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4. Akademisches Konzert 2025/26

Gewandhaus

We've all been there: in hotels, you're always fascinated by people from all over the world and their customs! And when this motley crew find themselves in a tizzy because they all want to go to Paris for the coronation but are prevented from doing so by the transportation system? And when the Hotel zur Goldenen Lilie is run by an excellent proprietor like Madame Cortese, who is determined to make her guests' stay unforgettable, virtuoso, colorful entertainment is guaranteed. Love potions, deft personnel, fainting spells due to a missing hatbox, f librations and misunderstandings culminate in a banquet with international toasts: long live the monarch and long live international understanding!

The Journey to Reims

Oper Leipzig

With The Magic Flute, Mozart wanted to write a piece for everyone – the blend of Viennese folk theater, Singspiel, and Italian opera makes it a favourite with audiences to this day. There's something for every taste, from catchy songs and arias to humorous spoken dialogue and fairytale elements. Günter Krämer’s production creates two contrasting worlds: the realm of the Queen of the Night and the temple of the Sun King. Between them travels Prince Tamino, accompanied by the bird catcher Papageno. On their adventurous journey, they traverse primeval forests inhabited by lions, rhinoceroses and snakes. Mozart’s opera imaginatively invites reflection on good and evil, dreams, fears and love. The lovingly crafted, partly mechanical set design creates stage magic. Renowned Mozart interpreter Tomáš Netopil conducts the Deutsche Oper Berlin orchestra. Our ensemble of soloists will enchant with their joy in acting and singing.

The Magic Flute

Deutsche Oper Berlin

What is worth living and dying for – love, art, freedom? This question lies at the heart of Tosca, uniquely blending musical brilliance with a gripping plot and historical events with archetypes of the operatic stage. Throughout a single fateful night, the audience follows the story of the singer Floria Tosca, the painter Mario Cavaradossi and the unscrupulous police chief Scarpia, a night that ends fatally for all three. The greatest stars of opera history have graced Boleslaw Barlog’s historically accurate production for over 50 years. Joining this chronicle for the first time in this season’s initial run are, among others, Aleksandra Kurzak, who has already sung Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Royal Opera in London, and Roberto Alagna, who showcases his exceptional tenor in another role at Deutsche Oper Berlin. Antonino Fogliani, one of the most gifted Puccini conductors of our time, will be appearing at Deutsche Oper Berlin for the first time.

Tosca

«Free she was born, free she will die»: To preserve her freedom, Carmen even accepts her own death. With her uncompromising will to autonomy, she shattered the moral conventions of her time. This sets her apart from the many passive, self-sacrificing female characters of 19th-century opera – once a scandalous figure, later a figure of identification, always a large screen onto which audiences project their own feelings. Director Ole Anders Tandberg takes up these ambivalences and works with iconic images: the bright red flamenco dress, the torero costume and the bullring. But these symbols are not left uncommented upon; instead, they are exaggerated to the point of the grotesque and the macabre. An emotional rollercoaster ride with catchy tunes like the Habanera and the Toreador Song that will linger long in memory. Argentinian conductor Alejo Pérez, General Music Director of Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, makes his debut at Deutsche Oper Berlin. Gaëlle Arquez brings charm and sophistication to the French Carmen, and later our new ensemble member Kristina Stanek introduces herself as the new Berlin Carmen.

Carmen

A clown whose laughter catches in his throat, a ruthless lover, a hitman with a warm voice: In Rigoletto, Verdi assembles bawdy farce, profound character studies and overwhelming emotion into a dazzling grotesque about power and vulnerability. The opera is so much more than „La donna è mobile!” In his production, Jan Bosse tells the tragedy of a man who fails to separate his private life from his public actions. The Deutsche Oper Berlin auditorium becomes the decadent ducal court of Mantua, the understage a claustrophobic hiding place. There, Rigoletto keeps his daughter Gilda hidden from the eyes of the nobles. But as the action unfolds, the carefully separated roles of the cynical court jester and the gentle father begin to crumble. In his futile attempt to protect his daughter, Rigoletto inadvertently destroys his world – until only an empty stage remains. Conductor Anna Handler, already a favourite with the public, will conduct her first Verdi production.

Rigoletto

In times when the world seems complicated and the economic situation is dire, the longing for someone who supposedly offers simple solutions to difficult problems becomes overwhelming. The 20th century provides ample evidence of this, and the present day offers similar examples. In Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin, it is a mysterious knight who promises to fight for Elsa of Brabant; in doing so, he becomes a projection screen for the yearning of a fractured people for a charismatic leader. Wagner, himself a revolutionary in the mid-19th century, artistically expressed his political utopia of a different world order in Lohengrin – a utopia of saving the world through art, but here doomed to failure. Eric Cutler, a youthful heroic tenor trained in bel canto, sings the title role, while the Finnish soprano Miina-Liisa Värelä provides the necessary counterweight as Ortrud. Her compatriot, conductor Susanna Mälkki, is making her debut with both the Deutsche Oper Berlin orchestra and the work itself.

Lohengrin

This oratorio tells the story of the last days in the life of Jesus Christ. Exactly three hundred years ago, Johann Sebastian Bach set the Gospel text to music: The premiere was held on Good Friday in 1727. Benedikt von Peter’s production takes the inherent tradition of the Stations of the Cross seriously: Bach’s double-choir masterpiece unfolds as an acoustic crucifix; the audience sits amidst the musical action, exposing their own bodies to this Passion and its unsettling beauty. Betrayal, mortal agony, sacrifice and forgiveness do not appear as a distant event of salvation, but as a sober question for our present: What are the sins for which the Son must be sacrificed year after year? Not the Evangelist, but children bring the parable to life. They shoulder the cross, prevent Judas’s suicide with an embrace, and put the value system of a Christian society up for discussion. Marc Minkowski, a renowned specialist in Baroque vocal music and a guest at the Deutsche Oper for the first time, conducts this special revival exactly on the 300th anniversary of the work!

St Matthew Passion

What would it be like if there were no more injustice in the world? If we were to overcome the power structures that suppress people? If nobody were to destroy the Earth, and if peace finally prevailed? If everybody could live and love as they wished?

Hamed & Sherifa

Anyone in Seville who needs help goes to Figaro – the barber has a solution for every problem, because he knows everyone in the city, is well-informed about all the gossip and many owe him a favour. This time, he is to help Count Almaviva free Rosina, who has been imprisoned by her guardian, and win her heart. The then 23-year-old Gioachino Rossini is said to have composed Il barbiere di Siviglia in just three weeks – an opera full of rousing bel canto arias, fast-paced ensembles and dizzying situational comedy. Director Katharina Thalbach skilfully captures the humour of the original work: She relocates the action to a seaside resort where one morning a theatre wagon arrives, carrying characters from the Commedia dell’Arte. Tourists become the audience of a spectacle that blurs the lines between large and small stages, offers many surprising twists and turns and, thanks to Guido Maria Kretschmer's costumes, delights the funny bone and the eyes. Our young Italian conductor, Giovanni Conti, takes to the podium, accompanied by numerous new virtuoso ensemble members.

Il barbiere di Siviglia

Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlo intertwines family tragedy and historical panorama. This grand opera premiered in 1867 and was repeatedly reworked in the following decades. In the four-act Italian version, the abysses of Spanish absolutism open up even more dramatically: arbitrary rule, an emaciated people, fanatical autodafés – and the experience that friendship can be stronger than the hated bonds of blood. Based on Schiller's "dramatic poem", Verdi focuses on the inner conflicts between political duty and personal desire. In Marco Arturo Marelli's production, this struggle is condensed into an archetypal spectacle. Such a drama needs charismatic voices; this season, singers such as German bass Tareq Nazmi as Filippo II, Ève-Maud Hubeaux as Eboli, Adriana González as Elisabetta and Nicola Alaimo as Posa are waiting to be rediscovered. Najmiddin Mavlyanov takes on the title role. Dan Ettinger, who has already been general music director in Mannheim and Tel Aviv, conducts at the Deutsche Oper for the first time.

Baritone

Tom Nicholson

Events

Upcoming events

Sep 2, 2026 - Jan 15, 2027

The Magic Flute · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Sep 6, 2026 - Jul 3, 2027

Tosca · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Oct 4, 2026 - Mar 12, 2027

Carmen · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Jan 29 - Feb 19, 2027

Rigoletto · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Feb 14 - Mar 7, 2027

Lohengrin · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Past events

Mar 23, 2026

4. Akademisches Konzert 2025/26 · Akademisches Orchester Leipzig

Mar 15 - Apr 19, 2025

The Journey to Reims · Oper Leipzig

Future and recently performed repertoire

Second priest in The Magic Flute by Mozart

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Third Brabantian Noble in Lohengrin by Wagner

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Moralès in Carmen by Bizet

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Marullo in Rigoletto by Verdi

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Sciarrone in Tosca by Puccini

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Third Flemish deputy in Don Carlos by Verdi

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Fiorillo in Il barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Judas / Pilatus / Pontifex in St Matthew Passion by Bach

Deutsche Oper Berlin

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