Name: 2nd Music Association Concert
Start: 2026-02-24T19:30:00
Location: Stefaniensaal

Graz Opera opens its doors to an exhilarating season brimming with diverse musical offerings. From the intimate charm of the Espresso Concert to the adventurous spirit of 'On the Town', audiences are invited on a journey through opera, musicals, and ballet. Art enthusiasts and families alike will find something to enjoy in performances such as 'Rigoletto', 'Snow White and The 77 Dwarfs', and 'La Divina Comedia'. Join us as we delve into the details of this vibrant season and the remarkable talent behind each production.

A Kaleidoscope of Melodies: Discover Graz Opera's Vibrant Season

Vassilis Christopoulos

Christian Schmitt

Oper Graz

Graz Philharmonic Orchestra 

Whether singing, dancing, or instrumental music – you can expect a diverse program in an intimate setting, performed by ensemble members, dancers from the Graz Ballet, members of the Graz Philharmonic, and guests. Admission is free!

Espresso concert

In On the Town, three sailors are on shore leave in search of the sights of the city and a charming city dweller to accompany them. Not exactly an easy goal to achieve under time pressure ... Leonard Bernstein’s first musical, staged by musical professional Felix Seiler, offers not only catchy hits, but also humorously drawn characters to fall in love with – and plenty of fun and verve!

On the Town

Giuseppe Verdi sends his protagonist Rigoletto on an emotional rollercoaster ride between feigned hilarity, honest paternal love and human abysses. Director Ute M. Engelhardt takes a look behind the facade of the joker and into the maw of the brutalised society in which the title hero finds himself. On the podium: chief conductor Vassilis Christopoulos, who once again devotes himself to a Verdi opera after his gripping interpretation of Macbeth.

Rigoletto

“I want to experience something for once, not just bat my eyelashes” is the motto of the strong-willed, karate-wielding Snow White in Elena Kats-Chernin and Susanne Felicitas Wolf’s powerful version. Supported by the life-size rabbit Richard III and 77 dwarves from the Graz Opera singing school, Snow White succeeds in taking her life into her own hands and escaping persecution by her deceitful stepmother. Lovingly encouraging fun for the whole family with a fast-paced musical mix of classical, musical and pop, cartoon film music and pop songs.

Snow White and the 77 Dwarfs

The Divine Comedy, Divina Commedia, is the main work of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) and is considered the most important work of Italian literature and the basis for the modern Italian language. In it, Dante describes the stages of a journey through an otherworldly world. The Roman poet Virgil leads the author, who is also his own main character, through hell and purgatory. On their way, Dante and Virgil encounter the countless souls of the deceased, who tell of their respective fates. In paradise, Dante finally meets his childhood sweetheart Beatrice. In his reunion with her, the poet discovers the power of love and finds inner peace and tranquillity.

Choreographer Estefania Miranda uses the literary model for an “expansive” choreography. She asks about people’s greatest fears and desires and what might await our souls after death. She transfers the biblical deadly sins into a contemporary context. In the first part of the evening, we experience various choreographic installations on a journey of discovery through the opera house, which translate torments and sins into a contemporary dance language. In the second part of this sensual Gesamtkunstwerk, the audience follows Dante’s path to paradise from the auditorium as usual.

La Divina Comedia

Alban Berg revolutionised the opera tradition in 1925 with a gripping story that combines drama, murder and social study. The folk opera stars Daniel Schmutzhard (Wozzeck) and Annette Dasch (Marie), together with chief conductor Vassilis Christopoulos on the podium of the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra, explore the expressive sound world of Berg’s masterpiece. After his successful Austrian debut in Graz with Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser and stints in Vienna and Salzburg, director Evgeny Titov returns to Graz Opera with one of the most important operas of the 20th century.

Wozzeck

With Francis Poulenc's rarely performed Organ Concerto, Christian Schmitt brings us a virtuoso performance of the concert hall organ in the Graz Musikverein. In Camille Saint-Saëns's famous Organ Symphony , the organ later functions as an instrument almost equal to the orchestra. A new sonic discovery, however, is "Amor Fati ," an orchestral piece in which the contemporary Cretan composer Giorgos Koumendakis brings the music of his homeland to life without the use of traditional Greek instruments, for example, through rich ornamentation in the strings, thiaboli and mandora sounds, and rhythmic patterns of transcribed birdsong in the woodwinds.

2nd Music Association Concert

Stefaniensaal

Chamber Concert 6 Opera Studio Concert »Paris, jour et nuit«

Cowboys, horse racing and the really big emotions! Emmerich Kálmán’s last operetta, premiered posthumously, brings all this and more to the stage of Graz Opera. Kálmán’s western operetta can be experienced for the first time in Austria in an exciting and emotional production.

Sunshine Ranch, Wild West: For Lona Farrell, ranch owner and horse breeder with Hungarian roots, work comes first. She takes a rather critical view of potential love adventures, although the world of men would love to fall at her feet. When the mysterious cowboy Roy Dexter takes over the vacant position of the overbearing foreman Jim Slaughter and the racehorse Arizona Lady seems to break new records under his care, Lona and Roy find it difficult to hide their romantic feelings for each other. A happy ending is already within reach, if it weren’t for Jim Slaughter and his new dubious boss McDumb ...

Arizona Lady

The debut novel by Styrian Ingeborg Bachmann Prize winner Ferdinand Schmalz, set to music by Carinthian musician and composer Lukas Kranzelbinder, directed by Viennese Alexander Charim, and brought to life by singers from the Graz Opera and figureheads of the "New Viennese Song" such as Klemens Lendl ( Die Strottern ) and Wolfgang Vincenz Wizlsperger ( Kollegium Kalksburg ). An operetta series in five parts, each episode of which "eats" its way into the opera through different performance venues: Voilà, the operetta of the 21st century!

My favorite animal is called Winter/Episode 5

My favorite animal is called Winter/Episode 4

The exceptionally large brass ensemble (25 players!) in Leoš Janáček's Sinfonietta is just one of the special features of this concert. Perhaps this is why the five movements sound like film music and have been "sampled" in several television series and films—although not intended as such by the composer. The four-movement Les Eaux célestes (2023) by the French composer Camille Pépin also leaves a special aural impression with its open, enchanting form and colorful instrumentation. Under the direction of Ben Glassberg, the Graz Philharmonic will accompany pianist Ilya Shmukler, who was awarded first prize at the 2024 Concours Géza Anda, in Frédéric Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1.

2nd Music Association Concert

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