“Chi è morto, voi o il vecchio?,” jokes the servant Leporello cryptically, after Don Giovanni has murdered “Il Commendatore”. The story of the “punished debauchee” has long since been the stuff of myth. Don Giovanni plays out in a field of tension between heaven and hell, as opposites collide in this dramma giocoso, set among amorous desires and the fall of angels. In this kaleidoscope of situations and characters, there is an absolute absence of clarity, evident alone in the fact that each of these characters lies – either to each other or to themselves. The timeless comedy motifs of role and dress change assume an oppressive ambiguity here. The master of transformation Don Giovanni, this polyerotic hedonist, is hard to fathom. In endless metamorphoses, he appears just as suddenly as he then immediately disappears again. The other characters know – they need him, as a mirror of themselves. And so for Leporello it becomes clear after his master’s death that Don Giovanni leads an eternal life and will affect ours again and again. This Don Giovanni now completes the Da Ponte cycle. “Faust” winner David Hermann stages at the Bayerische Staatsoper for the first time. General Music Director Vladimir Jurowski conducts the piece, in which Mozart threw open the doors to a new world, from which there can be no return.

Don Giovanni

Max-Joseph-Platz

MPHIL Late 2025

Gasteig HP8

Antonín Dvořák made himself immortal with his last symphony. Since its premiere, Dvořák's Symphony "From the New World" has been a real hit in classical music. The symphony even made it into space: in June 1969, Neil Armstrong took a recording of the work with him on the moon rocket. Even though Dvořák's "Ninth" has been appropriated as American national music, it actually represents a synthesis of the most diverse musical influences. In this sense, it is a veritable "melting pot" - and therefore once again quintessentially American. "The guy has more ideas than all of us," Johannes Brahms is said to have said of Dvořák. Brahms himself came up with wonderful musical ideas for the violin concerto he wrote for Joseph Joachim in 1878. With the American violinist Hilary Hahn, one of the greatest violin virtuosos of our time, and the South American conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada at the podium, the Munich Philharmonic's focus on America comes to a close with this concert.

Brahms Dvořák

Classics At Odeonsplatz

Odeonsplatz

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After the failure of the 86th International Human Conference, the lion Alois, the elephant Oskar and the giraffe Leopold decide to take matters into their own hands, because a solution to problems such as environmental destruction, war and hunger must be found urgently. After all, it is about the future of children. To this end, they invite all animals and human children from all over the world to their own conference in the animal skyscraper... Even more than 70 years after the children's book was published, the story is more relevant than ever. The book is used with the kind permission of the Verlag für Kindertheater Weitendorf GmbH.

After the failure of the 86th International Human Conference, the lion Alois, the elephant Oskar and the giraffe Leopold decide to take matters into their own hands, because a solution to problems such as environmental destruction, war and hunger must be found urgently. After all, it is about the future of children. To this end, they invite all animals and human children from all over the world to their own conference in the animal skyscraper... Even more than 70 years after the children's book was published, the story is more relevant than ever. The book is used with the kind permission of the Verlag für Kindertheater Weitendorf GmbH.

The Conference Of Animals

In Das Rheingold, the “eve” of Richard Wagner’s operatic tetralogy, Der Ring des Nibelungen, the course is set for the apocalypse. It will be unleashed by two entirely opposing worldviews exploding into one another. The tragedy of Alberich, who, being mortal, believes he must take everything within his own lifetime. And the drama of Wotan, who in his, real or illusory, immortality must recognise the emptiness and sameness of being eternal.

Das Rheingold

La Fille du régiment, or the “regiment’s daughter”, is what they call the young Marie, who was found when just a child on the battlefield by soldiers. The troops commit to raising the evidently abandoned girl themselves. A young man of course must soon enter the scene and stir a special interest in her, and the secret of her origins will soon also be revealed. In the best tradition of French opéra comique, with his team of librettists, Gaetano Donizetti created a piece that in a truly original way combines Alpine idyll, patriotic enthusiasm and romantic love with comic situations and heightened conflicts. While Donizetti’s piece was at times extremely popular, the “regiment’s daughter” faded from favour somewhat in the 20th century. It can now be rediscovered, from the famous overture right through to the both amusing and cryptic music, in its first new production at the Bayerische Staatsoper in almost ninety years

La Fille du régiment

Danae must marry a wealthy man to settle her father's debts. All dream of gold here, and Danae more than all others. A powerful man takes an interest in her and sends another ahead. It would appear the right husband has been found. But, of course his wealth comes with a condition which stands in the way of true happiness. Danae must, Danae can choose between wealth and love, between dreams and reality, between the promises of wealth and riches, and of love and all its happiness. 

The Love of Danae

In Leoš Janáček’s opera, Kát’a Kabanová, the eponymous heroine is ensnared at the heart of an ominous mesh of relations. Her domineering mother-in-law, Kabanicha, oppresses and controls her son Tichon, whose marriage to Kát’a suffers massively from heteronomy. Because Kát’a finds no fulfilment in this family, she flees and fulfils her unsatisfied erotic desires in an affair with Boris. As composer and librettist, Janáček bundles the plot of the literary template, Alexander N. Ostrovsky’s drama, The Storm. The libretto largely dispenses with the portrayal of the external social circumstances, from whence Kát’a’s essence and choices are decisively determined. Instead, Janáček traces the development of the title character in a psychological-sensitive musical language. Kát’a’s feelings of guilt increase continuously until they discharge into a public confession as an emotional storm. The turbulent and in places fanciful music opens the space for passages of lyrical grace and allows us to experience the essence of the characters. In Kát’a, director Krzysztof Warlikowski sees an outsider, who is denied a life in harmony with her desires, and at the end prefers death over lies. The destructive power of religion behind it all is not only found in a small Russian town on the banks of the Volga in the 1860s, where the libretto places the plot, but rather can also be seen everywhere all over the world.

Káťa Kabanová

“The artist is a man, and he must write for men. … and you will see true hatred and its bitter fruit.” In the Pagliacci prologue, Tonio tells us what this opera is about – it seeks to put the reality of life on the stage. This applies for both works, which will now enjoy their first new staging at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 46 years (1978). Together Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo simply exemplify verismo. The basic situation: A woman is unfaithful. Another reveals this to the husband, and he, spurred on by this woman, takes bloody revenge on the lover. Cavalleria rusticana is about Turiddu, who returns to find his old flame Lola again, but she is now married to the carter, Alfio. Turiddu then consoles himself by seducing Santuzza. But the old love is reignited, and Lola betrays her husband, and Turiddu his girlfriend. In Pagliacci, the plot revolves around Nedda and her husband Canio, the leader of a group of comedians. Nedda’s love for him has grown cold, so she turns to the farmer, Silvio. 

Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci

2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Gabriel Fauré. In his day, he was a highly estimated composer of Kunstlieder (art songs) and chamber music, as well as being the Director of the Conservatoire de Paris. His works can now be found in larger instrumentation arrangements on international programmes, and his Requiem in particular. His only opera, Pénélope, will now be performed for the first time at the Bayerische Staatsoper. The plot follows the final chants from Homer’s Odyssey, now a proverb as the eponymous hero’s years of wandering to reach his homeland, Ithaca, after the Trojan War. The opera revolves around his wife, Pénélope, who for years has successfully fought off the machinations of power-hungry men, who seek to usurp the throne of her given up for lost husband, Odysseus. With chamber musical transparency and the use of key themes inspired by Richard Wagner, the composer created a score in which the orchestra is applied thoroughly symphonically, where the human voice’s lyrical melodic expression and comprehensibility of text are front and centre. Director Andrea Breth addresses the question as to whether a reuniting of the regal couple, Pénélope and Odysseus (Ulysses), after years of separation can run harmoniously or must also endure disaffection and alienation.

Pénélope

Prinzregententheater

La Sylphide is considered the romantic ballet classic par excellence. This two-act work by Filippo Taglioni, in which the dancers embodied the illusion of weightlessness as aerial spirits, not only marked the breakthrough of pointe dance in the 1830s; together with the white tutus of the ghostly creatures, an image of this art form was created that still symbolises classical dance today. In 1972, Pierre Lacotte, who died in 2023, staged his reconstruction of the work at the Paris Opera. In order to come as close as possible to the traditional Romantic ideals and the style of Filippo Taglioni, Lacotte studied historical images and records intensively. Lacotte's version differs from August Bournonville's version, in that it is characterised by a movement language influenced by the French school. In addition, Lacotte's version is musically based on the original score by Jean-Madeleine Schneitzhoeffer.

La Sylphide

Italian Summer Night

Perseusbrunnen

Die allseits beliebten Open-Air-Konzerte im Brunnenhof der Residenz atmen einen ganz besonderen Charme. Genau das Richtige für unseren Saisonabschluss! Dafür hat unser Chefdirigent Joseph Bastian wieder ein Programm zusammengestellt, das mit seinem Schwung wunderbar zur sommerlichen Stimmung passt. Diesmal geht es nach Südamerika: Der Brasilianer Heitor Villa-Lobos und der Argentinier Alberto Ginastera verbanden den rhythmischen Drive ihrer Heimat mit der kompositorischen Raffinesse der europäischen Moderne. Astor Piazzolla machte den vormals verruchten Tango Argentino konzertsaalfähig; in seinem wohl berühmtesten Stück verabschiedete er sich mit sehnsuchtsvollen Klängen von seinem Vater. Darius Milhaud galt in den 1920ern als enfant terrible der Pariser Musikszene; als Attaché des französischen Botschafters in Rio de Janeiro schnappte er lokale Sounds auf und integrierte sie in seine Werke. Mit der Saxofon-Virtuosin Asya Fateyeva ist eine dynamische Solistin mit von der Partie, die ebenfalls locker zwischen Klassik und anderen Musikstilen wandelt.

Events in Munich

Don Giovanni

Bayerische Staatsoper

MPHIL Late 2025

Munich Philharmonic

Brahms Dvořák

Munich Philharmonic

Classics At Odeonsplatz

Munich Philharmonic

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast - A ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast: A l...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

The Conference Of Animals...

Munich Philharmonic

Das Rheingold

Bayerische Staatsoper

La Fille du régiment

Bayerische Staatsoper

The Love of Danae

Bayerische Staatsoper

Káťa Kabanová

Bayerische Staatsoper

Cavalleria Rusticana / Pa...

Bayerische Staatsoper

Pénélope

Bayerische Staatsoper

La Sylphide

Bayerische Staatsoper

Italian Summer Night

Münchner Symphoniker

Es Werde Bunt

Münchner Symphoniker

Summer Proms: Classical M...

Münchner Symphoniker

Summer Proms: Classical M...

Münchner Symphoniker

Festival Chamber Concert:...

Bayerisches Staatsorchester

2nd Festival Chamber Conc...

Bayerisches Staatsorchester

Festival Chamber Concert:...

Bayerisches Staatsorchester

4th Festival Chamber Conc...

Bayerisches Staatsorchester