Singer

Moral outrage one moment, coquettish expediency the next. The intrigues of the powerful interwoven with the desperation of hapless refugees. When it comes to the gamut of human emotion and modes of behaviour, few operas of the baroque period can touch Handel’s GIULIO CESARE IN EGITTO, which premiered in London in 1724. This tale of the love affair between the ageing Roman general Julius Caesar and the young pharaoh Cleopatra was one of Handel’s greatest triumphs within his lifetime and remains his most performed opera. That is not just down to the base material – one of the best-known historically attested love stories, which has been given treatments ranging from Shakespeare to Liz Taylor and Richard Burton and “Asterix und Cleopatra” – but also to a sophisticated libretto that provided the inspiration for a string of great arias and memorable character studies, for aside from the Roman-Egyptian pairing of Caesar and Cleopatra GIULIO CESARE IN EGITTO features another pair who are busy not with flirting but with the serious business of staying alive: Cornelia, the widow of Pompeius, a murdered rival of Caesar, and her son Sesto. Both have sought refuge in Egypt but have become pawns in the scheming between Cleopatra and her brother Tolomeo.

Giulio Cesare in Egitto

Deutsche Oper Berlin

A harrowing and powerful opera inspired by true events of the French Revolution.

The contrast between the quiet life of a convent and the sweeping, destructive forces of revolution lies at the heart of Poulenc’s opera, which is inspired by real events from the French Revolution.

Dialogues des Carmélites

Royal Danish Opera

When the nights are at their longest, frosty wind and snow storms sweep the land, it is the time of the Koliada – of the pagan winter solstice feast and the Christian-orthodox Christmas celebration in equal measure. In these magical “twelve days of Christmas” the barrier between the human world and the realm of dark beings becomes especially thin. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “true” Christmas song, Die Nacht vor Weihnachten, based on the eponymous story by Nikolai Gogol, also plays out in this very same period.

Die Nacht vor Weihnachten

Max-Joseph-Platz

The production sold out houses in Belgium, Luxembourg and France; now it is coming to the International May Festival in Wiesbaden. With a clever twist, the FC Bergman collective has transformed the exotic coastal landscape of the pearl fishers of Ceylon into a retirement home. The friends Zurga and Nadir used to be in love with the same girl. To save their friendship, they promised each other to suppress their feelings for Léïla. But now Léïla is returning, and long-suppressed anger, love and jealousy break over the men like huge waves. Past and present blur and can only be separated with difficulty.

The Pearl Fishers

Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden

DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG was Richard Wagner’s only light-hearted opera and remains one of his most popular works. This notwithstanding, MEISTERSINGER is also the musical manifesto of a German national art movement and, as such, has accumulated so much baggage over the years that people are apt to lose sight of the opera’s essence – a jolly and coherent comedy with its helter-skelter storyline centring on illusion and reality, love, ageing and the plying of one’s art – and this despite the core theme of a life dominated by music determining not only the cast of characters but also the action of the piece. The members of the master-singers guild have convened to make music in accordance with their strict rulebook. One of the singers, the wealthy Veit Pogner, has granted his daughter Eva the freedom to choose which suitor she will marry – with the proviso that it be a master singer, in other words the winner of a public singing competition. A pity, then, that Eva is in love with Walther von Stolzing, who is talented but devoid of formal training. Nonetheless he takes part in the competition, aided and abetted by master singer Hans Sachs, who has to forego his love for Eva in the process.

The Mastersingers of Nuremberg

It’s Princess Donna Clara’s 18th birthday and she’s getting showered with presents from all sides, but one gift in particular, from the Turkish Sultan, stands out from the crowd: a real-life dwarf! Amidst all the splendour and beauty the misshapen man attracts her special attention, charming her with his singing and fascinating her all the more for seeming to be blissfully unaware of his physical appearance. The dwarf falls madly in love with the princess and is blind to the coquettish game that she is playing. But then he comes face-to-face with his reflection for the first time in his life. Realising the truth of his situation, he falls down dead. Alexander Zemlinsky’s THE DWARF is based on Oscar Wilde’s fairy tale “The Birthday of the Infanta” and received its world premiere in 1922. Following Zemlinsky’s death in 1942 in American exile the work quickly slipped from public awareness, not to be rediscovered until the 1970s. Since then it has been drawing crowds as a subtle, vibrant seismogram of a highly complex and psychological constellation.

Der Zwerg (The Dwarf)

Silence, memory, and humanity – three themes that run through this exceptional evening with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra at Municipal House. The programme opens with the meditative Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, in which the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt creates, from a simple musical gesture, a profound space for reflection.

War Requiem

Municipal House

«I am the enemy you killed, my friend,» writes an English lieutenant in 1918 on the front in northern France. On the day of the ceasefire, Wilfred Owen falls at the age of 25. The death knell and the peal of peace bells overlap, their echo resonating in Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem: an anti-militarist, anti-nationalist monument of remembrance, collective mourning and personal loss. Marked by the violence of two world wars, the work was premiered in 1962 to celebrate the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral. Just as the ruins are integrated into the new architecture there, Owen’s poems also disrupt the structure of the Latin Requiem Mass. Britten’s setting draws on the emotional power of the Requiem tradition and incorporates that insight into human nature that distinguishes him as an opera composer. War Requiem stands for pacifism as an artistic stance and, sadly, is no less relevant in our political present. The internationally acclaimed production from London where, in 2018, it commemorated the end of the First World War, also makes a stance for peace. It is now being rehearsed by the artistic team around director Daniel Kramer and photographer Wolfgang Tillmans at the invitation of Deutsche Oper Berlin. In this production, Kramer’s poetically powerful physical work merges with the unconventional, worldly perspective of star photographer Tillmans, who is making his operatic debut in Berlin. Together, they create timeless situations where trauma and solace, weight and intimacy reside. Photographic snapshots crown the space, seeming to observe themselves, coalescing into silent landscapes. In the spirit of artistic exchange, the solo parts at the premiere were to be sung by a Russian soprano, a British tenor and a German baritone. At the last minute, the Soviet government prevented its star soprano from participating. Now this symbolic cast is to be realised under the musical direction of Britten expert Sir Donald Runnicles with Elena Tsallagova, Nicky Spence and Björn Bürger.

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Elena Tsallagova

Events

Upcoming events

Nov 2, 2026

War Requiem · Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra

Jun 18 - Jul 2, 2027

War Requiem · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Past events

Apr 25 - Jul 8, 2026

Giulio Cesare in Egitto · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Feb 8 - Mar 10, 2026

Dialogues des Carmélites · Royal Danish Opera

Future and recently performed repertoire

Leïla in Les pêcheurs de perles by Bizet

Staatstheater Wiesbaden

Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Wagner

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Singer in War Requiem by Britten

Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra

Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare in Egitto by Handel

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Lady Clara in The Dwarf by Zemlinsky

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites by Poulenc

Royal Danish Opera

Oksana in The Night Before Christmas by Rimsky-Korsakov

Bayerische Staatsoper

About

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