Name: Premiere Talk: The Nutcracker
Start: 2026-11-08T11:00:00
Location: Deutsche Oper Berlin

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Long before the cinematic popularity of Downton Abbey or the Jane Austen craze, the ruthless inner world of the British landed gentry became the setting for Italian opera. With his 1835 setting of Walter Scott's successful novel The Bride of Lammermoor, Gaetano Donizetti created a lyrical drama that remains the epitome of Italian Romanticism. Set in Scotland around 1700, the tragedy is also the most famous example of the transformation of the virtuosic bel canto style into a highly expressive stylisation of extreme emotional states and contains what is arguably the most famous scene of madness in Italian opera. Filippo Sanjust’s production, with its painted scenery and spotlights, evokes the atmosphere of an operatic evening from the work’s original era. Michele Spotti, Principal Guest Conductor of Deutsche Oper Berlin, conducts the company’s ensembles for the first time in his new role. As Lucia we encounter the virtuoso Nina Minasyan, and one of the most brilliant bel canto tenors, Xabier Anduaga, returns to our stage as Edgardo.

Lucia di Lammermoor

What is worth living and dying for – love, art, freedom? This question lies at the heart of Tosca, uniquely blending musical brilliance with a gripping plot and historical events with archetypes of the operatic stage. Throughout a single fateful night, the audience follows the story of the singer Floria Tosca, the painter Mario Cavaradossi and the unscrupulous police chief Scarpia, a night that ends fatally for all three. The greatest stars of opera history have graced Boleslaw Barlog’s historically accurate production for over 50 years. Joining this chronicle for the first time in this season’s initial run are, among others, Aleksandra Kurzak, who has already sung Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Royal Opera in London, and Roberto Alagna, who showcases his exceptional tenor in another role at Deutsche Oper Berlin. Antonino Fogliani, one of the most gifted Puccini conductors of our time, will be appearing at Deutsche Oper Berlin for the first time.

Tosca

On the occasion of the new directorship, Deutsche Oper Berlin is venturing to show a project that crashes through boundaries and opens up new spaces: Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Mittwoch aus Licht will be shown as a scenic opera production in the German-speaking world for the first time. Stockhausen, visionary of sound, crafted nothing less than a cosmic theatrum mundi about man and woman, good and evil, birth and death with his monumental cycle LICHT. Die sieben Tage der Woche. While other portions of the cycle centre around the struggle between competing forces, the polarity of which reshapes our lives every day, Mittwoch celebrates the utopia of love and the spiritual connection in the spirit of music, as well as the belief that community and solidarity are possible. Stockhausen was uncompromising in his search for a new type of music; he is considered one of the most innovative and yet most controversial composers of the 20th century. A pioneer of electronic music, he also inspired pop music across all genres, including Kraftwerk and Björk. The spectacular centrepiece of Mittwoch aus Licht is the helicopter string quartet, in which Stockhausen expands the musical space beyond the theatre itself: The members of a string quartet sit in four helicopters circling high above the audience. Sounds of strings meld with the helicopter blades, floating down to the audience from above. For our production, the quartet will be performed live as a one-of-a-kind event for the whole city, with film recordings of the quartet becoming part of the production. Award-winning duo Susanne Kennedy and Markus Selg, who caused a sensation with Einstein on the Beach at Theater Basel and Parsifal at Opera Antwerpen, will transform their first opera production in Berlin into an immersive ritual. Maxime Pascal, Principal Guest Conductor under the new directorship, is an expert and passionate connoisseur of Stockhausen and has performed every piece of the LICHT cycle except for Mittwoch.

Wednesday from Light

Gustave Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary is considered a masterpiece of French realism and a pioneering work of literary modernity. Flaubert devoted five years to writing this work, which was published in 1856 and caused a scandal due to its unflinching portrayal of adultery and forbidden desires. With his precise, distantly observing style, Flaubert created a new form of storytelling that rendered inner states and social constraints with striking clarity.

Bovary

Survivors of the sea, refugees, exiles come together on an island. They create a new society from scratch without the old rules of origin or power. Is it possible to have a community built on love? The hosts for this evening are two intergalactic collaborators: Sun Ra, pioneer of Afrofuturism in response to omnipresent racism, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, who sought to flee the constriction of the art world. Both are fascinated by interplanetary vibrations, read the same spiritual book about love in the 1970s and set the cosmos free.

Sunville

FUTURA DANZA is a new ongoing dance course for pregnant women and young mothers and fathers with babies up to 12 months. The course invites participants to experience motherhood and early parenthood as a time of change, arrival, and new-beginnings – through the body, movement, and shared exchange. Under the guidance of Vanessa Cokaric, dance teacher and certified pre- and postnatal yoga instructor, the sessions combine gentle bodywork, dance, play, and movement with the baby in a safe atmosphere. The body is strengthened, posture is realigned, and the return to physical activity is gently supported. At the same time, moving together promotes the bond between parents and child as well as the sensory and motor development of babies.

Futura Danza

To kick off the new season at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Susanne Kennedy is staging Stockhausen’s Mittwoch aus Licht (Wednesday from Light) — an opera that turns consciousness itself into a stage. For her film selection in the At the Movies series, she has chosen David Lynch’s Inland Empire.

At the Movies with Susanne Kennedy

Delphi LUX

With La forza del destino, Verdi broke new ground in the 1860s. The title itself refers to this paradigm shift, as it does not refer to the name of a character or a historical event, but rather evokes the universal concept of the «power of fate». Accordingly, the composer wrote a four-act opera that is a drama of ideas, dealing with the fate of entire social classes and peoples. Building on this, director Frank Castorf creates connections to the Spanish Civil War of the 20th century and the fight against fascism in the Second World War, weaving the individual fates of the characters with the horrors of colonial history. In this production by the veteran enfant terrible of the Berlin theatre scene, the «triangle of fate» is embodied this time by an internationally sought-after trio consisting of Guanqun Yu (Leonora) and the two house debutants Luciano Ganci (Don Alvaro) and Igor Golovatenko (Don Carlos). Massimo Zannetti, a frequent guest at the Berlin State Opera in the past, makes his debut at the Deutsche Oper with this revival.

La forza del destino

«Free she was born, free she will die»: To preserve her freedom, Carmen even accepts her own death. With her uncompromising will to autonomy, she shattered the moral conventions of her time. This sets her apart from the many passive, self-sacrificing female characters of 19th-century opera – once a scandalous figure, later a figure of identification, always a large screen onto which audiences project their own feelings. Director Ole Anders Tandberg takes up these ambivalences and works with iconic images: the bright red flamenco dress, the torero costume and the bullring. But these symbols are not left uncommented upon; instead, they are exaggerated to the point of the grotesque and the macabre. An emotional rollercoaster ride with catchy tunes like the Habanera and the Toreador Song that will linger long in memory. Argentinian conductor Alejo Pérez, General Music Director of Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, makes his debut at Deutsche Oper Berlin. Gaëlle Arquez brings charm and sophistication to the French Carmen, and later our new ensemble member Kristina Stanek introduces herself as the new Berlin Carmen.

Carmen

Forgotten life stories of musicians persecuted during National Socialism who once played at the opera, and outstanding music that will now be played once more: from Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Aribert Reimann to Miloslav Kabeláč and Werner Richard Heymann. An evening against forgetting.

1st Tischlerei concert – Against forgetfulness

After select performances, where we invite the audience to dress up as they wish, the Deutsche Oper Berlin foyer becomes an extravagant chill-out party lounge. Elegant, maybe even glamorous, with a DJ, drinks and jazz so that the evening can continue.

Glam Night after Carmen

The Unlimited Salon is providing experimental access to the opera material. Whether a famous Berlin astrologer looks to the stars with Stockhausen and Sun Ra, we combine wine with arias or are holding a workshop on digital detox. We look at opera from viewpoints based in real life. And, of course, there’s a drink on the house.

Unlimited Salon: Der fliegende Holländer

On a Sunday morning before the big event of the premiere, Artistic Director Christian Spuck and Dramaturge Katja Wiegand welcome you to the premiere talk.