expose him also fail to emerge unruffled from the confusion they unleash around him – which only the audience can keep track of, barely. “Tutto nel mondo è burla,” but these jokes are only funny because falling into the abyss actually does pose quite a serious risk. Arrigo Boito, the librettist of “Otello”, distilled a sophisticated, ingenious libretto from Shakespeare’s original, driving Verdi to highly complex compositional heights.

Falstaff

Never one to miss an opportunity to make fun of others, the hunchback jester Rigoletto is employed by the Duke of Mantua. His only joy in life is his daughter Gilda. When Rigoletto must witness how she falls for the calculated vows of love of the unscrupulous Duke, he is out for revenge: he hires the contract killer Sparafucile to murder the seducer. Gilda, however, sacrifices herself for her lover. Rigoletto realises that he has driven his daughter to death and destroyed his own life.

Rigoletto

Young Tatyana falls in love with Eugene Onegin, and confesses her love for him, against all convention. When he pretends that marriage is not for him, she weds Prince Gremin in haste. After many years, Tatyana and Onegin meet again, but their belated confession of mutual love cannot bring them back together.

Eugene Onegin

The poet E. T. A. Hoffmann as the protagonist of his own fantastic tales: In his encounter with three women - Olympia, Antonia, and Giulietta - he searches in vain for love for love and for himself. Will he draw the strength for art from his failure in life? art from his failures in life? Or will he fail in himself, even in alcohol? Like in a kaleidoscope, ever new constellations and shimmering colors constellations and shimmering colors German romanticism and French esprit.

Les Contes d'Hoffmann

Senta's dreams are directed towards the sea: will the man who will free her from her restricted life at home come from there? It begins stormily; Wagner's first fully valid opera presents a grandiose, overwhelming vision of the elements already in the overture. The fate of the Flying Dutchman and the woman who is to redeem him takes place in the roar of the waves and the ocean. This "romantic opera" aims to transcend boundaries - between tradition and future music, between land and sea, between convention and revolution. The result is a thrilling drama telling the story of a young woman who refuses to submit, who puts all her stakes on one card in order to transcend her boundaries, even if it costs her her life.

Der fliegende Holländer

“Don‘t you know the horrible dark place, don’t you know the evil one lives there?” Hastily, their parents set out for the woods to save Hansel and Gretel from the witch Rosina Leckermaul. As they feared, the children have got lost in the woods and found the gingerbread house. They cannot resist the sweet temptation – and fall straight into the trap of the witch, who likes children so much she could eat them up… literally.

Hänsel und Gretel (Hansel and Gretel)

The war is over, and tragedy takes its course: the mother and her lover murder the father upon his return. The daughter hides her brother, keeping him safe. – Every day, Elektra thinks of her murdered father, plotting blood-stained celebrations of victory and waiting for the moment when her brother, reared as an avenger, returns. Under one roof with her father’s murderers, thirst for blood and revenge collide with the future plans of her younger sister, who longs for marriage and children, a life in harmony and bliss. The mother is governed by another delusion: “It is not a word, it is not pain, it does not pinch me or strangle me, … and yet it is so terrible that my soul wishes it had been hanged, and every part of my body cries out for death.” Sacrifice is meant to bring relief.

Elektra

Senta's dreams are directed towards the sea: will the man who will free her from her restricted life at home come from there? It begins stormily; Wagner's first fully valid opera presents a grandiose, overwhelming vision of the elements already in the overture. The fate of the Flying Dutchman and the woman who is to redeem him takes place in the roar of the waves and the ocean. This "romantic opera" aims to transcend boundaries.

The Flying Dutchma

The Flying Dutchman

Seeing his love succeed against the will of the parents is pretty difficult in a rural setting. Especially when he is also considered an outsider, things do not look good with the parents-in-law, and there's a lot of money in the mix as well. But what Hans negotiates with Kezal the marriage broker, without discussing it with his beloved Marie, certainly requires a very special kind of chutzpah, and it very nearly goes all wrong – bartering his loved one to a certain person, which turns out through rhetorical trickery to be himself, only becomes evident as a good idea at the end. Which once again proves: The comedy is only a tragedy avoided at the very last minute.

The Bartered Bride

Max-Joseph-Platz

Elektra's father: murdered. Her mother and her paramour Ägisth were his murderers. The disheveled Elektra is determined to avenge the parricide. She has the axe for the deed but not the strength. Then her brother Orest appears … Armor-plated emotions! – whipped up by a gigantic orchestra. An aristocratic cast of singers. An enthusiastically cheered staging by Herbert Wernicke. A shattering drama of the Soul.

The war is over, and tragedy takes its course: the mother and her lover murder the father upon his return. The daughter hides her brother, keeping him safe. – Every day, Elektra thinks of her murdered father, plotting blood-stained celebrations of victory and waiting for the moment when her brother, reared as an avenger, returns...

Soprano

Katja Pieweck

Events

Upcoming events

Nov 30 - Dec 25, 2025

Hansel and Gretel · Staatsoper Hamburg

13 - 30 Jan, 2026

The Flying Dutchma · Staatsoper Hamburg

13 - 30 Jan, 2026

The Flying Dutchman · Staatsoper Hamburg

7 - 17 Feb, 2026

The Bartered Bride · Bayerische Staatsoper

18 - 27 Mar, 2026

Elektra · Bayerische Staatsoper

Past events

Nov 30 - Dec 25, 2025

Hansel and Gretel · Staatsoper Hamburg

Sep 28 - Oct 15, 2025

The Goose Girl · Staatsoper Hamburg

Future and recently performed repertoire

The Mother in The Tales of Hoffmann by Offenbach

Staatsoper Hamburg

Agnes in The Bartered Bride by Smetana

Bayerische Staatsoper

Meg Page in Falstaff by Verdi

Staatsoper Hamburg

supervisor in Elektra by Strauss

Staatsoper Hamburg

Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde by Wagner

Staatsoper Hamburg

Joanna in Rigoletto by Verdi

Staatsoper Hamburg

Gertrud in Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck

Staatsoper Hamburg

Mary in The Flying Dutchman by Wagner

Staatsoper Hamburg

Mary in Der fliegende Holländer by Wagner

Staatsoper Hamburg

Aufseherin in Elektra by Strauss

Staatsoper Hamburg

Die Aufseherin in Elektra by Strauss

Bayerische Staatsoper

Larina in Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky

Staatsoper Hamburg

Her mother, the Queen in The Goose Girl (Die Gänsemagd) by Stauch

Staatsoper Hamburg

About

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