Director

Mithridates, King of Pontus

San Carlo Theatre

Le nozze di Figaro

Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

The two closely related powerful women, whose graves now lie right beside each other in London’s Westminster Abbey, were “Of One Blood”, so of the same blood. Both were of course as conceivably far apart as possible during their lives. Elizabeth I ruled for almost half a century as Queen of England and Ireland, while Mary Stuart reigned over Scotland for a quarter of a century. A bitter power struggle between the Protestant hegemony and the Catholic opposition and ultimately the pressure of parliament forced the English Queen to have Mary Stuart executed.

Of One Blood

Max-Joseph-Platz

A young woman is given a job as a governess at a country house, Bly, where she will be looking after two orphan children, Flora and Miles. She has been hired by the children’s uncle and guardian, who doesn’t want to be bothered by anything and who makes the young woman swear to absolute secrecy about the goings-on at his estate. Mysterious things do indeed start to happen at the house, including strange behaviour by the children. She also finds something inscrutable about the housekeeper Mrs Grose, who has apparently spent half her life at Bly. Later, the governess believes she sees hazy apparitions of a man and a woman gliding through the rooms of the house, and she identifies them as the spirits of former employees Peter Quint and Miss Jessel. Demonic forces appear to be running rampant and plaguing the characters. At the end, one thing is certain: one of the characters lies dead. Everything else remains unanswered …

The Turn of the Screw

Bebelplatz

Scylla lives withdrawn into herself, as if in emotional hibernation. Reason, peace, and harmony reign in her cosmos. When Glaucus enters her life, everything changes: She experiences love in all its colors and facets – and does not recognize herself. The opera describes all the lust, wildness, panic, and despair that the young woman experiences as she rediscovers the world for herself. In the end, she will be someone else. Jean-Marie Leclair's rarely performed only opera is a musical discovery. Director Claus Guth returns to Opernhaus Zürich with this new production.

Scylla and Glaucus

Zurich Opera House

Prince Bluebeard's Castle, a one-act opera to a libretto by Béla Balàzs was composed by Bartók in 1911 but not performed until seven years later, on 24 May 1918 at the Budapest Opera House. The libretto proposed by Balàzs retrieves the figure from the fairytale tradition of the ruthless Bluebeard to cast it in a symbolist frame in the wake of Debussy-Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Melisande. The opera, divided into nine scenes, has only two protagonists: Bluebeard and his wife Judith, who express themselves with a song, mainly recitative, based on pentatonic scales of Hungarian folk tradition. The action takes place in the prince's castle in medieval times. A prologue recited by a bard introduces the first scene describing Judith's resolve to follow her husband into his gloomy and mysterious castle. However, the woman wants to know Bluebeard's past and starts to open the castle's seven secret doors one after the other. With dismay she discovers sinister rooms and places stained with blood, a pivotal element of the opera associated by Bartók with the minor second chord, the most dissonant of all. On opening the seventh and final door, Judith fears to find the corpses of her previous murdered wives, but instead she sees three richly dressed, living women parading before her eyes. They are the women of morning, noon and evening who now belong only to the world of Bluebeard's memories. Judith, as the woman of the night, after being crowned and covered in jewels by her husband, will follow them forever into the seventh room, whose door closes, plunging the castle back into darkness.

Bluebeard's castle / La voix humaine

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Theatre

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

Elderly King Mitridate wants to marry again, but suspects his sons might dispute his right to his beloved Aspasia and the throne. He therefore spreads the rumour that he died in battle after being defeated by the Romans. Sure enough, his older son Farnace starts pressurising his father’s young intended bride to marry him. But Aspasia secretly loves Sifare, his younger brother, who she asks to protect her from Farnace’s advances. The King of Pontus, believed to be dead, returns in the company of Irene, whom Farnace once promised to marry. Everyone starts eyeing each up other suspiciously. Farnace, in league with the Romans, plots against his father while Sifare und Aspasia are torn between their love for one another and loyalty to Mitridate. Left at the mercy of the King’s jealousy, their desperation brings them close to death.

EPSG:4326

Mitridate, Re di Ponto

Oper Frankfurt

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

A maelstrom of violence is unleashed when love turns to envy, when actions are driven by betrayal and madness. David’s triumph over the giant Goliath comes to an abrupt end when King Saul views the young hero as a rival for the throne. Although Saul does everything in his power to kill David, the latter enjoys divine protection. In the end, Saul himself dies and David takes the crown for himself.

Saul

Semperoper Dresden

Long after the Paris world premiere in 1896 Oscar Wilde’s tragedy “Salomé” remained a thorn in the flesh of the establishment across Europe. In Wilhelminian Germany and the Danube Monarchy, too, official art adjudicators considered the subject “repulsive” and the text “an insult to morality”. In the minds of the guardians of public morals the New Testament story of Herod’s daughter was as ill-suited to the stage as it was to pictorial representation, which was experiencing a boom at the time. Salomé’s stepfather, Herod, the Roman’s client king of Judea, Galilee and Samaria who is said to have ordered the massacre of the innocents around Bethlehem, persuades her to dance for him. Encouraged by her mother, she demands to be given the head of John the Baptist as a reward.

Salome

Deutsche Oper Berlin

The Dresden premiere of Richard Strauss’s Salome in 1905 was a shock to the public. As the basis for the libretto, the composer used Oscar Wilde’s play, which had already been banned in a few countries. The playwright drew inspiration from a brief biblical passage about Herod’s step-daughter. Wilde not only gave her a name but made her a fully-fledged character. Salome's appeal is irresistible to the entire court, including her stepfather. There is, however, one person who remains unmoved by her charms: the prophet Jochanaan, who is being held captive by Herod. Salome does not give up. When she fails to win Jochanaan’s favour, she resolves to achieve her goal by other means. Through the Dance of the Seven Veils, she manages to persuade Herod to grant her wish: the prophet’s head, served on a platter. She triumphs, kissing Jochanaan's dead lips, yet she will have to pay the ultimate price for her victory.

Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera

For only he who solves the princess's three riddles can become her bridegroom. Anyone who fails will be executed - like all previous suitors. Calaf's father Timur and Liù, whom Calaf loves without his knowledge, summon him in vain. He accepts the challenge.

Turandot

Vienna State Opera

Oscar Wilde’s drama about the biblical princess who has the prophet Jochanaan beheaded so she can kiss his dead mouth unfolds a tableau of human depravity: From murder and necrophilia to sexualised violence, one shocking moment follows another. But it was not only these themes that made Strauss’s Salome a scandal, but also its radically modern, overwhelming music, which was far ahead of its time. The «Faust» Prize winner Claus Guth incorporates insights from psychoanalysis, which emerged around the time of the 1905 premiere, into his production and delves into Salome’s subconscious: Younger versions of her Self accompany Salome like shadows of past wounds, together struggling to cope with childhood traumas. In a stage design that maintains the illusion of a flawless facade, reality, dream and memory begin to blur – the path from victim to perpetrator seems inevitable. Marc Albrecht conducts, and Elisabeth Strid will be performing Barrie Kosky’s new London Brünnhilde as Salome for the first time.

Though buried side by side in Westminster Abbey, Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots — cousins “of one blood” — never met in life. Their intertwined reigns ignited a ruthless clash of faith and power that ended in Mary’s execution by Elizabeth’s command.

Director

Claus Guth

Events

Upcoming events

Nov 22 - Dec 13, 2026

Salome · Polish National Opera

10 - 23 Feb, 2027

Turandot · Wiener Staatsoper

Apr 17 - May 4, 2027

Salome · Deutsche Oper Berlin

Jul 31 - Aug 26, 2027

Of One Blood · Santa Fe Opera

Past events

Sep 24 - Oct 1, 2026

Mithridates, King of Pontus · Teatro di San Carlo

15 - 23 Sep, 2026

Le nozze di Figaro · Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

About

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