Set Designer

The poet Hoffmann thinking of his beloved Stella, struggles with a writer’s block. His Muse, in disguise, is determined to steer Hoffmann away from his unhappy love and back to art. Hoffmann begins recounting the stories of three women he once loved: Olympia, Antonia, and Giulietta. In her staging, director Lotte de Beer creates a dialogue between Hoffmann and the Muse, a confrontation between art and the artist. Jacques Offenbach’s name remains synonymous with operetta, but at the end of his life, he worked on his most ambitious masterpiece: the fantastic opera Les contes d’Hoffmann.

Hoffmanns tales

Volksoper Wien

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

With this new production of the operetta classic The White Horse Inn, director Jan Philipp Gloger sets out in search of the contemporary aspects of the piece, which he recognizes above all in the theme of tourism. Come with us to the region of the Salzkammergut and take a look behind the façade of the traditional eponymous hotel!

In the White Horse Inn

The famous dancer Rudolf Nureyev has a dog. When Nureyev dies, the strict ballet mistress Marika inherits the dog. The dog growls at her and becomes aggressive. When Marika is unable to place the dog with one of Nureyev’s friends, the animal shelter seems to be the only solution. Until Marika realises that the dog has hidden qualities …

The author Elke Heidenreich wrote a novel about Nureyev’s dog. Director and choreographer Florian Hurler actually knew Nureyev’s dog and the ballet mistress Marika. Peter te Nuyl wrote a theatrical script and text based on their stories. Keren Kagarlitsky created a new score from ballet-, opera- and her own music.

Nurejews Hund

On his futile search for the meaning of life, the ageing scholar Faust makes a pact with the Devil. Méphistophélès buys his soul and promises him eternal youth and love. Faust falls in love with Marguerite, however she soon leaves him. After she has killed their child, Marguerite succumbs to madness, but emerges morally superior from the encounter with Faust.

Faust

Max-Joseph-Platz

Two French villages 100 years ago have been at loggerheads for generations, although nobody knows exactly why. It is the children who are fighting this battle. They regularly meet in the forest and fight each other. However, the fact that clothes are torn and buttons are cut off in the process infuriates the parents, who give the children a hard time about it. The gang of rascals must therefore show all kinds of ingenuity in order to continue the brawls.

The stage version, written by Johanna Arrouas, is based on the classic children’s book by Louis Pergaud and the iconic film version. Well-known chansons convey the French savoir vivre.

The War of the Buttons

“Love stays away, you wait and wait; when least expected, there it is!” 
She is said to seduce all the men with her free-spiritedness and her Spanish folklore, as she sings “Love is a rebellious bird”… Until she is killed by one of the men.

“Is Carmen really the free, independent woman we think she is, or is she rather the prisoner of the very myth of the free, independent woman? Isn’t it precisely the men who attribute this free-spiritedness to her, so that their conquest of her is all the more rewarding? Carmen tries to make decisions that go in an unexpected, unconventional direction. But is that the definition of freedom? Isn’t the consistent decision to go against convention also a kind of straitjacket?” (Lotte de Beer)

Carmen

Just as William Shakespeares’ Romeo and Juliet are born into rival families, Maria and Tony are linked to rival gangs. Tony is a Jet, a gang of white American youths led by his best friend Riff. Maria’s brother Bernardo is the leader of the Sharks, a gang of Puerto Rican immigrants. Maria and Tony fall in love, the gangs fight, Tony happens to kill Maria’s brother. Maria, who still loves Tony, agrees to elope with him. But Tony receives a fake message saying that Maria is dead ...

West Side Story

During times of historical upheaval, the victors are filled with euphoric jubilation while fear spreads on the side of the losers. When cheerfulness grips the figures in Mozart’s piece, it is the swan song, full of schadenfreude, of dying structures, ancient privileges and traditional manners – including those between man and woman. Mozart (and Beaumarchais) hold the balance on the threshold between eras – as artists en route to self-marketing, as portraitists of their times, by precisely rendering a society whose balance is shifting, making Almaviva a ridiculous figure. His class is losing political power, and he compensates for this loss by becoming a slave to his sexual desire. The wind is blowing from the past, giving wing to Walter Benjamin’s angel of history. It is a storm for the winners, and for the losers a mere melancholy breeze. The angel sees nothing but ruins.

Set Designer

Christof Hetzer

Events

Past events

Jun 5, 2026

Hoffmanns tales · Volksoper Wien

Jun 2 - Jul 1, 2026

Wozzeck · Deutsche Oper am Rhein

About

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