Presenter and show star Götz Alsmann invites the Dortmund audience to a festive opera and operetta gala that focuses entirely on composers named Strauss: And there are, as we know, many of them in music history! The Strauss family, including father Johann (1804 - 1849) and his sons Johann (1825 - 1899), Josef (1827 - 1870) and Eduard (1835 - 1916), formed a veritable dynasty of composers. The best known of this group - famous as the "Waltz King" Johann Strauss (son) - will celebrate three anniversaries in the calendar years 2024 and 2025: the 125th anniversary of his death (June 3, 2024), his 200th birthday (October 25, 2025) and the 150th anniversary of the premiere of his probably most famous stage work Die Fledermaus  (April 3, 2024), the "Queen of Operettas".

Six bouquets

Opernhaus Dortmund

It is a finale that marks a new beginning: after four years and the acclaimed productions of Die Walküre , Siegfried and Götterdämmerung , artistic director Aron Stiehl and chief conductor Nicholas Milton will bring the Klagenfurt Ring to a close with Rheingold .

The Rhinegold

Stadttheater Klagenfurt

Accompanied by a slowly swelling E-flat major chord, in the prelude to Das Rheingold a mythical cosmos rises from the depths of the Rhine, from whose waves a world populated by gods, giants and dwarves arises: Cursing love, the Nibelung Alberich procures the legendary gold of the Rhine maidens in order to forge a ring from it that gives its owner limitless power. When Wotan and Loge cunningly steal the valuable piece from him, Alberich places a curse on the ring, the fateful consequences of which ignite the further events of Der Ring des Nibelungen ...

Das Rheingold

With a total running time of around 16 hours, Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung is one of the most monumental epics that the opera stage has ever seen. Is it therefore even possible to tell this gigantic stage festival in a single evening? Absolutely! The German humorist Loriot made it possible and masterfully captured the essence of the drama in just a few words: "The perpetrators in the most powerful drama in music history are actually very nice people. Only one shared passion is their undoing: they want to own more than they can afford, more power than they are entitled to. In a blind, loveless pursuit of profit, they destroy themselves and their world. ... Fortunately, such things only happen on the opera stage."

The Ring in One Evening

Gabriel Eisenstein is sent to prison for insulting an official. His friend Dr. Falke advises him to have some fun first, namely at Prince Orlofsky's ball. Rosalinde, Eisenstein's wife, who actually wanted to have fun with her lover Alfred during her husband's absence, also goes to the ball - but incognito as a masked Hungarian countess. And the chambermaid Adele also obtains a free evening for herself under the pretext of wanting to look after her sick aunt - but only to go to the ball as well. There, all the people finally meet under false identities and the erotic game of confusion takes its course...

The bat

After 15 years, the barber Benjamin Barker returns to his old home in London. He believes his wife to be dead, and his daughter is now in the care of his arch-enemy Judge Turpin, who was responsible for Barker's decades-long banishment. Under the name Sweeney Todd, the barber embarks on a brutal campaign of revenge by slitting the throats of all his customers with a razor blade. He is assisted by the baker Mrs. Lovett, who processes the human remains into a new meat pie ingredient, which soon helps her business to boom. But the bloodlust that Todd becomes more and more addicted to has fatal consequences...

Fritz Steinbacher

Events

Past events

6 - 29 Jun, 2025

Six bouquets · Theater Dortmund

May 8 - Jun 13, 2025

The Rhinegold · Stadttheater Klagenfurt

Future and recently performed repertoire

Gabriel von Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus by Strauss

Theater Dortmund

Adolfo Pirelli / Mr. Fogg in Sweeney Todd by Sondheim

Theater Dortmund

Mime in Das Rheingold by Wagner

Theater Dortmund

MIME in Das Rheingold by Wagner

Stadttheater Klagenfurt

About

Fritz Steinbacher hasn't added a bio