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

After Siegfried and Brünnhilde have happily found each other, the hero sets out on "new deeds". Brünnhilde, who remains behind, receives the Ring of the Nibelung as a token of love from her lover. But Hagen, a descendant of the Gibichung family, also wants to get his hands on the cursed ring that his father Alberich once forged. Siegfried's naivety plays into his hands: he cunningly gives Siegfried a potion that makes him forget everything, causing him to lose all his memories of Brünnhilde. In this state, he cruelly abuses his former wife, who then seeks revenge. Hagen is prepared to murder Siegfried in order to finally get his hands on the ring...

Götterdämmerung

It is about a pair of siblings who have lost each other and then find each other again. It is about incestuous love, adultery and affairs. It is about power and intrigue. But it is also about love, trust and the search for happiness. And it is about a ring that represents the future of the world. Richard Wagner's Die Walküre begins as a simple love triangle in which two people fall in love and a third suffers. But as the opera progresses, the deeper dimension of this entanglement becomes apparent and the perspective broadens beyond the purely human. It is nothing less than a part of the global epic The Ring of the Nibelung , which Richard Wagner created with Die Walküre .

Die Walküre

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

The feared seducer Don Giovanni chases from one love affair to the next. While his unfortunate servant Leporello suffers the consequences, the womanizer himself does not shy away from even the most gruesome crimes: for example, he kills the father of his latest conquest, Donna Anna, who tried to overpower the scoundrel. While Donna Anna, her fiancé Don Ottavio and Don Giovanni's ex-lover Donna Elvira, seek revenge, the latter is already causing trouble at a wedding, where he is trying to win over the bride Zerlina - much to the displeasure of the groom Masetto. But the voice of the ghost of Donna Anna's murdered father announces that Don Giovanni's misdeeds will soon end...

Don Giovanni

Overtures, arias and duets from popular operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) and others, as well as from Viennese operettas by Oscar Straus (1870-1954), Franz Lehár (1870-1948) and other composers of the so-called Silver Operetta Era.

Tanja Christine Kuhn

Events

Upcoming events

Apr 17, 2026

Gala against cancer · Bremer Philharmoniker

Past events

6 - 29 Jun, 2025

Six bouquets · Theater Dortmund

May 18 - Jun 8, 2025

Götterdämmerung · Theater Dortmund

Future and recently performed repertoire

Rosalinde, his wife in Die Fledermaus by Strauss

Theater Dortmund

Wellgunde in Götterdämmerung by Wagner

Theater Dortmund

Gerhilde in Die Walküre by Wagner

Theater Dortmund

Wellgunde in Das Rheingold by Wagner

Theater Dortmund

Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni by Mozart

Theater Dortmund

About

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