A colorful gingerbread house in the middle of the forest, in which two hungry children seek refuge. But there lives an evil witch with gruesome baking recipes. Engelbert Humperdinck's most famous opera is full of contrasts, both on stage and in the music. It combines traditional children's songs with Wagnerian orchestral sound, creating a magical soundscape that captivates both young and adult audiences alike. The fairy-tale opera, in which the siblings successfully overcome danger together, returns to the stage in the 2005 production by Jürgen Rose. It is conducted by the new Cologne General Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada.

Hansel and Gretel

Cologne Opera

Whirring, shimmering, sailing, sliding. Swinging, hovering, gliding, blowing. Or plop? Gravity is a fascinating phenomenon for children under three, one that begs to be explored and understood. "Everything That Flies," a 30-minute miniature opera, explores this topic from a new perspective. How long does a sound fly through the air? When does it feel as heavy as a ton and when as light as a feather?

Everything that flies

From a deep E-flat major chord, time and space are lifted, and on the waves of the Rhine, a world unfolds with gods, dwarves, giants and creatures of nature. However, the paradisiacal primordial state does not last long: After the Nibelung Alberich is spurned by the Rhinemaidens, he decides to renounce love forever and seize the gold from the depths of the Rhine. From this, he now forges a ring that grants him world power. But the father of the gods, Wotan, also wants to possess the ring. With the help of the fire god Loge, he actually succeeds in stealing the ring from Alberich. However, Alberich curses the ring: Misfortune shall befall its owner - a prophecy that will soon be fulfilled for the first, but not the last time. Richard Wagner created with DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN a parable about the origin and end of the world and realised his radical idea of a total work of art, in which text, music and stage action form a symbiosis. Wagner's endless melody and his leitmotif technique, which he had already developed in DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER and LOHENGRIN, reach an as yet unprecedented complexity in THE RING. With the creation of the RING tetralogy, Wagner also solidified the plan for his own festival theatre as a venue. At the request of his patron King Ludwig II, the premiere of RHEINGOLD took place on 22 September 1869 at the National Theatre of Munich. The audience, which was largely composed of professionals and art connoisseurs who had travelled from afar, expressed enthusiastic applause. Wagner's vision of performing the entire DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN  in his own festival theatre finally became a reality in 1876 in Bayreuth. Director Paul-Georg Dittrich, who has already introduced himself to Cologne with his production of DER ZWERG, will stage a new RING. In RHEINGOLD, he embarks on a search for the childlike origin of the world. What happens when free, yet unencumbered imagination is instrumentalised in a power-obsessed society? The musical direction is under the internationally sought-after conductor Marc Albrecht, who returns to the podium of the Gürzenich Orchestra after DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN.

The Rhinegold

Fleeing from a snake, Prince Tamino enters the realm of the Queen of the night. Three ladies rescue him and are fascinated by him. As the bird catcher Papageno claims to have defeated the serpent, they punish his boasting and put a lock on his mouth. Tamino receives a picture of Pamina, the abducted daughter of the Queen, immediately falls in love with her and vows to rescue her. With a magic flute and a set of bells, Tamino and Papageno set off and face all dangers.

The Magic Flute

How far would you go for your ideals? The French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil spent her brief 34 years of life constantly pushing her personal limits. A strong will that was constantly subjected to failure. Born in 1909 into an upper middle-class Jewish family in France, Simone Weil first studied philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris - as the only woman alongside Simone de Beauvoir - and then worked as a teacher. However, she soon quit her job to work as a labourer in an electrical factory and experience the living conditions of the working class first-hand. But physically she was unable to take the strain. Her endeavours to fight on the side of the Republic in the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and to travel from England to France to fight against the Germans in 1942 also failed. Out of solidarity with the victims of the Second World War, Simone Weil finally rejected all food and died of hunger and heart failure in 1943. With “La passion de Simone”, the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who died in 2023, has erected a monument to her. The result is one of Saariaho’s most personal works. She herself described “La passion de Simone” as her musical testament. This is now the third collaboration with the French-Lebanese author Amin Maalouf, which began with “L’amour de loin”. The cooperation with the American opera director Peter Sellars, who staged the world premiere of “La passion de Simone” in November 2006 as part of his New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna, has also left its mark on this work. The oratorio for solo soprano, choir and orchestra consists of 15 stations that illuminate Simone Weil’s life and thoughts. The music features Saariaho’s typical impressionistic soundscapes, sometimes dramatically intensified by surprising bursts of percussion. During her lifetime, Saariaho herself argued in favour of performing the work scenically. “La passion de Simone” is now being shown at Oper Köln in cooperation with the Kölner Philharmonie’s “Acht Brücken” festival. The production is to be directed by the newcomer Friederike Blum, who received the Götz Friedrich Prize from Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2023 for her work “Tri Sestry” at the Hagen Theatre. Together with the stage and costume designer Lisa Kruse, she explores the spirit of Simone Weil and invites us to immerse ourselves in her life and thoughts. Christian Karlsen, a specialist in contemporary music theatre and artistic director at the Kaija Saariaho Festival in The Hague, has been engaged to conduct.

EPSG:4326

Simone's Passion

Staatenhaus Köln

“Superheldennormalos” is the first community opera to be staged at the Kinderoper Köln. Around 100 children and young people between the ages of ten and eighteen, from, among other things, the ENBE youth centre, Holweide comprehensive school, Helios comprehensive school and Katharina-Henoth comprehensive school, developed the production in various workshops under professional artistic and educational guidance. Starting with the development of the theme and the writing of the libretto to the composition of the music and the creation of the stage and costume design, the “baton” was passed from one workshop group to the next. Finally, children and young people from the Dellbrücker Mauspfad comprehensive school, the Willy Brandt comprehensive school and the Kölner Domchor will also perform on stage alongside the singers of Oper Köln’s International Opera Studio and, accompanied by the Gürzenich Orchestra, will work on the opera with a professional production team. The result is “Superheldennormalos” – an opera about the search for identity, about the fears, wishes and dreams of children and young people, which adults are also likely to relate to. Tamina is out of her depth. At home, she has to babysit her siblings, maintain calm and keep on top of the ever-growing chaos. Though all she wants to do is write, retreat into her own four walls and give free rein to her creativity ... Max struggles every week at football training, where he is regularly picked on by the coach and his team-mates. Nevertheless, Max has a dream: he wants to become a designer and hold his own fashion show. Sammy longs to just be a child again, to feel safe, to dream. She is being drawn deeper and deeper into the pit of depression. Yet all she wants is for everything to be the way it used to be. Wisi spends most of her day looking after other people. And there’s so much to do. There’s the grandma she has to help across the road, the dog that has run away. And then there are Tamina, Max and Sammy, to whom she would like to be more of a friend. Because Wisi has a special gift: she can read people’s feelings. However, at the superhero workshop she learns an important lesson about herself. To direct this special project, which is produced in cooperation with the COMEDIA Theatre Cologne and the Rheinische Musikschule Köln, we have been able to recruit Manuel Moser, who has been head of the department of theatre for young audiences at COMEDIA since 2019. The general musical direction is in the hands of Rainer Mühlbach, director of the International Opera Studio since 2012/13 and musical director of the Kinderoper Köln. A production of the Kinderoper Köln in cooperation with the COMEDIA Theatre and the Rheinische Musikschule Köln.

Superhero Normalos

"Yaparız biz herşeyi! Together and united we are strong!" the four animals sing and set off for Bremen to find happiness there. They are underdogs, outcasts and individualists: The donkey left his owner standing there when he called him stupid. the dog was disowned by his mistress because he always broke everything when playing. The cat refused to catch mice and was put out on the street. The rooster never managed to control his emotional outbursts and so he was thrown out as a troublemaker. But now they form an unbeatable team that wants to make music together and become famous – "Un pour tous, tous pour un! One for all, all for one!" the four musketeers set off on a journey to the place of their longing. Of course, numerous obstacles appear along the way, and there are also disputes among themselves. This extraordinary children's opera tells how the four idiosyncratic characters learn to overcome their conflicts and their fears.

The Bremen Town Musicians

"Take me to the ball!" pleads Cinderella Angelina. However, her wish meets with rejection by her stepfather Don Magnifico and the selfish stepsisters Instead, she is treated like a maid, while the spoiled amily dreams of wealth - although everything is on the brink of ruin. But behind this false world lies a more beautiful one: A prince awaits Angelina and true values ​​triumph over false appearances. In the end, justice prevails: Angelina forgives her family and becomes not only a princess but also as a wise-hearted regent. In LA CENERENTOLA, Gioacchino Rossini combines virtuosic bel canto with the dream of a fairer world. Cecilia Ligorio's enthusiastically received production from the year 2022 returns to the schedule, under the musical direction by Matteo Beltrami.

La Cenerentola

"Oh, what one often has to hear or read about naughty children!" So begins the famous story by Wilhelm Busch about the naughty brothers Max and Moritz and their pranks. Against impudence and schadenfreude, there seems to be basically no remedy, as Wilhelm Busch already lamented, and in times of social media there are plenty of opportunities to harass others and to get attention for it. The Norwegian composer Gisle Kverndokk and librettist Øystein Wiik look with today's perspective and a great treasure trove of musical quotations on the old story and recount seven equally common and amusing pranks, with which Max and Moritz, in cartoon style, annoy the descendants of Widow Bolte, Teacher Lämpel and Tailor Böck. The last prank of the naughty boys is just one too many as today. But: He who laughs last, laughs loudest.

Max and Moritz

Storm and thunder, unbridled passion, incest and divine wrath - all of this is already brewing in the first bars of the orchestral prelude to DIE WALKÜRE and gives a hint of what is to follow. In DIE WALKÜRE, the first day of the stage festival play DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN, Wagner focuses on the generation of Wotan's descendants: On the sibling pair Siegmund and Sieglinde, who, after many years of separation, meet fatefully and fall in love with each other. And on the Valkyries, Brünnhilde and her eight sisters, whose task it is to bring the heroes fallen in battle to Valhalla. When Wotan's wife Fricka learns of the incestuous relationship between Siegmund and Sieglinde, she demands that Wotan put an end to it. So Wotan orders his favourite daughter Brünnhilde to overthrow Siegmund in his battle against his rival Hunding. But Brünnhilde protects Siegmund against Wotan’s command. As punishment, Wotan puts Brünnhilde into a deep sleep and ignites a circle of fire around her, which only one without fear can pass through...

Die Walküre

This is a gripping operatic thriller of emotions, with which the then 21-year-old Gioacchino Rossini catapulted himself to the forefront of Italian composers from Venice in 1813: Amenaide is to obey her father's will and marry a man she does not love. In doing so, she contributes to ending the power struggle between two rival families in her hometown. Amenaide, in the meantime suspected of being a traitor and threatened with death, loves Tancredi, who returns to his hometown incognito, learns of the forced betrothal and kills his rival. But the trusting relationship with Amenaide is gone, Tancredi is desperate and wants to find death. Although an early work, TANCREDI with its lively melodies and resounding finales testifies to Rossini's musical inventiveness. It is above all the solo scenes in which the work builds up to its highlights. With the catchy cabaletta of the eponymous hero "Di tanti palpiti", the work contains a veritable opera hit, which in Italy effectively has the status of a folk song. The male main character Tancredi is in this case cast with a mezzo-soprano, a "trouser role" characteristic of the early 19th century. Musically, however, TANCREDI has much more to offer than this one big hit. Rossini developed new ways for the romantic Italian opera with his so-called "Rossini Code" also in terms of form - often a tempo d’attacco, an adagio, a tempo di mezzo and a cabaletta follow one another. The successful production of the Bregenz Festival from the year 2024, directed by Jan Philipp Gloger, is now being presented in Cologne. Jan Philipp Gloger, most recently in Cologne for the direction of EIN MASKENBALL, focuses his production on the love between two women who have little chance of self-fulfilment in a clan and macho world. The musical direction is held by George Petrou.

Johanna Thomsen

Events

Upcoming events

Nov 30 - Dec 30, 2025

Hansel and Gretel · Oper Köln

Dec 25, 2025 - Jan 11, 2026

La Cenerentola · Oper Köln

Jan 24, 2026

Max and Moritz · Oper Köln

Mar 29 - May 3, 2026

Die Walküre · Oper Köln

Jun 20 - Jul 5, 2026

Tancredi · Oper Köln

Past events

Nov 30 - Dec 30, 2025

Hansel and Gretel · Oper Köln

3 - 8 Nov, 2025

Everything that flies · Oper Köln

Future and recently performed repertoire

Isaura in Tancredi by Rossini

Oper Köln

Hansel in Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck

Oper Köln

3. Dame in The Magic Flute by Mozart

Oper Köln

Tisbe in La Cenerentola by Rossini

Oper Köln

Floßhilde in Das Rheingold by Wagner

Oper Köln

Rossweisse in The Valkyrie by Wagner

Oper Köln

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