Lighting Designer

The sight of a monstrous snake can easily make you faint. When Prince Tamino comes to, he believes he has seen his savior in the somewhat enigmatic Papageno. But he is far from it, as three ladies from the Queen of the Night's entourage rebuke him: she has saved Tamino because he is to free Pamina, the Queen of the Night's daughter, from the clutches of her kidnapper Sarastro. Enchanted by the image of Pamina, Tamino sets out on his journey. But the boundaries between good and evil, right and wrong seem to blur – is the star-blazing Queen of the Night in the right, or is Sarastro on the side of truth, goodness, and beauty? Trials must be passed, obstacles overcome, and insights gained before Tamino and Pamina can finally be united and Papageno, too, finally finds a companion.

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The Magic Flute

Staatstheater Mainz

Composer Julia Kerr, mother of Judith Kerr, who wrote down her moving emigration story from a child's perspective in When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit , always carried her opera score The Chronoplan with her while fleeing the Nazis . On the restless journey through Europe, however, parts of her composition were lost and remained missing until a few years ago. Made possible by extensive reconstruction work, the stage premiere of the opera is now being staged.

The Chronoplan (UA)

When his parents go dancing on Saturday nights, ten-year-old Anton Bohnsack settles in at home with his favorite books. He loves reading vampire stories—the scarier, the better. But when a real vampire suddenly appears on his windowsill one evening, it gives him a real fright. It's a good thing this little bloodsucker, Rüdiger von Schlotterstein, and his younger sister, Anna the Toothless, are more interested in friendship than in Anton's blood. If only it weren't for the adults! Human children should probably stay hidden from Rüdiger's relatives. Anton's parents don't really believe in vampires, but they're determined to invite their son's strange new friends over for cake. And then there's the nasty Geiermeier, who wants to make the cemetery vampire-free...

The Little Vampire

Paul buries himself in the memories of his deceased wife Marie. He has set up his house as a reliquary. Then he meets Marietta, a dancer. Everything about her reminds him of his great love. But Marietta is full of life and has her own wishes for a relationship with Paul. In a heated phantasmagoria, Paul is torn between his loyalty to his dead wife and the desires of the life-hungry dancer.

The dead city

A moment of carelessness leads a young vixen to be captured. She grows up on a forester's farm, surrounded by pestering children, a misunderstood dachshund, and a flock of chickens whose eagerness to serve only further encourages the vixen to give in to her hunting instinct. After escaping to freedom, she encounters a fox, with whom she starts a family—not without some forest dwellers commenting indignantly on the young couple's courtship. But in the forest, not only fox and badger, but sometimes also forester and schoolmaster say "good night" to each other when they meet on their way back from the pub. And when the paths of humans and animals cross, the animals often come out on the short end...

The clever little fox

Princess Turandot never wants to belong to a man. To deter her suitors, she has passed a cruel law: anyone who wishes to marry her must first solve three riddles. If they fail, they are executed. Countless men have already met their deaths this way. Nevertheless, Prince Calaf feels attracted to Turandot. Ignoring the urgent warnings of his father and Liù, who loves him selflessly, he faces the riddles – and succeeds in solving them! But instead of taking Turandot as his wife against her will, he now gives her a riddle of his own…

Turandot

America's most bizarre family is back with a new story: The Addamses live a anything but ordinary life in their house in Central Park, full of darkness, pain, and death. But that could soon change: Wednesday, the family's daughter, has grown up and falls in love with a handsome, intelligent young man from a respectable family - a man the likes of which her parents have never met before. As if that weren't bad enough, Wednesday lets her father in on her secret and begs him not to tell her mother. Now Gomez Addams has to do something he's never done before - keep a secret from his beloved wife Morticia. And the next catastrophe is just around the corner: That evening the families are supposed to get to know each other, and Wednesday just wants a completely normal evening without any unusual incidents, but everything turns out differently than planned...

The Addams Family

Jonathan Peachum, a successful entrepreneur in organized begging, has the city firmly in his grip. No one who wants to make it as a beggar can get past him. Only his daughter Polly, of all people, doesn't listen to him. She has plans to marry Macheath, known as Mackie Messer, who is also a big name in the London underworld. Macheath has good contacts in the authorities, especially with Police Chief Tiger Brown. These contacts are very useful in preventing the occasional unpleasant (murder) story from becoming a problem. But now it's not just Polly's father who is out to get him; other women he has promised to marry are also reminding people of themselves. In The Threepenny Opera, Kurt Weill mixes elements of jazz, tango, and fairground music, garnishing them with sideswipes at opera and operetta. The piece, which is based on John Gay's baroque opera parody The Beggar's Opera , is directed by Jan Neumann, who has staged the plays Sensemann & Söhne and kurz&nackig at the Staatstheater Mainz, among others.

The Threepenny Opera

Princess Turandot never wants to belong to a man. To deter her suitors, she has passed a cruel law: anyone who wants to marry her must first solve three riddles.
If he fails, he is executed. Countless men have already died this way. Prince Calaf also feels attracted to Turandot. Ignoring the urgent warnings of his father and Liù, who loves him selflessly, he faces the riddles - and is able to solve them. But instead of taking Turandot as his wife against her will, he now gives her a riddle of his own...

The emotionally torn Roderick Usher is the last branch of a degenerate noble family and is at the centre of this dark story by Edgar Allan Poe. The story is initially a dialogue between Roderick Usher and the first-person narrator William, who finds his friend in a worryingly absent-minded state on his country estate. Roderick's twin sister also lives in the house. But for William, her presence is like a ghostly suspicion - especially when Roderick declares her dead. This huge, demonic house, which seems to be tearing apart in the middle, seems to have a malicious power over the souls that live in it. What family history is inscribed in the house?

The Fall of the House of Usher

The little witch lives with her faithful companion, the raven Abraxas, in a small house in the middle of the forest. At 127 years old, she is actually much too young to dance with the other witches on Walpurgis Night on the Blocksberg. She sneaks off to the witches' night anyway and is promptly caught. As punishment, she is given the task of becoming a "good" witch by the following year. If she passes the witch's test, she can finally take part in the big dance. Easier said than done... It doesn't really work with all the spells and complicated curses. Something is constantly happening that the little witch and Abraxas didn't expect. On top of that, the evil witch Rumpumpel tries by all means to prevent the little witch from achieving her big goal, and then the two of them have completely misunderstood what it means to be a "good" witch.

The Little Witch

How well-versed are you in Greek mythology? Are you familiar with the characters of goddesses and gods? And who actually rode the Trojan horse?
The operetta The Beautiful Helen offers a little insight here: Helen was supposedly the most beautiful woman in the world in her time (around 1250 BC). Aphrodite, who had won the beauty contest with Athena and Hera, had promised Helen to the judge Paris as a prize. At the time of the contest, however, Helen was not free; she was married to Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The prize could therefore only be fulfilled by kidnapping Helen, which is ultimately seen as the trigger for the Trojan War.

Lighting Designer

Ulrich Schneider

Events

Past events

Mar 14, 2026

The Magic Flute · Staatstheater Mainz

Jan 24, 2026

The Chronoplan (UA) · Staatstheater Mainz

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