At the age of almost 80, Giuseppe Verdi, who had already achieved mythical status, once again achieved sensational success with this opera. Using the brilliant libretto of the much younger Arrigo Boito as a starting point, he created a masterpiece of comic opera after five decades of tragic works. Although it is based on the same material as Otto Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, Verdi succeeded in writing a distinct, subversive version of the comedy.

Falstaff

Bebelplatz

Modest Mussorgsky’s national folk drama centres on a grim episode of late 17th-century Russian history. Ivan Khovansky, leader of the musketeer corps (streltsy), and his son Andrei, are planning a conspiracy, but the ambitious Prince Vasily Golitsyn, the boyar Shaklovity and cleric Dosifey also get involved in the struggle for power.

Khovanshchina

The one who has strayed from the right path – that is Violetta Valéry, who leads a life as a noble courtesan in Paris between splendor and misery. Everything is mere play and illusion, even love, until Alfredo Germont awakens true feelings in her. Happiness, however, is a rare visitor and only short-lived: Violetta, suffering from consumption, is first humiliated and then, after a final flicker of vitality, expires.

La traviata

Violetta Valéry is a noble courtesan in Paris who has "strayed from the path of virtue" and leads a life that oscillates between splendour and misery. For her everything is a game – even love – until Alfredo Germont awakens true feelings in her. But this rare happiness only lasts fleetingly for Violetta, who suffers from tuberculosis, and who is first publicly humiliated before passing away.

In the early 1930s, for Richard Strauss — approaching 70 — it was an auspicious moment when Stefan Zweig, a renowned author known for his artful, profound novels and plays, proposed writing a new libretto. In a mutually inspiring collaboration, they created a truly “comic opera” based on a play by Ben Jonson from the Shakespeare period filled not only with striking characters, tempo, and wit, but profound reflection as well. “The opera is a perfect, but perhaps for the twenty-first century,” according to Strauss himself, who in a difficult, dark time created a work of creative compositional virtuosity and a relaxed sense of humor, a story of people longing for rest or who lose themselves in busyness. This will be director Jan Philipp Gloger’s debut and it will be Christian Thielemann’s first new production as general music director, a position once held by Strauss himself.

The Silent Woman

Music from Giuseppe Verdi
Text from Francesco Maria Piave with additions by Giuseppe Montanelliin the new version by Arrigo Boito after Antonio García Gutiérrez

Simon Boccanegra

Anknüpfend an die Premiere von György Kurtágs Oper Fin de partie (nach dem Drama von Samuel Beckett), die im Januar 2025 in der Staatsoper Unter den Linden stattfindet, widmen sich Dirigent Finnegan Downie Dear und die Staatskapelle einem weiteren Werk dieses bedeutenden ungarischen Komponisten. In What is the word wird der gesamte Pierre Boulez Saal zur Spielfläche für diese faszinierende Komposition mit Worten Samuel Becketts von 1990/91. Eingerahmt wird das Werk mit Musik von Béla Bartók und Franz Schubert, die in besonderer Weise klassische Formen reflektieren. Schuberts 5. Sinfonie knüpft an die große Tradition der Wiener Klassik an.

Konzert im Pierre Boulez Saal

Pierre Boulez Saal

When the revolutionary and painter Mario Cavaradossi secretly attempts to help a political fugitive to escape the city of Rome, his lover, the famed singer Floria Tosca, believes he is cheating on her with another woman. Her jealousy is exploited by Scarpia, the unscrupulous chief of police, in order to help him capture Cavaradossi. Scarpia then makes Tosca an offer: if she gives herself to him for one night, he will release her lover.

Tosca

It is one of the classics in the Staatsoper’s repertoire: August Everding’s production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The production is unique for its reconstruction of Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s 1816 set design for what was then the Berlin Court Opera on Unter den Linden – including the legendary starry sky for the Queen of the Night, which has become an icon of scenography and continues to enchant audiences.

The Magic Flute (Everding)

The tragic drama of an oppressed person from society’s lower classes: Wozzeck, a hardworking but penniless soldier, is increasingly losing control of his life and his mind. He is seized by increasingly violent psychotic episodes, until in a delusion, he stabs and kills his girlfriend Marie.

Wozzeck

Sometimes as a cautionary tale of a wrongdoer who eventually gets his comeuppance, sometimes as an allegory of a freedom-loving, unconventional libertine who questions the moral and religious ideas of his day: The figure of the irresistibly attractive yet unscrupulous Don Juan (or Don Giovanni) is a modern myth, among whose numerous adaptations Mozart’s "dramma giocoso" stands out.

Don Giovanni

The Viennese aristocracy are no strangers to family feuds: boorish Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau interrupts the morning tête-à-tête between his cousin, the Marschallin, and her young lover Octavian, to ask for her help with his wedding plans, which are steered more by financial gain than love. Ochs does not suspect that Octavian himself, who is chosen to deliver the engagement rose, will eventually fall in love with the bride.

Der Rosenkavalier

In masks and costumes, the characters in Verdi’s opera try to conceal their identities or to construct alternative ones. The powerholder Riccardo does so in order to avoid those plotting against him, his friend Renato to escape unrecognized, Renato’s wife Amelia to hide her love for Riccardo from her husband, the guests at the masked ball to enjoy playing with beautiful appearances.

Un ballo in maschera

Die schweigsame Frau

He commands a world empire and yet he is deeply unsettled. Philip II of Spain not only fears losing command but also feels betrayed and deserted by his wife Elizabeth von Valois: she and his son Carlo are in love. Over all this hangs the threatening shadow of the Inquisition. In vain, King Philip seeks trust in a hostile world.

Friedrich Hamel

Events

Upcoming events

Nov 20 - Dec 7, 2025

Falstaff · Staatsoper Berlin

Dec 14, 2025 - Jan 4, 2026

Wozzeck · Staatsoper Berlin

6 - 25 Feb, 2026

Don Giovanni · Staatsoper Berlin

Mar 28 - Apr 5, 2026

Der Rosenkavalier · Staatsoper Berlin

Mar 29 - Apr 6, 2026

Un ballo in maschera · Staatsoper Berlin

Past events

Nov 20 - Dec 7, 2025

Falstaff · Staatsoper Berlin

2 - 23 Nov, 2025

Khovanshchina · Staatsoper Berlin

Future and recently performed repertoire

Doctor Grenvil in La traviata by Verdi

Staatsoper Berlin

Leporello in Don Giovanni by Mozart

Staatsoper Berlin

First apprentice in Wozzeck by Berg

Staatsoper Berlin

Tom in Un ballo in maschera by Verdi

Staatsoper Berlin

A police inspector in Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss

Staatsoper Berlin

A monk in Don Carlos by Verdi

Staatsoper Berlin

Zwei Strelitzen in Khovanshchina by Mussorgsky

Staatsoper Berlin

Pistola in Falstaff by Verdi

Staatsoper Berlin

Farfallo in Die schweigsame Frau by Strauss

Staatsoper Berlin

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