Director

The will to resist the Roman is growing among the Galls, and Norma should finally give the sign for an uprising against the oppressor in the name of the god of war. But she hesitates due to a conflict of conscience: despite her vow of chastity, Norma has two children, hidden from the public, fathered by the Roman Pollione. When she finds out that Pollione loves the novice Adalgisa and wants to run away with her, her situation seems hopeless. If she reveals her double life, she risks not only her own standing, but that of her children as well.

Norma

Bebelplatz

“Have you tortured me enough?”
Floria Tosca lives entirely for music and her love for the artist Mario Cavaradossi. When Cavaradossi is sentenced to death for his political activism against an inhumane regime, the singer too is on the brink. The jealous Baron Scarpia tries to blackmail Tosca: If she wants to save her lover from execution, she must give herself to Scarpia. Tosca pretends to accept the deal – and stabs Scarpia. But the path to freedom is deceptive. Scarpia's power extends beyond death.
In hardly any other opera are personal passion and political arbitrariness so closely intertwined and yet so cruelly exposed as in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca from 1900. The relentless reckoning with abuse of power and machinations, coupled with a deeply moving love story, continues to electrify audiences today, with a score that combines gripping drama and nerve-wracking tension with moments of enchanting beauty. Arias like Tosca's "Vissi d'arte" and Cavaradossi's "É lucevan le stelle" are not without reason considered icons of Italian vocal art.

Tosca

Staatstheater Hannover

On the fiftieth anniversary of Shostakovich's death, La Scala opens its season with his masterpiece, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District , based on Nikolai Leskov's story in which a young bride, with the complicity of her lover, kills her husband and tyrannical father-in-law, but is discovered and ends up committing suicide in Siberia, betrayed by all. After its debut in St. Petersburg, the opera, which was intended to be the first chapter of a trilogy on the condition of women in Russia, was enormously successful at home and abroad. Stalin attended a performance in Moscow in 1936; two days later, the famous criticism in Pravda, titled "Chaos Instead of Music," appeared, decrying both the opera and the composer. Years later, Shostakovich prepared a new version, which premiered in Moscow in 1963 under the title Katarina Izmailova , after Superintendent Ghiringhelli had unsuccessfully attempted to secure its premiere at La Scala. Today, the Theatre presents the 1934 version, conducted by Maestro Chailly and featuring the debut of director Vasily Barkhatov.

EPSG:4326

A Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District

Teatro alla Scala

The Republic of Genoa is split into two camps headed by their respective arch rivals, Simon Boccanegra and Fiesco, who have been at loggerheads for decades. Yet the two men are connected by a long-dead woman – Fiesco’s daughter, the lover of Simon – who bore Simon a daughter named Amelia, who in turn vanished into care as an infant. When Amelia reappears 25 years later, she becomes a pawn in a power struggle that eventually claims Simon. The original version of SIMON BOCCANEGRA, which premiered in 1857, is one of Verdi’s explorations into the dichotomy between public actions and private urges. Here, the stark differences between the two old men, Simon and Fiesco, set the stage for suspicion, conspiracy and assassination – with little prospect of a happy end. And not even the victory of one side can guarantee a lasting peace.

Simon Boccanegra

Deutsche Oper Berlin

The will to resist the Roman occupiers is growing among the Galls, and Norma should finally give the sign for an uprising against the oppressor in the name of the god of war. But she hesitates due to a conflict of conscience: despite her vow of chastity, Norma has two children, hidden from the public, fathered by the Roman Pollione. When she finds out that Pollione loves the novice Adalgisa and wants to run away with her, her situation seems hopeless. If she reveals her double life, she risks not only her own standing, but that of her children as well.

The "Flying Dutchman" is different from the men who populate Senta's provincial world. An outsider like them, he is also shrouded in a dark doom. The Dutchman once cursed God; as punishment, he must sail the oceans in his ghost ship until a loving woman redeems him from his curse. Senta is destined to turn the legendary sailor's fate around... Director Vasily Barkhatov tells the story of Senta's quest for romantic self-assertion with cinematic intensity.

Der flie­gen­de Hol­län­der

German Oper am Rhein

Turandot

San Carlo Theatre

Russia, at the dawn of the seventeenth century. Following the murder of Tsarevich Dmitry, son of Ivan the Terrible, the people long for a ruler who can put an end to hunger and oppression. Boyar Boris Godunov is installed on the throne, but doubts about his involvement in the murder undermine his power. He himself is consumed by remorse …

Director

Vasily Barkhatov

Events

Upcoming events

1 - 13 May, 2026

Norma · Staatsoper Berlin

5 - 15 Jul, 2026

Turandot · Teatro di San Carlo

10 - 29 Jun, 2027

Boris Godunov · La Monnaie / De Munt

Past events

1 - 13 May, 2026

Norma · Staatsoper Berlin

Dec 13, 2025 - Jan 9, 2026

Tosca · Staatstheater Hannover

About

Vasily Barkhatov hasn't added a bio