Name: 9. Chamber Concert
Start: 2026-07-06T19:30:00
Location: Hoghehus Lübeck

Vivian Krause

Fabian Schultheis

Caroline Spengler

Eygló  Dóra Davíðsdóttir

Theater Lübeck

Giselle falls in love with Duke Albrecht, unaware of his noble origins. When his identity is revealed by the gamekeeper Hilarion, Giselle loses her mind and dies. She now finds herself in the circle of the Wilis, ghosts of brides who died before their weddings. At night, they force young men to dance with them until they die of exhaustion. As a Wili, Giselle could take revenge on Hilarion and Albrecht – but love will prove to be the stronger force.

Giselle

In his play "Birthday Candles," American playwright Noah Haidle spins a thread of life on which birthdays (some more, some less solemnly celebrated) are strung like pearls on a necklace. 100 years of life – 100 birthday cakes that Ernestine bakes each year according to her mother's recipe as she searches for her place in the universe. At 18, Ernestine is convinced she'll find that place on a theater stage, far away from her tranquil hometown, but as the saying goes, "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans." Ernestine starts a family with her childhood sweetheart, experiences highs and lows, and ultimately finds herself reflected in the questions, wishes, and dreams of those who come after her.

Birthday Candles

He is one of the greats of American rock music: an Oscar and Tony Award winner, a 20-time Grammy winner – and more than 60 million albums sold make him one of the most successful musicians of all time. His songs, sometimes melancholically dark, sometimes powerfully earthy, have won a huge fan base around the world. Autobiographical elements are repeatedly reflected in the songs: his difficult relationship with his father, his working-class background, but also social themes such as rural exodus in the USA or everyday racism in the provinces. His childhood and youth experiences – growing up in a small town in New Jersey, in a home shaped by a choleric father who failed to build an emotional relationship with his children – flow into his songs. With a mixture of anger, a longing for escape and freedom, but also with wistful nostalgia, he describes his roots and simultaneously expresses what concerns the "little man" on the street. In "My Hometown," for example, he sings about the decline of his hometown, empty shops, violence, and unemployment. He tells of failed lives, lost dreams, and defiant rebellion. His songs deal with life and death, friendship, family, idealism, the American Dream, and homelessness—and they reflect the psychological state of a nation.

My Hometown

Composer John Kander tells a great love story in "Cabaret": Nightclub singer Sally Bowles and writer Clifford Bradshaw meet on New Year's Eve 1929 in Berlin. For a while, the newly in love couple's happiness seems perfect – despite their differing ideas about the future and their precarious circumstances. Sally lives for the day and sings at the famous "Kit Kat Klub" at night. Jealous Cliff can't deal with this. He is working on his second novel, but is in the midst of a creative crisis. Moreover, the mood of the "Golden Twenties" is increasingly changing, even in the liberal metropolis of Berlin. Fascism and anti-Semitism are poisoning society. Even the apolitical landlady, Fräulein Schneider, can no longer close her eyes to the rise of National Socialism.

Cabaret

In his drama fragment "Woyzeck," shortly before his untimely death in 1837, Georg Büchner became one of the first playwrights to turn his attention unsparingly to social reality. Inspired by a real court case, he depicts a simple man trying to lead a normal life against all odds—living in poverty, subjected to questionable medical experiments, and humiliated from all sides, he increasingly loses his mind. The play wasn't staged until 1913.

Wozzeck

When Mozart spent a few days in Linz in 1783, the opportunity to give a concert spontaneously arose. However, he had no finished works at hand. So, within four days, he composed a symphony that later—and quite rightly—became known as the "Linz Symphony." Mozart clearly follows in the footsteps of Haydn, whose symphonies he had previously studied and copied. For the first time, he also opens a symphony with a slow introduction, thus continuing the path he had begun toward a large-scale symphonic form.

7th  Symphony Concert

Music and Congress Hall Lübeck

Who inherits what – and why? How does the past shape our present? And what remains at the end of the day? An ensemble of Lübeck residents, together with Knut Winkmann, playfully explores the legacy of a city and their own life's work. The personal meets the historical, the repressed meets the established, facts meet fiction. What are the hidden stories behind wills, legacies, and familial entanglements? And how does our society deal with wealth, responsibility, and the sometimes unjust distribution of wealth?

Bottom line

Güllen is bankrupt. No tax revenue and empty coffers, even though the country's economy is booming: Güllen is to be seized! The long-awaited rescue is approaching in the person of Claire Zachanassian, née Klara Wäscher, who was impregnated and abandoned by Alfred Ill at a young age, lost the paternity suit due to false witness statements, disgraced and driven from the city in poverty, lost her child, forced into prostitution, married and inherited from a wealthy oil baron, and is now a billionaire! Now it's time: With the hope of welcoming a generous benefactor in the former Güllen resident, Claire Zachanassian is being treated to a big welcome. And indeed, she is willing to donate a billion to the city, but under one condition – Alfred Ill must die! Naturally, this caused great outrage among all Güllen residents, who immediately and consistently rejected the immoral offer in the name of humanity. But strangely, little by little, an increased propensity to consume is evident throughout the city, loans are being granted generously, a new town hall is being built, and even the church is buying new bells. And Alfred Ill feels that the people of Güllen are behaving increasingly strangely toward him...

The Visit of the Old Lady

Dresden-born conductor Romely Pfund was one of the first women in Germany to be appointed General Music Director of the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic in 1987. To mark her 50th stage anniversary, she will conduct a celebratory concert at her most recent permanent venue, the Lübeck Theater, where she served as tuition director and conductor until last season. The program includes three of her favorite pieces, one of which is by one of her mentors, Leonard Bernstein.

Romely Pfund gala concert

Lübeck is the city of the Hanseatic League and Nobel Prize winners. But what about women? We need the whole of history to know where we come from and where we want to go. Therefore, we will go to the city and invite you to an open exchange of perspectives with a searching, choral text about women, which will be read, enriched, rewritten, and transferred into the future in surprisingly different ways by various Lübeck collectives. They will all become part of the "Choir of Unknown Heroes."

Choir of Unknown Heroes

6.  Chamber Concert

Salón Coliseo

One evening, he suddenly appears—a mysterious old man with a head full of music. He claims to be a knight—but there's something different about him...