Singer

"He was your brother... You are avenged, Mother!"
Azucena
When Count Luna and the troubadour Manrico not only find themselves as enemies in a bloody civil war, but also fall in love with the same woman, a fatal tragedy unfolds: Leonora poisons herself, and Manrico is executed by Luna, who then learns that he killed his own brother, believed to be long lost. Manrico had grown up unrecognized by Azucena, who once witnessed the old Count Luna burn her mother at the stake. Deeply traumatized, Azucena swore revenge, kidnapped the count's younger son, and accidentally killed her own child in his place.
With his drama "El Trovador" ( The Troubadour) , Antonio García Gutiérrez wrote the most successful and popular stage work of the Spanish Romantic era in 1836. Giuseppe Verdi was so captivated by this dark romance of love and hate, jealousy and revenge that he used it as the basis for his opera Il Trovatore in 1849/50, without a commission and thus without a guarantee of a premiere . In it, he found the age-old motif of fraternal strife intertwined with the questions of fate, chance, and inner necessity that had always fascinated him. He knew how to carve his characters out of this bizarre story in a highly sophisticated way. His musical imagination was ignited by their contradictions, their imprisonment, and their longings.

The Troubadour

Staatstheater Hannover

Beijing, in a fairytale setting: At the imperial court, Princess Turandot has made her own marriage a law: Anyone wishing to marry her must answer three riddles correctly; anyone who fails is executed. When a stranger appears, he decides to take on the challenge. He is the only one who succeeds in solving the riddles and, in turn, gives the princess a task: If Turandot can reveal his name by dawn, he is prepared to renounce her hand and die.
Behind the murderous brutality of Turandot's law and her cold-blooded rejection of all suitors lies a deep transgenerational trauma. These unsolvable tasks serve only as self-protection: An ancestor was brutally abused and murdered by her husband. Jakob Peters-Messer's production examines Puccini's fairytale opera for this deep psychological cause and simultaneously reveals the inherent ambivalence of tragedy and grotesque comedy.

Turandot

A white man in a tailcoat stands at the front of the stage—in the hollow of a large, black Steinway grand piano. The man in the tailcoat supports himself with his right hand. The older people in the audience clear their throats a little. It's cold outside. The piano plays. Repeated chords in D minor, a descending motif, full of worry. "I came as a stranger, I depart as a stranger."
All of this is wonderful and should always remain so! For we all love Franz Schubert's Winterreise —as well as Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe and Hugo Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch. And it is precisely these cycles that we want to hear in our new series. But also other things. Not "just" necessarily classical-romantic art songs of the 19th century, but what the members of our vocal ensemble bring with them from home, what has shaped them, what they love. From Bulgarian shepherd's songs to Finnish tangos… then back to the starting point, Winterreise. To enhance the diversity of the whole, we meet for each event, each song concert , at a different location in Hanover. You are warmly welcome throughout our city, whose venues we will fill with sound through songs and other vocal compositions.

 Song Concert: Shavleg Armasi

Faust Cultural Center

Two peoples find themselves in the barbaric grip of war after Nabucco and his troops attack Jerusalem. The Babylonian ruler and Zaccaria, the leader of the Hebrews, do not budge an inch from their opposing viewpoints in this profound conflict, while the daily grind of war continues to bring new suffering to both peoples. The seemingly hopeless conflict does not even stop at their own families: Zaccaria holds Nabucco's favorite daughter Fenena hostage, while she has long since changed sides out of love for Ismaele and lives among the enemy people. Nabucco's other daughter, Abigaille, envies her sister's happiness and her father's throne and forges disastrous plans...

Nabucco

Theater Duisburg

German Oper am Rhein

“Ha, do you call your cowardice God?”
Political instability reigns in the Duchy of Brabant: Since the disappearance of the heir to the throne, Gottfried, the succession has been unclear. Elsa, the eldest daughter of the deceased duke, is accused of murdering her brother in order to rule in his place. However, the accuser is himself driven by power interests, and the influence of King Henry, who is supposed to administer justice, is questionable. A trial by ordeal is intended to restore order, with the accuser and a representative of Elsa fighting each other. In this seemingly hopeless situation, a mysterious stranger—Lohengrin—takes Elsa's side. He wins the fight, but the mysterious circumstances cast doubt on the trial by ordeal. Even Lohengrin's success with the Brabant masses cannot establish lasting order. Only the clarification of the crime and an admission of guilt bring new stability—but also bring about the departure of the fairytale savior and the end of the seemingly unconditional love affair. Almost 40 years after Hans-Peter Lehmann's legendary production, the Hanover State Opera is staging a new production of Lohengrin . Just as Richard Wagner's opera connects the historical figure of Henry I with the legend of the Holy Grail, and martial choirs with ethereal sounds, Richard Brunel's production combines the question of the connection between power and justice with imagery inspired by depth psychology.

Lohengrin

When social roles and values ​​are renegotiated, existential questions arise: Who am I? Who can I be? And what can I do to be a good person? In The Greek Passion , the residents of a Greek village are painfully confronted with this after they have assigned the roles for the upcoming passion play. When a group of refugees appears and asks for help, the overwhelming feeling grows. The Greek Passion deals with the most important themes of our coexistence: humanity and charity. With Greek folklore, Orthodox liturgy and large choral tableaux, it tells the story in a musically folk-like way, making it one of the most magnificent and haunting operas of the 20th century.

The Greek Passion

Opernplatz

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

EPSG:4326

Manon Lescaut

Opernhaus Zürich

With "Manon Lescaut," Giacomo Puccini established a series of tragic female figures in whom passionate devotion and existential despair are intertwined. In four large, cinematically edited scenes, he depicts the stages of the title character's life: her intoxicating love for the student Des Grieux, a life in luxurious Parisian society, and finally, exile and death in an American desert. Director Barrie Kosky underscores the fleeting nature of this life by presenting the narrative as a continuous, feverish journey: Death is already on the coachman's seat at Manon and Des Grieux's first encounter. Following her acclaimed Tosca, soprano Sonya Yoncheva returns to the Zurich Opera House as Manon.

Bass

Shavleg Armasi

Events

Upcoming events

13 - 25 Jun, 2026

The Troubadour · Staatstheater Hannover

11 - 26 Dec, 2026

Manon Lescaut · Opernhaus Zürich

Past events

13 - 25 Jun, 2026

The Troubadour · Staatstheater Hannover

Feb 2 - Mar 11, 2026

Turandot · Staatstheater Hannover

Future and recently performed repertoire

Timur, Re tartaro spodestato in Turandot by Puccini

Staatstheater Hannover

Geronte di Ravoir in Manon Lescaut by Puccini

Opernhaus Zürich

Henry the Fowler, German King in Lohengrin by Wagner

Staatstheater Hannover

Zaccaria in Nabucco by Verdi

Deutsche Oper am Rhein

Ferrando in The Troubadour by Verdi

Staatstheater Hannover

About

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