This is a gripping operatic thriller of emotions, with which the then 21-year-old Gioacchino Rossini catapulted himself to the forefront of Italian composers from Venice in 1813: Amenaide is to obey her father's will and marry a man she does not love. In doing so, she contributes to ending the power struggle between two rival families in her hometown. Amenaide, in the meantime suspected of being a traitor and threatened with death, loves Tancredi, who returns to his hometown incognito, learns of the forced betrothal and kills his rival. But the trusting relationship with Amenaide is gone, Tancredi is desperate and wants to find death. Although an early work, TANCREDI with its lively melodies and resounding finales testifies to Rossini's musical inventiveness. It is above all the solo scenes in which the work builds up to its highlights. With the catchy cabaletta of the eponymous hero "Di tanti palpiti", the work contains a veritable opera hit, which in Italy effectively has the status of a folk song. The male main character Tancredi is in this case cast with a mezzo-soprano, a "trouser role" characteristic of the early 19th century. Musically, however, TANCREDI has much more to offer than this one big hit. Rossini developed new ways for the romantic Italian opera with his so-called "Rossini Code" also in terms of form - often a tempo d’attacco, an adagio, a tempo di mezzo and a cabaletta follow one another. The successful production of the Bregenz Festival from the year 2024, directed by Jan Philipp Gloger, is now being presented in Cologne. Jan Philipp Gloger, most recently in Cologne for the direction of EIN MASKENBALL, focuses his production on the love between two women who have little chance of self-fulfilment in a clan and macho world. The musical direction is held by George Petrou.

EPSG:4326

Tancredi

Cologne Opera

Finally back in a prime location! The theater is returning to Offenbachplatz! To coincide with the long-awaited reopening, artistic director Kay Voges is staging a hilarious comedy set in a building complex. One building, six condominiums in a functionally quirky neighborhood: Here live investors who will be paying off their mortgages by retirement, next to debt-free rich kids who love charging their electric cars at the communal power outlet. Carefree singles live next to families with towers of children's shoes in the hallway. Constant noises live next to invisible residents whose existence is only betrayed by the underwear in the conflict-ridden laundry room. The roof leaks, but stubborn owners are blocking access to the attic. The stairwell, which always reeks of deep fryer (thanks, first floor, right), isn't wheelchair accessible, and the recycling bin in the courtyard is overflowing. Repairing the frozen heating system requires unanimity. But how can anyone reach an agreement when some are being ruined by utility bills and others are measuring their balconies for solar panels? The new comedy by Kristof Magnusson (“Männerhort”) and Gunnar Klack reveals how the microcosm of a homeowners' association reflects the global madness of investment stagnation, pluralism, parallel societies and dilapidated infrastructure.

In a prime location

Schauspiel Köln

The opera DER ROSENKAVALIER leads into the bedroom of a princess and straight into the intimate conversation with her youthful lover. Inspired by the ancient tragedy ELEKTRA, Richard Strauss and the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal envisioned something entirely new: a comedy for music. Cheerful, light, and elegant, conciliatory yet profound in its emotions and thoughts – and, of course, Austrian in its burlesque wit while at the same time touched by melancholy reflection. Thus the authors created the famous figure of the Field Marshal's wife, Princess Werdenberg who bears the first name Marie-Thérèse for good reason and entrusted her with the leading role in the opera DER ROSENKAVALIER, premiered in 1911.

Der Rosenkavalier

The new play by cult author Roland Schimmelpfennig is almost mathematically constructed around the numbers 2 and 4: two brothers, two wives, two couples. One couple lives in the countryside, the other in the city. The brothers are estranged and haven't seen each other for years. One of them is an actor. His name is Erik. A thousand performances of "Puss in Boots" have made him both a local celebrity and an alcoholic. The other, Martin, is a writer. For seven years, he has been working on his text "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse," which is intended to be both a children's story and a political manifesto. But he barely gets past the first page. Their partners, Lisa and Astrid, both long to escape life with their husbands, worn down by success and failure. Astrid yearns for the city, while Lisa has better artistic ideas than Erik and sympathies for Martin, his brother in the countryside, and his unfinished text. What happens when the country couple unexpectedly turns up in the city? Or the city couple in the countryside, their trunk full of wine, beer, and schnapps? And what if it slowly becomes clear that it was politics that once so deeply divided the two brothers? Roland Schimmelpfennig has written a sophisticated play, wonderfully absurd and painfully relevant, in which all mathematics ultimately dissolves in a massive pie fight.

day and night

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFe6mW6x9pc

The Artelize Podcast: 'Amplifying What Makes Us Human'. A conversation with Zuly E. Inirio

Podcast link: https://youtu.be/4hagYvrYbuM

The Artelize Podcast and Kasper Holten - Pedefining Opera for the modern world

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d36M5Hi6O80

The Artelize Podcast - A legacy of innovation in Opera: Celebrating Marc A. Scorca

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59E40S_EQSY

The Artelize Podcast: A love letter that was never sent

As the court jester to the Duke of Mantua, Rigoletto is no less scrupulous than his absolutist master, who seduces women at will and has men killed on a whim. Rigoletto seeks to protect his daughter Gilda from this world, but the Duke has already set his sights on the innocent young woman. When Gilda gives herself to the seducer driven by love and idealism, Rigoletto's carefully constructed wall of protection collapses, and he himself is made a fool: his belief that he could strictly separate the corruption of court society from his private happiness proves to be a fatal illusion.

Rigoletto

Free water in Tetra Paks as consolation for missed connecting trains, confusion on the platform due to reversed train formations, hungry passengers in closed on-board bistros, stranded commuters at freezing provincial stations, broken toilets, undisplayed seat reservations, the absence of entire carriages, and delays, delays, delays. The reason? A train ahead, a faulty signal box, staff late from the previous journey… If there's one thing everyone can still agree on, it's the catastrophic state of Deutsche Bahn. But what are the reasons behind the reasons for the crisis? In the search for answers, one encounters many open questions: Was the conversion into a public limited company a mistake? Why is there still so little investment in the rail network? Is former CEO Mehdorn ultimately to blame for everything? Calle Fuhr isn't satisfied with simple explanations. In months of research, he examined the complex situation surrounding Deutsche Bahn, leaving no overhead line disruption unexplored, in order to understand the true connections behind the crisis. Following his acclaimed one-man shows WAR AND PEACE and THE RISE AND FALL OF MR. RENÉ BENKO, he delves into the corporate network of Deutsche Bahn AG, analyzes political cronyism, and searches for ways to get the railway back on track.

Deutsche Bahn AG

Once upon a time... there was a king who had three children. In the kingdom, the crown had always been passed on to the son or daughter deemed most suitable to rule. A ring served as the symbol of power, which the king must hand over before his death.

The king gives something away

Jiří Kylián is one of the legendary figures of the international dance scene. For over three decades, he shaped the artistic profile of the Nederlands Dans Theater, which under his direction developed into one of the world’s leading contemporary dance companies. What unites Kylián’s choreographies is their poignant beauty and a lightness of movement that goes hand in hand with deep musicality, expressive emotionality, and profound introspection. In BELLA FIGURA (1995), Kylián embarks on a fascinating journey through time and thought, once again engaging with fundamental questions of human existence and seeking to transcend the rigid boundaries between dream and reality, illusion and truth. Set to a blend of early and contemporary music – Vivaldi, Pergolesi, Lucas Foss – this work, now part of the international repertoire, brings together breathtaking duets, trios, and quartets.

Three masterpieces

Delay the Sadness

An untrained body, an unformed creature somewhere between clown and child, finds itself thrown into the world. His name: Kaspar, in reference to the mysterious foundling Kaspar Hauser, who suddenly appeared in Nuremberg in 1828. Civilization, rules, and language are unknown to him. The otherwise speechless boy practices only one sentence in stoic, varied repetition: "I want to become like someone else once was." And then they sound, the prompters. With friendly, authoritarian voices, they name things and processes, practice words and sentences with the astonished Kaspar, order the world for him—and in doing so, create conformity, direct his gaze, and standardize his thinking. In the blaze of the 1968 movement, in times of revolt against the post-fascist Federal Republic of Germany and its conventions, Peter Handke wrote his great dramatic poem. A linguistic work of art of poetic beauty and political explosiveness, which he also called "speech torture." With grotesque humor and verbal acrobatics, director Claudia Bauer brings KASPAR to the stage as a musical power structure that dissects the price of education and understanding.

Kaspar

It is the first murder in human history, yet, as we know, not the last. For according to biblical tradition, we are all descended from a murderer: Cain, the first human to be born on earth. Together with his younger brother Abel, he is raised by his parents Adam and Eve in reverence for God. But when Abel’s ritual offerings are favored one day, dark impulses break through: Cain kills Abel, thereby incurring the wrath of God.

Cain and Abel

Just

Contemporary avant-garde and Caribbean sensuality – a ballet company full of surprises – this is the label under which Cuba’s largest dance company performs. Danza Contemporánea de Cuba looks back on a history spanning more than 50 years. It was founded in the very year of Fidel Castro’s revolution. All of its dancers are trained in Cuba’s great ballet tradition, which they continually expand by incorporating modern European and Latin American styles. Their repertoire is not limited to Cuban traditions; it ranges from choreographer George Céspedes from within the company to Spain’s Rafael Bonachela and Sweden’s Mats Ek. In Cologne, they present themselves for the first time with three very different works.

Reversible / Things 3XXI

What do we long for when we love? And can another person ever truly recognize our deepest desires – let alone fulfill them?

Hoffmann's Tales

“Such a little fat dachshund has never been seen here before,” Goethe’s mother wrote to her son in 1793 about a performance of DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE (The Magic Flute) – a remark that reflects how Mozart’s Singspiel quickly captivated a wide audience. At once entertaining and sophisticated, the story follows Prince Tamino and Papageno who face a series of trials to rescue the princess Pamina from the clutches of Sarastro. It journey full of dangers, at the end of which lies the hope for a self-determined future together.

The Magic Flute

Rave Lucid

Every year, Cäcilia Wolkenburg presents the world premiere of a truly Cologne-style musical. More than one hundred singers and dancers – all volunteers who perform not for a living but purely out of a love for singing on stage – bring to life rousing music, large-scale choral arrangements, and ballet choreography, woven into a story that touches the “Kölsche Hätz” (the Cologne heart).

Wat e Thiater

The composer Hans Werner Henze traveled to Cuba ten years after the end of the revolution. He met composers, writers, and artists, performed one of his own works with the Havana Symphony Orchestra, and was full of curiosity about what music and art might mean to people in this new world. For Henze, his artistic work was always concerned with nothing other than human beings and their pursuit of happiness.

The Little Cuban

From crackling and popping to tapping and ringing – a world of rhythms, sounds, and tones opens up for the very youngest opera audience. In this 30-minute mini opera, babies and toddlers can immerse themselves in a space filled with music together with their caregivers.

Everything that sounds

Glockengasse

Antigone defies the law. She does what Creon, the newly crowned ruler of Thebes, has forbidden under penalty of death: she buries her brother Polynices, whose body had been left outside the city to be devoured by birds. Creon is furious at this fierce affront. In his eyes, Polynices is a traitor who waged a bloody civil war against Thebes and killed his own brother Eteocles in single combat. Antigone invokes the law of the gods, the "sacred right of every dead person" to a grave. Creon, on the other hand, invokes raison d'état, his unshakeable word as ruler. He demonstrates his strength, condemns Antigone to death, and has her walled up alive. Unrest in Thebes grows. Creon's son Haemon, who is betrothed to Antigone, sides with the rebel. Creon is besieged on all sides, but his realization comes too late. ANTIGONE was once described by Hegel as "one of the most sublime, in every respect most excellent works of art of all time." It is now being performed in Cologne, directed by the Belgian Lies Pauwels, who has made an international name for herself with creations that are as poetic as they are political.

Events in Köln

Tancredi

Oper Köln

In a prime location

Bühnen Köln

Der Rosenkavalier

Oper Köln

day and night

Bühnen Köln

The Artelize Podcast: 'Am...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast - A ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast: A l...

Artelize

Rigoletto

Oper Köln

Deutsche Bahn AG

Bühnen Köln

The king gives something ...

Oper Köln

Three masterpieces

Oper Köln

Delay the Sadness

Bühnen Köln

Kaspar

Bühnen Köln

Cain and Abel

Oper Köln

Just

Bühnen Köln

Reversible / Things 3XXI

Oper Köln

Hoffmann's Tales

Oper Köln

The Magic Flute

Oper Köln

Rave Lucid

Bühnen Köln

Wat e Thiater

Oper Köln

The Little Cuban

Oper Köln

Everything that sounds

Oper Köln

Antigone

Bühnen Köln