Conductor

“By the very nature of things, there is a very close relationship between celebration and play.”
Johan Huizinga
The Hanover State Opera's Children's Festival is a festival and so much more: It's both a large-scale musical theater performance for children and a look behind the scenes of the operatic world. It's a musical theater performance with professionals in the orchestra, on stage, and in the workshops, but also with children and young people on stage who have rehearsed extensively and implemented their own creative ideas with the directing team. Furthermore, the children in the audience support and shape the performance at many interactive stations in the foyer. And at the end, it all comes together again on the State Opera's grand stage! Marveling and participating, trying things out, and discovering go hand in hand in this two-hour festival for the whole family.

The Children's Festival at the State Opera

Staatstheater Hannover

“Have you tortured me enough?”
Floria Tosca lives entirely for music and her love for the artist Mario Cavaradossi. When Cavaradossi is sentenced to death for his political activism against an inhumane regime, the singer too is on the brink. The jealous Baron Scarpia tries to blackmail Tosca: If she wants to save her lover from execution, she must give herself to Scarpia. Tosca pretends to accept the deal – and stabs Scarpia. But the path to freedom is deceptive. Scarpia's power extends beyond death.
In hardly any other opera are personal passion and political arbitrariness so closely intertwined and yet so cruelly exposed as in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca from 1900. The relentless reckoning with abuse of power and machinations, coupled with a deeply moving love story, continues to electrify audiences today, with a score that combines gripping drama and nerve-wracking tension with moments of enchanting beauty. Arias like Tosca's "Vissi d'arte" and Cavaradossi's "É lucevan le stelle" are not without reason considered icons of Italian vocal art.

Tosca

Chicago: deep street canyons between the skyscrapers, gangsters with machine guns in their violin cases, electrifying jazz rhythms wafting out of smoky bars... In this city that is as dangerous as it is seductive, Roxie Hart dreams of becoming famous. And don't we all know the dream of a great career? After she shoots her unfaithful lover, her path leads not to the limelight, but to prison. But Roxie senses her chance... The new production of Chicago offers everything that a great American musical promises: a spectacular stage show, rousing dance numbers and a gripping and socially critical story with lots of passion, sex, intrigue, murder and "all that jazz"!

Chicago

Opernplatz

Grand Italian opera, jazzy rhythms, minimal music, sumptuous waltz icing, romantic feelings, lightness, drama, entertainment, thoughtfulness - and all in one evening! We pack what we love about opera into our traditional opening concert of the State Opera and welcome you to the new 2024/25 season. Artistic director Laura Berman and her team present the highlights of the season. Accompanied by the State Orchestra under the musical direction of General Music Director Stephan Zilias, the new 1st Kapellmeister Mario Hartmuth, the 2nd Kapellmeister Masaru Kumakura and the young newcomer to the musical department Piotr Jaworski, premieres and revivals of new and familiar faces from the ensemble will be presented. Also taking part this year is the State Opera Choir, which, under the direction of its choir director Lorenzo Da Rio, will present excerpts from the opening premiere Satyagraha, among other things. There will also be excerpts from Der Bajazzo , Chicago , The Greek Passion , Der Rosenkavalier , Rusalka and Rigoletto . The concert will be hosted by our colleagues from the dramaturgy: Regine Palmai, Sophia Gustorff and Daniel Menne. Here's to a successful new opera season!

Opening concert

Directed by Mariusz Treliński and designed by Boris Kudlička, this production of Madama Butterfly premiered over a quarter of a century ago, in 1999. It was an epoch-making performance. Just like Emperor Meiji modernised Japan at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Treliński and Kudlička revolutionised the idiom of Polish opera. Coincidentally, the Meiji era (1868–1912) is when the story of Madame Butterfly is set – the libretto cites the year 1904. The period saw Japan’s transformation from a feudal state dominated by the Tokugawa shogunate into a modern country with a thriving economy and culture. Treliński and Kudlička’s achievement was an event of similar magnitude for Polish (and international) opera. Owing to their imaginativeness and sensitivity, the two artists paved the way for the introduction of a more accessible and universal language into contemporary opera directing. The production is not just a story about Butterfly’s love or a study of the clash between two cultures; it is a token of cultural transformation.

Madama Butterfly

Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera

Everything in Barrie Kosky’s production of The Magic Flute seems like a fairytale and each subsequent idea is a proof of the director’s enormous sense of humour: the composer must have had a lot of fun working with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s score. The red curtain opens to reveal nothing but a white screen where all the frolics will soon take place – the director will juggle elements of silent film, slapstick comedy and cartoon art. His collaborators, Suzanne Andrade and Paul Barritt, also known as “1927”, mixed film animation with live theatre. The effect is stunning. Papageno, the boisterous bumpkin portrayed here as a sad clown channelling Buster Keaton, gets drunk onstage in the company of pink elephants quaffing cocktails from flute glasses. The Queen of the Night is a huge spider, Monostatos appears as a pale vampire dressed as Count Dracula, while Pamina’s black wig with a fringe makes her look like Louise Brooks, the iconic silent film actress and dancer.

The Magic Flute

Georges Bizet is best known for his work on Carmen . However, the surge in interest in this opera has also led to the discovery of his earlier works, including Les Pêcheurs de Perle , the twenty-five-year-old composer's first major stage work. Initially, it was to be titled Leila , though the librettists—Michel Carré and Eugène Cormon—ultimately emphasized the two male characters.

Conductor

Piotr Jaworski

Events

Upcoming events

Oct 22 - Nov 21, 2026

Madama Butterfly · Polish National Opera

Apr 3 - Jun 5, 2027

The Magic Flute · Polish National Opera

Apr 23 - May 9, 2027

Poławiacze pereł · Polish National Opera

Past events

May 10, 2026

The Children's Festival at the State Opera · Staatstheater Hannover

Dec 13, 2025 - Jan 9, 2026

Tosca · Staatstheater Hannover

Future and recently performed repertoire

Conductor in Chicago by Kander

Staatstheater Hannover

Conductor in Les pêcheurs de perles by Bizet

Polish National Opera

Conductor in The Magic Flute by Mozart

Polish National Opera

Conductor in Madama Butterfly by Puccini

Polish National Opera

Conductor in Tosca by Puccini

Staatstheater Hannover

About

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