Singer

When Franz Schubert wrote his Octet in 1824, he created a new eight-person ensemble that has endured to this day. The Scharoun Ensemble was founded in 1983 for this work and consists primarily of clarinet, bassoon, horn, two violins, viola, cello, and double bass. The members of the Berlin Philharmonic are among the most exciting chamber music ensembles and are constantly expanding their repertoire with new works—as is the case in this concert, dedicated to the 100th birthday of Hans Werner Henze.

EPSG:4326

Scharoun Ensemble Berlin / Siyabonga Maqungo / Jürgen Ruck

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

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.

Die schweigsame Frau

Bebelplatz

After ten years, Teatro alla Scala presented a new production of Ring des Nibelungen in the fall of 2024 , conducted by Simone Young and Alexander Soddy, who join the ranks of great maestros such as Toscanini, De Sabata, Krauss, Furtwängler, Cluytens, Muti, and Barenboim. The direction is by David McVicar, one of the most authoritative names on the international stage, who has won acclaim at La Scala in a vast repertoire, from Cavalli to Berlioz, Cilea, and Verdi.

Das Rheingold (Der Ring des Nibelungen)

Teatro alla Scala

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

Beethoven's watershed Ninth Symphony is the culmination of a year-long exploration of works by this greatest of musical revolutionaries. Hear this colossal choral wonder with a lineup of must-see singers with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Nathalie Stutzmann opens with Bach's piquant Concerto for Oboe and Violin, featuring the stunning artistry of our own principal musicians, David Coucheron and Elizabeth Koch Tiscione. The world-renowned Atlanta Symphony Chorus sings Bach's exquisite Cantata No. 56.

Beethoven Project Finale: Beethoven's Ninth

The Woodruff Arts Center

Two couples in different configurations, motivated by a bet about alleged or actual infidelity, are at the centre of Mozart’s Così fan tutte ("All Women Do It") with the cryptic subtitle "La scuola degli amanti" ("The School for Lovers"). The spirited words by librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte were enlivened with equally thoughtful music by Mozart, who by then was a veteran opera composer.

Così fan tutte

The Nibelung dwarf Alberich robs the Rhinemaidens of the Rhinegold to forge a ring that confers "endless power". Meanwhile, Wotan, the father of the gods, is forced into action. To reward the giants Fasolt and Fafner for building the castle Valhalla, he steals the Nibelungs’ treasure with the help of Loge, the cunning fire god. Alberich curses the ring and all its future owners – the tragedy takes its course.

Das Rheingold

Like a call issuing from a mythical distant past, Richard Strauss’ Elektra summons the magic of eerie gloom and archaic brutality. An almost inevitable 'tremendous increase to the very end' (Strauss) in musical tension plunges the listener deep into Electra’s world, which is shaped by grief, pain, and thirst for vengeance. Humiliated and tormented by her family, Electra, the daughter of the king of Mycenae, devotes her life to a single obsessive goal: day in and day out, she invokes the memory of her father, who was murdered treacherously by her mother Clytemnestra and Clytemnestra’s lover Aegisthus, and she waits for the return of her brother Orestes, who is supposed to avenge his father’s murder. The deed must be paid back in kind. Vacillating between hatred, hysteria, weakness, hubris, deep sadness, obsession and sarcasm, Electra has lost every connection to the people around her. She is unkempt and has rejected her femininity.

Elektra

In the summer of 1782, in his twenties, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart celebrated his greatest opera success yet. With Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio), he composed an enormously significant, pioneering work for the Deutsches Nationalsingspiel that had been founded by the Habsburg emperor Joseph II in Vienna, with inspired music and impressively rendered characters.

Die Entführung aus dem Serail

The ring grows from a painful insult – a spark that ignites an unleashed force that can no longer be tamed. "Das Rheingold" opens the gate to an unstoppable chain reaction that sets everything in motion and irrevocably steers destiny.

Tenor

Siyabonga Maqungo

Events

Upcoming events

Jun 27 - Jul 11, 2026

Die Entführung aus dem Serail · Staatsoper Berlin

Jul 27 - Aug 12, 2026

Das Rheingold · Bayreuther Festspiele

Past events

May 16, 2026

Scharoun Ensemble Berlin / Siyabonga Maqungo / Jürgen Ruck · Elbphilharmonie

9 - 29 May, 2026

Die schweigsame Frau · Staatsoper Berlin

Future and recently performed repertoire

Ferrando in Così fan tutte by Mozart

Staatsoper Berlin

Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni by Mozart

Staatsoper Berlin

Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Mozart

Staatsoper Berlin

Froh in Das Rheingold by Wagner

Staatsoper Berlin

Happy in Das Rheingold by Wagner

Bayreuther Festspiele

Henry Morosus in Die schweigsame Frau by Strauss

Staatsoper Berlin

Froh in Das Rheingold (Der Ring des Nibelungen) by Wagner

Teatro alla Scala

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