Singer

Richard Wagner referred to TRISTAN AND ISOLDE as a “storyline in three acts”, signalling a radical break with his previous large-scale romantic operas LOHENGRIN and TANNHÄUSER. The description was also Wagner’s way of serving notice that in his seventh work for the stage he would no longer be serving up grandiose crowd scenes à la grand opéra but rather that he had developed a musical language to express the inner motivation of his characters. This irresolvable knot of the conscious and sub-conscious, which determines the fate of the lovers, is the real theme of TRISTAN AND ISOLDE, its “storyline” being a path whose route is determined by the opposing poles of Eros and Thanatos. Revealing the psychology of protagonists against a minimalist backdrop is also characteristic of the work of Berlin director Michael Thalheimer. His acclaimed production of TRISTAN AND ISOLDE was born of a collaboration with the Grand Théâtre de Genève, where it was performed in September 2024.

Tristan and Isolde

Deutsche Oper Berlin

It is a game of life and death initiated by the elusive Princess Turandot: each suitor for her hand must solve three riddles. Failure means execution. And so far, no prince has been able to win the great prize. But then a stranger arrives in the kingdom of Turandot, Prince Calaf, who is determined to take on the challenge. When he solves the riddles and claims the princess in marriage as agreed, he encounters a frightened woman who refuses to wed the stranger – and now the princess becomes the tortured one, for she must find out the prince’s name in order to keep her freedom. Unfinished at his death, Giacomo Puccini’s final opera was premiered as a fragment in 1926. This is a multi-layered masterpiece of great emotional intensity, musical brilliance and unique in its use of exotic Chinese melody. French stage director Marie-Eve Signeyrole makes her Semperoper debut with this operatic thriller.

Turandot

Semperoper Dresden

What would I give my life for? How can I stand up for love and freedom? In Beethoven's opera, Leonore has to face existential questions. Her husband Florestan has openly spoken out about social injustice and disappeared into prison. Leonore dares everything and - disguised as Fidelio - sets out to free him. The role has been sung many times by the exceptional singer Evelyn Herlitzius. In Wiesbaden she directed the production for the first time and tells the story of the political prisoner Florestan and his liberator Leonore as a question about the people behind the heroism.

Fidelio

Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden

Repelled by the dispassion of the Wartburg society of minnesingers, Tannhäuser, a singer-knight, removes to the interior of the Venusberg in search of fulfilment. Eventually his longing for Elisabeth leads him to leave again. Back at the Wartburg castle, Tannhäuser takes part in a singing contest whose theme is the nature of love, but when he sings that love is ideally about sensual satisfaction, he is cast out and sent to Rome to seek papal absolution. He returns from Rome without the hoped-for indulgence and resolves to return to the Venusberg. Then a miracle occurs and he finds redemption after all.

Tannhäuser and the Singers' Contest at Wartburg

With "Elektra," Richard Strauss created one of the most gripping and emotionally intense works in opera literature. The story, based on the ancient tragedy, revolves around Elektra's relentless desire for revenge for the murder of her father.

EPSG:4326

Elektra

Palace of Culture

With Tristan und Isolde, Richard Wagner created his most radical and most sensual opera. Two lovers are drawn into a whirlwind of desire and passion. Their only possible salvation is death. Wagner wrote a timeless, eternal “infinite melody,” or “infinite melody,” that would forever irrevocably change the course of music history.

Oper Leipzig

With the hegemony of the gods at its zenith at the close of THE RHINEGOLD and the gods ensconced in the castle of Valhalla, trouble is brewing in THE VALKYRIE. The mortals are power-crazed, mistrust and materialism rule and all that the gods can think about is enforcing the old codes rather than questioning their raison d’être. Siblings Siegmund and Sieglinde are condemned to death because there is no place for their special brand of love in society. Brünnhilde, a Valkyrie, is charmed by them and dares to defy her father Wotan’s sentence by taking the pair under her wing. In THE VALKYRIE Wagner makes it plain whose side he is on: in the big love scene between Siegmund and Sieglinde, in which the elemental force of love outpunches all social mores, and in the evolution of Brünnhilde’s character, whose conduct is at first motivated by intuitive sympathy but morphs into deliberate action as a protest against inhumanity and injustice.

Der Ring des Nibelungen – Die Walküre

The two middle sections of the tetralogy set out two ways of experiencing life. On the one hand we are presented in THE VALKYRIE with Brünnhilde, whose maturation process takes her from her discovery of sorrow and empathy to a conscious reflection on what it is to be human. By contrast, Siegfried’s path is mapped out solely as a function of his sensory experience. Where initially the young man’s self-image stems only from his exploration of his own boundless strength, other senses and sensibilities soon come to bear, along with an awakening sexuality. SIEGFRIED presents an encounter not only between man and woman but between two principles – Siegfried’s innate, unquestioned vigour on one side and Brünnhilde’s wisdom born of observation on the other. And as these two diametrical forces unite in a love clinch, the end of the opera seems to be presenting the basis for a renewal of human society.

Der Ring des Nibelungen – Siegfried

Tcherniakov's production of "The Flying Dutchman" is a radical, psychologically dense interpretation that brings clear visual symbolism, strong female characters and a modern thriller scenario.

Soprano

Elisabeth Teige

Events

Upcoming events

12 - 15 Mar, 2026

Elektra · Dresdner Philharmonie

Mar 29 - Apr 11, 2026

Tristan and Isolde · Oper Leipzig

17 - 27 May, 2026

Der Ring des Nibelungen – Die Walküre · Deutsche Oper Berlin

23 - 29 May, 2026

Der Ring des Nibelungen – Siegfried · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Jul 29 - Aug 23, 2026

The Flying Dutchman · Bayreuther Festspiele

Past events

1 - 23 Nov, 2025

Tristan and Isolde · Deutsche Oper Berlin

7 - 22 Jun, 2025

Turandot · Semperoper Dresden

Future and recently performed repertoire

Chrysothemis in Elektra by Strauss

Dresdner Philharmonie

Isolde in Tristan and Isolde by Wagner

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Venus, Elizabeth in Tannhäuser by Wagner

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Sieglinde in Die Walküre by Wagner

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Senta in The Flying Dutchman by Wagner

Bayreuther Festspiele

Brünnhilde in Siegfried by Wagner

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Leonore in Fidelio by Beethoven

Staatstheater Wiesbaden

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