Chorus Director

An attempted coup is uncovered, and his best friend is a conspirator – but Tito would rather renounce his office as ruler than base his power on fear and terror. «La clemenza di Tito» is a work that poses timeless questions about how to deal with power, and about guilt and forgiveness. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s late opera seria contains some of his most beautiful arias and ensembles. Conductor Marc Minkowski returns to Opernhaus Zürich with this new production, as does Italian director Damiano Michieletto.

The clemency of Titus

Zurich Opera House

Although she is surrounded by many admirers, Arabella dreams only of the «right one». She finds him in Mandryka, the Croatian landowner. Opera history’s final idealized marriage of love was written on the precipice of disaster: The opera dates to a time of deep social insecurity. The operetta-like tone of Strauss’ «Lyrischer Komödie» is strangely fractured. When it premiered in Dresden in 1933, it was instrumentalized by the Nazis for propaganda purposes. 

Arabella

Giuseppe Verdi’s «Messa da Requiem» is one of the most popular pieces in the concert repertoire. In a sensational co-production by the Oper Zürich and Ballett Zürich, Christian Spuck brought the oratorio for four solo voices, choir, and orchestra to the stage in 2016, as a combination of dance, abstract scene, space, and light. In his internationally acclaimed production, Spuck focuses on the human creature in the face of death and embarks on a sensitive search for traces of the whence and whither of the human being, between the terrifying proximity of death, loneliness, community solidarity, and mourning.

Requiem Mass

For Figaro and Susanna, it was supposed to be the most beautiful day of their lives: their wedding day. But their employer, Count Almaviva, who is equally in love with Susanna, does everything he can to delay the wedding. Twenty-four turbulent hours begin, in which the power of Eros throws every character in the play into confusing emotional states. Director Jan Philipp Gloger sets Mozart’s masterpiece in the present day, highlighting the way a supposedly irresistible man gets ensnared in a complex code of conduct designed to prevent abuse of power and sexual assault.

The Marriage of Figaro

Be someone else for a night? It’s not just frustrated Rosalinde and her employee Adele, who would much rather have been an artist, who dream of it. Together with Gabriel von Eisenstein, who has just been sentenced to prison, and Dr. Falke, who is bent on revenge, they go to Prince Orlofsky's crazy ball. Here, of all places, all the masks drop. Austrian director Anna Bernreitner stages this most Viennese of all operettas in costumes by renowned fashion designer Arthur Arbesser. It’s an evening with champagne moods, missed opportunities, and the lightness inherent in darkness, musically directed by the Swiss conductor Lorenzo Viotti.

The Bat

Powerful bars make it clear right from the start: «Tosca» is an operatic thriller about desire, betrayal, and abuse of power. With the title heroine, Puccini created a character who dedicated her entire life to the stage. Robert Carsen stages an enigmatic play about appearances and reality, theater and truth, while keeping pace with suspense-packed plot. Under the musical direction of Marco Armiliato, the dramatic triumvirate is made up of Sonya Yoncheva in the title role, Jonas Kaufmann as Cavaradossi, and Bryn Terfel in the role of Scarpia.

Tosca

Manon wants a life of luxury. Des Grieux, a student, tries to escape his father’s influence, hoping for a freer life with Manon. The uncompromising nature of their wishes becomes the young man’s undoing. «Manon» made Jules Massenet one of France’s leading opera composers of the Belle Époque overnight. Lisette Oropesa is one of the outstanding lyric coloratura sopranos of her generation. French tenor Benjamin Bernheim’s international career began as a member of the International Opernstudio in Zurich.

Manon

Opera in three acts by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957)
Libretto by Paul Schott (Julius and Erich Wolfgang Korngold) after the novel
«Bruges la morte» by Georges Rodenbach

EPSG:4326

Die tote Stadt

Opernhaus Zürich

Everything revolves around Hanna Glawari in Franz Lehár’s operetta Die lustige Witwe: She is emancipated, beautiful, clever and the heiress to 20 million... Vida Miknevičiūtė will bow in the title role in our revival of Barrie Kosky’s opulent production. The Lithuanian soprano began her distinguished career at the International Opernstudio at the Opernhaus Zürich. She can now be heard singing major Wagner and Strauss roles on stages including the Staatsoper Berlin and La Scala di Milano. She appeared as Lehár’s Hanna at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. Making his Opernhaus debut at the podium of the Philharmonia Zürich is conductor Ben Glassberg, a young British conductor who has been Music Director at the Volksoper Wien since 2024

Die lustige Witwe

Dramma giocoso in one act by Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868)
Libretto by Giuseppe Luigi Balocchi
Concert Performance

Il viaggio a Reims

Dramma lirico in four acts by Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924)
Libretto by Domenico Oliva, Luigi Illica and others

Manon Lescaut

Opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)
Libretto by Joseph Ferdinand Sonnleithner and Georg Friedrich Treitschke

Fidelio

Tragedia giapponese in two acts by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
after Pierre Loti, John Luther Long and David Belasco

Madama Butterfly

Whether as cheeky street urchins in Georges Bizet's opera Carmen, in the Christmas hustle and bustle in front of Café Momus in Puccini's La bohème or in the church scene of Tosca - every opera house needs a children's choir. To get in the mood for the Christmas season, the children's choir of Opernhaus Zürich can be heard together with the SoprAlti in a concert on the Studiobühne. In addition to well-known Christmas carols, unknown works by Palestrina, Max Reger and Maurice Ravel will also be performed.

Chorus Director

Ernst Raffelsberger

Events

Past events

Apr 26 - May 25, 2026

The clemency of Titus · Opernhaus Zürich

14 - 28 Apr, 2026

Arabella · Opernhaus Zürich

About

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