Conductor

“Love and hope! […] Romeo, I hold you. You hold me. Now we are happy! Let us die this way!” – Georg Anton Benda, who became Kapellmeister of the Gotha court orchestra in 1750, was particularly known for his melodramas, which were strongly influenced by Rousseau's Enlightenment spirit. Among these is “Romeo and Juliet,” the very first musical adaptation of Shakespeare's drama. The melodramatic singspiel premiered on September 25, 1776, in Gotha, in what is now the Ekhof Theater. Although the Leipzig publisher described the work as an “opera” on the title page, this so-called “drama with songs” became one of the most popular pieces of its kind well into the 19th century. The strikingly virtuosic solo parts certainly contributed to this success. Even Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is said to have been impressed by “Romeo and Juliet.” Unlike Shakespeare's tragedy, the work ends with a happy ending. This was a risky undertaking for Benda, but the librettist Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter recognized the potential for genre-specific advancements. With "Romeo and Juliet," Benda achieved a particularly nuanced musical realization of the otherwise tragic love story. The work is characterized by its soulful melodies, vivid characterization, and emphasis on the characters' inner conflicts. Benda utilized the possibilities of instrumentation to amplify moods such as love, despair, and tension, and placed great emphasis on the musical portrayal of psychological subtleties.

EPSG:4326

ROMEO AND JULIE – Ekhof Festival – Baroque Impulse

Schloss Friedenstein Gotha

"Orpheus! Is it illusion, is it truth?" – Christoph Willibald Gluck's opera opens immediately with Orpheus's heart-rending lament for his deceased wife, Eurydice. The god Cupid, however, enables him to free his beloved Eurydice from the underworld. On his way out of Hades, he refuses, as instructed by the gods, to look at Eurydice – causing her to doubt his love. When Orpheus finally turns to her, Eurydice plunges back into the underworld. With his fatal decision and action, Orpheus unleashes an avalanche of emotions and demonstrates that art, music, and song, in the name of love, can conquer the terrors of death. The various musical settings of the Orpheus myth have repeatedly marked innovations on the operatic stage. Thus, Gluck placed his masterpiece entirely at the service of the reform opera he championed, moving away from the contrived virtuosity of opera seria towards a focused, dramatic narrative with expressively emotional music. Gluck's setting of the story of Orpheus possesses an unprecedented dramatic truthfulness, allowing the audience to deeply empathize with the lovers' emotional world. The internationally acclaimed star countertenor Valer Sabadus, who was Artist in Residence with the Thuringia Philharmonic Gotha-Eisenach during the 2023/24 season, will sing the title role of Orpheus. He is one of the foremost interpreters of the role and will undoubtedly set a high standard for this series of performances. The Thuringia Philharmonic Baroque Orchestra will perform under the musical direction of Baroque specialist Michael Hofstetter, Artistic Director of the International Gluck Festival Nuremberg.

ORPHEUS – Ekhof Festival – Baroque Impulse

ORPHEUS – Baroque Impulse

Landestheater Eisenach

Jerusalem during the Crusades: The Christian knights prepare for battle, but their plans are thwarted by the Saracen king Argante and the powerful sorceress Armida. Rinaldo is particularly devastated when his beloved Almirena is abducted. Armida, disguised as Almirena, attempts to seduce him and win him over to her side. Caught between love, duty, and temptation, Rinaldo becomes a pawn in a game of opposing forces. Will he be able to resist the allure of power and magic?

Rinaldo

Halle Opera House

Opera Café

Luck – Orpheus

Friedenskirche

Margravial Opera House Bayreuth

Altes Rathaus Nuremberg

Like no other 18th-century composer, Christoph Gluck paved the way for the intellectual world of Romanticism and, consequently, for Richard Wagner's great mythological narratives. The connection between Gluck and Wagner is unique in the world of opera: Wagner revered Gluck and paid him homage with his new orchestration and German translation of "Iphigenia in Aulis." This arrangement forges a musical bridge between the operatic aesthetics of the 18th and 19th centuries and reveals Gluck as a crucial precursor to Wagner's Romantic music drama.

Iphigenia In Aulis

Friedrichsforum, Bayreuth

When a sound endures for centuries, when an ensemble of musicians not only survives but preserves, carries on, and renews cultural heritage – then one approaches what one can in good conscience call “tradition.” With the opening of the 2026 anniversary season, the Thuringia Philharmonic Orchestra looks back on 375 years of orchestral tradition – not as a mere chronology, but as a living movement between past, present, and future. This special season invites you not only to hear, but to eavesdrop; not only to remember, but also to think further – and so the Thuringia Philharmonic Orchestra Gotha-Eisenach is celebrating 375 years not as the culmination of achievements, but as a new beginning: namely, into what is possible. The future of music does not begin tomorrow – it begins with the next note of today. In this sense, may the music of this season unite us all, indeed transform us – and remind us of the essence of music: Where people listen together, a space of humanity always arises. Full of exuberance, Friedrich von Schiller's poem "Ode to Joy" evokes a feeling that unites all humankind, a kind of divine inspiration that unites and inspires all earthly life. Ludwig van Beethoven was fascinated by this ode from a young age, especially because of its heroic and sublime power of language and its overarching humanistic message. When Beethoven was at the height of his compositional creativity, he was almost compelled to let this "Ode to Joy" resound in the final movement of his 9th Symphony, a daring, vocal-symphonic hymn. Let us all be inspired by the idealism of Schiller and Beethoven and welcome the new year 2026 together!

Festive New Year's Concert – Opening! The Ninth!

State Theatre Eisenach

When a sound endures for centuries, when an ensemble of musicians not only survives but preserves, carries on, and renews cultural heritage – then one approaches what one can in good conscience call “tradition.” With the opening of the 2026 anniversary season, the Thuringia Philharmonic Orchestra looks back on 375 years of orchestral tradition – not as a mere chronology, but as a living movement between past, present, and future. This special season invites you not only to hear, but to eavesdrop; not only to remember, but also to think further – and so the Thuringia Philharmonic Orchestra Gotha-Eisenach is celebrating 375 years not as the culmination of achievements, but as a new beginning: namely, into what is possible. The future of music does not begin tomorrow – it begins with the next note of today. In this sense, may the music of this season unite us all, indeed transform us – and remind us of the essence of music: Where people listen together, a space of humanity always arises. 

B1 Festive New Year's Concert – Opening! The Ninth!

Gotha Cultural Center

The pastoral world is supposedly idyllic. But even shepherds are only people, and pretty Clori drives not one, but two shepherds to distraction. The most charming of all Handel’s Italian cantatas is accompanied here by three dancers who embody the feelings around this story and everyday’s relationships.

Clori, Tirsi e Fileno italian Cantata HWV 96

Goethe Theatre Bad Lauchstädt

A gem of Baroque music, one of the oldest still widely performed and popular operas, the first world-class English opera ... These are among the attributes of Henry Purcell’s best-known work, whose genesis is not yet clear, a work that has not survived in its entirety. The opera was probably first performed in 1689 at the dance master and choreographer Josias Priest’s boarding school for young gentlewomen in Chelsea, London. Some scholars have, however, argued that Purcell wrote the piece for the English court, either for James II or, even earlier, for Charles II. Still others claim that the opera bears within a covert allegory, veiled in a mythological story, with the witches symbolising the Catholic Church, highly unpopular in the England of the time ...

Conductor

Michael Hofstetter

Events

Upcoming events

2 - 13 Dec, 2026

Dido and Aeneas · Národní divadlo

Past events

Sep 27, 2026

ROMEO AND JULIE – Ekhof Festival – Baroque Impulse · Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach

Jul 4, 2026

ORPHEUS – Ekhof Festival – Baroque Impulse · Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach

Future and recently performed repertoire

Conductor in Dido and Aeneas by Purcell

Národní divadlo

Conductor in Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck

Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach

Conductor in Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach

Conductor in Rinaldo by Händel

Staatskapelle Halle

Conductor in Iphigénie en Aulide by Gluck

Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach

About

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