Name: Intermezzo
Start: 2026-04-30T19:00:00
Location: Semperoper Dresden

Bernhard Hansky

James Ley

Patrick Hahn

Clara Nadeshdin

Christoph Pohl

Ute Selbig

Sabine Brohm

Jürgen Müller

Martin-Jan Nijhof

Tilmann Rönnebeck

Sofia Savenko

Katharina Pittelkow

Erik Brünner

Anton Belyaev

Fabio Antoci

Alfred Mayerhofer

Michael Tucker

Axel Ranisch

Saskia Wunsch

Semperoper Dresden

Mozart’s most popular opera is a deeply humane story of adventure with heavenly music.

The Magic Flute

Every last Saturday of the month,  Semperoper Aktiv! invites  children to the Semperoper for an afternoon! We enter the opera house through the stage door, as only the staff usually do, and explore the many facets of the house in a playful way: Whether it's a workshop on a current production, a movement or sound workshop, or a look behind the scenes—there's something for everyone!

Meeting point: Stage entrance :Fairytale stories

La traviata –directly translated as »the one who has lost her way«–is, of course, the Parisian courtesan Violetta Valéry. Already dying from an incurable lung disease, she falls in love with Alfredo Germont. Yet her feelings are in conflict with her way of life and all sense of reason; ultimately, her quest for freedom and happiness is defeated by the moral strictures of bourgeois society. When first performed in Venice in 1853, this story was considered scandalous: an opera about a courtesan who dies of tuberculosis and is also modelled on a real-life woman in Parisian society was an outrageous inno-vation for the time. Focusing on the complex relationship between Violetta, her lover Alfredo and his father Giorgio, Giuseppe Verdi created a captivating and fully-rounded character, expressed through music that shifts between lyrical bel canto passages and powerful musico-dramatic outbursts. Director Barbora Horáková Joly places »La traviata« in the dazzling world of 19th-century vaudeville.

La traviata

First performed in Dresden in 1924, Richard Strauss’s Intermezzo provides all manner of insights into his turbulent married life.

Intermezzo

Is Carmen’s gaze only to be compared with that of a wild animal? The French writer Prosper Mérimée explored this question in his novella Carmen, which was the basis for Georges Bizet’s (1838-1875) final opera, which premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875. Carmen’s air of seduction is both her weapon and her downfall, for in the end she dies at the hands of her jealous lover, Don José. Carmen refuses to be told what to do and certainly doesn’t want to be rescued by Don José in the shifting sands in front of the bullfighting arena. She prefers death to having her life decided by others. In the extremely popular and passionate “Habanera” aria, which is our first encounter with Carmen, she paints a picture of herself: “Love is a rebellious bird that none can tame.” Her indomitable desire for freedom is stamped in her DNA.

Carmen

If you could change the world right now, what would you do? Change the world! by Mart van Berckel and Pedro Beriso, showing at Semper Zwei, provides a great opportunity to reflect on this and a whole host of other questions. The production aims to transport the audience to the day after a revolution: in a room full of empty chairs (the remnants of barricades), four singers meet after devastating events to reflect, to mourn and to hope … and also to think of a way forward. But they are not alone. They are joined by spoken-word artist Amara van der Elst as a figure who is simultaneously both inside and outside events. According to Mart van Berckel: “Like a presenter or a storyteller, she is responsible for what happens on stage; she can press ‘play’ or ‘pause’, rewind or fast-forward. She’s the motor driving the performance.” She addresses the audience directly with challenging texts, constantly throwing up questions that demand an answer. Amara van der Elst partly drew these questions from the lyrics of the songs which, like a collage, were compiled for this production. The music from both the 19th and 20th centuries runs from Ludwig van Beethoven to Hanns Eisler. Alongside a heady sense of revolutionary tension, the production creates space for personal reflection. Change the world! That’s not a challenge but rather an invitation to tackle difficult questions.

Ändere die Welt!

Semper Zwei

When Carmen premiered successfully at the Royal Court Theatre in 1880, Georges Bizet's exceptional work found an almost permanent place in the repertoire in Dresden. In the 2025/26 season, the work will experience its eleventh new production at the Dresden State Opera—reason enough to reflect on the opera's fascinating reception history.

 Case number: “Love is a rebellious bird”

Archivio centrale di Stato di Dresda

The fool in Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s production of Rigoletto is clad in poisonous green, and equally toxic is his mockery of the gaggle of courtiers around the Duke of Mantua. But emotionally the fool is a mess, constantly worried about his daughter Gilda, whom he jealously shields from the clutches of the Duke, an infamous rake. When Gilda nevertheless falls victim to the Duke, Rigoletto swears bloody vengeance. But the plan backfires … The hugely successful premiere of Rigoletto took place at the Teatro La Fenice in 1851. Giuseppe Verdi created a score which he himself described as ”revolutionary“ in its ground-breaking musical and dramatic intensity. The end result is a deeply shocking work, and perhaps the best opera by the great Italian.

Rigoletto

The centuries-old Japanese kintsugi method of repairing ceramics can be translated as “golden joinery”. Shards of broken ceramic or porcelain vessels are bonded using urushi lacquer with the cracks deliberately highlighted with a dusting of powdered gold. The aim is not to conceal the damage, but to celebrate the hidden history of a cherished object. Behind this craft, which has been widespread since the 16th century, lies the idea, closely associated with Zen Buddhism, that beauty is not to be sought in perfection, but rather in imperfection and transience. These two components symbolise the flow of life, the becoming and passing of all being.

Parts and Pieces

Staatsschauspiel Dresden

For guests who enjoy discovering new and unexpected sounds, the relaxed atmosphere of Semper Bar's bar counter is a popular music venue.

At Despite Everything: Love the poetry of Anna Akhmatovameets the music of Sergei Prokofiev.

Semper Bar – Despite Everything: Love

At Despite Everything: Love the poetry of Anna Akhmatovameets the music of Sergei Prokofiev.

 Semper Bar – Despite Everything: Love

A few days before the curtain rises on a premiere, we invite you to enjoy a sneak preview of a new production by eavesdropping on part of an orchestral or staged rehearsal in the Semperoper or in Semper Zwei.