Director

The Chinese princess Turandot is obliged to marry only the man who solves her three riddles - a vow that has already cost countless princes their lives. Anyone who fails will be executed that very night. However, when Calaf, a Tartar Prince, sees Turandot, he cannot resist her enigmatic beauty. He solves the tasks, but the princess refuses the marriage. Calaf turns the game round: In order to avoid the marriage, Turandot must discover his name before dawn - a task that pushes everyone to their limits. The aria "Nessun dorma" marks the opera's dramatic climax. But after the naming of the name, "Love", Puccini's last work ends with the note "e poi "Tristano" - "and then Tristan". The opulent production by Lydia Steier ("Director of the Year" 2024) makes this work into an opera experience full of suspense, passion, and spectacle. Felix Bender assumes the Musical Direction once again.

EPSG:4326

Turandot

Cologne Opera

“This is a delicate matter, how will it end?”
Countess, Susanna and Figaro
On the occasion of Figaro and Susanna's wedding, Count Almaviva wants to once again indulge in the long-abolished "right of the first night," setting in motion a machine of confusion, intrigue, and doubt that ultimately leads to the exposure of the Count's abuse of power, but also to the possibility of forgiveness.
Only a composer like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart could have come up with the downright ludicrous idea of ​​setting Beaumarchais's La folle journée ou Le mariage de Figaro to music in 1786 , the most politically explosive comedy of those years—a portrait of a society in upheaval and a nobility once again exercising their privileges and blindly running towards their own ruin. The very first bars of the overture make it irresistibly clear: in this play, every bar, every syllable, every whisper carries the undertone of nervous excitement. There is a standstill only at the turning points, those precious moments in which Mozart reveals the inner lives of his heroes. But the adventure continues, and only the onset of night can bring this "mad day" to an end.

The Marriage of Figaro

Staatstheater Hannover

Jacques Offenbach composed more than 100 operas and operettas, most of them with unique wit and biting satire, original and inspired. At the end of his illustrious career in Paris, which stretched over five decades, he turned to his most ambitious operatic work Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann), an opéra fantastique based on a play that premiered in 1881.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann

Bebelplatz

Carmen is independent and won’t let anyone take her freedom. She makes her own decisions - nobody else! Carmen loves life. She lives entirely in the present, not in the past or the future. Carmen’s love has wings: when she loves someone, it is for precisely that moment and not for all eternity - her interest might turn to someone else the very next moment. Carmen quarrels and fights, she doesn’t shy away from the criminal milieu either, because property or standards of any kind don’t exist for her.

Carmen

Staatenhaus Köln

A premiere as a stark warning against hatred and repression: The 1972 Olympic Games in Munich were supposed to be a sporting festival in the name of peace. Instead, the catastrophe occurred, eleven Israeli athletes were killed by terrorists. The failure of the security forces and the way the Germans dealt with guilt still have an impact today. In the new opera, the lightness of the play is mixed with anxiety and chaos. The production removes the event from its distance and shows us the ghosts of history in powerful images. The sporting disciplines portrayed in the music and the wild jazz of the Steamboat Switzerland trio, which works together with the orchestra, loosen up the virtuoso time and rhythm structure. Corinna Harfouch is one of the most sought-after German actresses.

Echo 72

Opernplatz

Elektra relentlessly invokes the past, her trauma, her burning desire for revenge: Her father Agamemnon, barely back from the Trojan War, is dead, murdered in his bath by her mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Richard Strauss wrote music of piercing power, profound and relentless, which offers no redemption to any of the characters until Elektra's ecstatic final dance. Following her visually stunning production of "Der Rosenkavalier" at the Zurich Opera House, director Lydia Steier now turns her attention to Strauss's dark counterpart. On the podium is the Lausanne-born conductor and designated Zurich General Music Director Lorenzo Viotti. In the demanding title role, Finnish soprano Miina-Liisa Värelä makes her Zurich debut.

Elektra

Opernhaus Zürich

A gold rush camp in California: here, only the strongest prevail. Minnie's Bar becomes a refuge for a society without firm social norms. When Minnie falls in love with the bandit Johnson, the fragile order finally crumbles. In her production of Giacomo Puccini's Western opera, director Lydia Steier paints a picture of a community marked by isolation and violence, where the spiral of brutality turns relentlessly. Marco Armiliato conducts the richly textured score. Anja Kampe, Jonas Kaufmann, and Tomasz Konieczny star in the leading roles.

La fanciulla del west

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was one of the most original, albeit marginalized, representatives of German Romanticism in the early 19th century. His uncanny stories were most popular, inspiring artists to this day. In 1881, Hoffmann became the main character of Jacques Offenbach's opera. However, the librettists, Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, did not create a biography of the writer, but rather introduced him to the world of his own stories.

Director

Lydia Steier

Events

Upcoming events

Nov 22 - Dec 16, 2026

Elektra · Opernhaus Zürich

Feb 25 - Apr 16, 2027

La fanciulla del west · Opernhaus Zürich

4 - 15 Jun, 2027

The Tales of Hoffmann · Polish National Opera

Past events

May 21 - Jun 7, 2026

Turandot · Oper Köln

Mar 1 - May 30, 2026

The Marriage of Figaro · Staatstheater Hannover

About

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