In desperation, he buys a supposed love potion from the shady quack Dulcamara - in reality just wine. By chance, Nemorino inherits money and is suddenly desired, which arouses Adina's jealousy. Eventually she realizes her true feelings. In the end, the two find each other and Nemorino firmly believes in the effects of his "elixir".

L'Elisir d'amore

Vienna State Opera

There's a lot going on in the schoolyard. A storm is brewing. Otto is being bullied by girls, attacked and struck by a yellow lightning bolt. Hannah, Natan and Aziza rush to help their friend. But things get stranger and stranger: a pancake stand appears out of nowhere, a hat too, and then there's the hitchhiker who can make time freeze. What does all this have to do with that parallel world, the floating land, where the super villains are up to no good? The world seems to have gone off the rails. Luckily, the four friends suddenly have superpowers: Hannah's superpower is melody, she can fly high when she sings high. Natan's superpower is harmony and he can multiply. Aziza is incredibly dynamic and fast as lightning. And Otto has the best sense of rhythm and a special connection to explosions. It's high time for superheroes! Only together can they tell good from evil and save the blue pig. The blue pig? Wait...Where did that come from?

The Blue Sow

Theater Duisburg

To win her over, he buys a love potion from the quack doctor Dulcamara - in reality a bottle of wine. But of course it is not the wine that ensures a happy ending, but his loving heart - and Adina's.

L'elisir d'amore

"Time is out of joint!"


When Hamlet returns to the Danish court, the old order has been shattered. Hamlet's father, the King of Denmark, has been murdered by his own brother. Unseen, unpunished. The murderer, Claudius, now sits on the throne himself and has married Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, the old king's widow. The young prince is determined to bring justice to his father's cause and avenge him. But what is he willing to sacrifice? What or whom must he offer? To avoid detection in his plan for revenge, Hamlet misleads the court. He dissembles, feigning madness. Increasingly, the lines between imagination and reality blur, doubt gnaws at his conscience and willpower. And while Hamlet threatens to break under the weight of his legacy, Prince Fortinbras prepares for war against Denmark.

Hamlet

Theater tent at Küchengarten

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

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Prince Tamino no longer wants to be a prince. However, when he falls in love with the portrait of Pamina, the daughter of the Queen of the Night, he is ready for any heroic deed. First, he is to free Pamina from Sarastro's clutches for the Queen, and then, once in Sarastro's realm, he must face life-threatening trials for him. At his side are the free-spirited Papageno and a magic flute. In the end, Tamino and Pamina are reunited, and Papageno is no longer alone – a happy ending? "The Magic Flute" is a beautiful parable about growing up, told in dreamlike images by director Dirk Schmeding for young and old alike.

EPSG:4326

The Magic Flute

Stadttheater Minden

Kurpark Bad Oeynhausen

Konzert Theater Coesfeld 

Detmold Theatre

Aida is a slave at the Egyptian court. She is the king’s daughter from the enemy country of Ethiopia but has fallen in love with the Egyptian military leader Radamès. Her father Amonasro uses her to learn about the military strategy of his adversaries. Meanwhile, Amneris, the Egyptian king’s daughter, uses everything in her power to fight for her love for Radamès and tries to kill her rival. Everyone is at the mercy of a ruthless cartel of priests and warriors.

Aida

Bebelplatz

Roméo et Juliette

Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

If you could change the world right now, what would you do? Change the world! by Mart van Berckel and Pedro Beriso, showing at Semper Zwei, provides a great opportunity to reflect on this and a whole host of other questions. The production aims to transport the audience to the day after a revolution: in a room full of empty chairs (the remnants of barricades), four singers meet after devastating events to reflect, to mourn and to hope … and also to think of a way forward. But they are not alone. They are joined by spoken-word artist Amara van der Elst as a figure who is simultaneously both inside and outside events. According to Mart van Berckel: “Like a presenter or a storyteller, she is responsible for what happens on stage; she can press ‘play’ or ‘pause’, rewind or fast-forward. She’s the motor driving the performance.” She addresses the audience directly with challenging texts, constantly throwing up questions that demand an answer. Amara van der Elst partly drew these questions from the lyrics of the songs which, like a collage, were compiled for this production. The music from both the 19th and 20th centuries runs from Ludwig van Beethoven to Hanns Eisler. Alongside a heady sense of revolutionary tension, the production creates space for personal reflection. Change the world! That’s not a challenge but rather an invitation to tackle difficult questions.

Ändere die Welt!

Semper Zwei

The ascetic prophet Jochanaan, who preaches repentance, seems to offer her an escape from this world. However, he rejects her longing. Full of immature anger, she demands his head. When Salome kisses the prophet's bloody mouth, her stepfather Herod orders her to be killed.

Salome

An operatic version of the children’s literary classic, Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, based on scenes from operas by W.A. Mozart, G. Donizetti, J. Offenbach, and G.B. Pergolesi.

Pinocchio

Whitney Library

Winchester Cultural Center

College of Southern Nevada

Windmill Library

Athens is at a standstill. The old King Theseus announces his abdication once again, but so far nothing has happened. His wife Phaedra is also growing impatient, eager to finally throw off the restrictive corset of the court. The designated heir to the throne, Demophon, is already awaiting his coronation. All that is missing is the planned marriage to Persea, which is supposed to seal the transfer of power. But Persea is no docile bride. Instead of resigning herself to her fate, she questions the rules – and ignites her forbidden love for Phaedra. A scandal that shakes the foundations of Athenian society. In a world ruled by rigid rules and the influence of the high priest, love can become a dangerous act of rebellion. What ensues is a struggle between social order and individual freedom.

Phaedra, in flames

Globe Coburg

The will to resist the Roman is growing among the Galls, and Norma should finally give the sign for an uprising against the oppressor in the name of the god of war. But she hesitates due to a conflict of conscience: despite her vow of chastity, Norma has two children, hidden from the public, fathered by the Roman Pollione. When she finds out that Pollione loves the novice Adalgisa and wants to run away with her, her situation seems hopeless. If she reveals her double life, she risks not only her own standing, but that of her children as well.

Norma

Sir John Falstaff finds himself a bit short on cash, so he hatches a scheme: seduce two merry (and wealthy) wives of Windsor and live out his days in luxury. Too bad this bumbling knight happened to send both his targets the same love letter! Now Alice Ford and Meg Page are set on teaching Falstaff a lesson, and it's not long before a long list of his adversaries join in. Audiences are in for a whirlwind of disguises and deceptions, and maybe even an unexpected dip in the River Thames.

James Conlon conducts one of his personal favorites, Verdi's utterly delightful comic masterpiece. Longtime company favorite Craig Colclough stars as the boastful Falstaff, leading a brilliant ensemble cast that includes Nicole Heaston, Ernesto Petti and Hyona Kim among the pranksters all too happy to take the errant knight down a peg, with Deanna Breiwick and Anthony León as the young lovers desperate to steal a private moment to themselves among the madness. This classic comedy gets an equally classic staging by Lee Blakeley, with atmospheric sets and sumptuous period costumes designed by Adrian Linford.

Falstaff

The Music Center

"If you travel to India and to Central Africa, you'll hear Trovatore.“ Nine years after the triumphant first performance, Verdi's opera had achieved the worldwide popularity that moved the composer to make this comment. The fabric of the opera could hardly be more gloomy: a gypsy who wishes to avenge the death of her mother at the stake, a count who wishes to use the execution of this gypsy to strike at his rival; a horrifying truth that is revealed at the moment of death. All the ingredients of Verdi's dramatic abundance appear here: mysterious sound worlds, harsh contrasts, vocal brilliance, opulent tableaux. The cohesive narrative style gives way to the variation of suggestive musical images with which Verdi served "the most important part of the drama“: revenge.

Il Trovatore

Max-Joseph-Platz

In order to free her husband Florestan, Leonore disguises herself as a male prison guard and sneaks into a prison. Beethoven’s only opera is infused with an unwavering belief in the power of hope. The powerful liberation music at the end anticipates the «Ode to Joy» from his Ninth Symphony. Andreas Homoki separates the plot from its bourgeois comic light opera context, focusing instead on the utopian idea of world brotherhood and the universal themes of humanity that Beethoven chose as his central focus. Klaus Florian Vogt, one of the most outstanding tenors of our time, will appear as Florestan.

Fidelio

Zurich Opera House

Is Carmen’s gaze only to be compared with that of a wild animal? The French writer Prosper Mérimée explored this question in his novella Carmen, which was the basis for Georges Bizet’s (1838-1875) final opera, which premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March 1875. Carmen’s air of seduction is both her weapon and her downfall, for in the end she dies at the hands of her jealous lover, Don José. Carmen refuses to be told what to do and certainly doesn’t want to be rescued by Don José in the shifting sands in front of the bullfighting arena. She prefers death to having her life decided by others. In the extremely popular and passionate “Habanera” aria, which is our first encounter with Carmen, she paints a picture of herself: “Love is a rebellious bird that none can tame.” Her indomitable desire for freedom is stamped in her DNA.

Carmen

Semperoper Dresden

Beyond its apparent grandeur, Aida is above all a drama of the intimate, a love triangle between Amneris, a woman of power; Aida, the dominated foreigner; and Radamès, torn between glory, patriotic duty, and forbidden love. The opera explores attachment to the land, uprooting, and the dream of elsewhere.

In this contemporary reinterpretation, the figures of Ramfis and Amonasro merge into a single, two-faced character: "The Man in the Shadows," the embodiment of the forces that crush human passions. The production relies on four singers and three musicians, including an electronic musician, blending original vocal lines with contemporary sonic influences for an Aida that is both faithful to Verdi and resolutely modern.

Aïda déchaînée

Opéra-Théâtre Clermont-Ferrand

Outrageous disguises, intercepted love letters, and comic misunderstandings—Rossini’s uproarious masterpiece, The Barber of Seville, has them all. This fan favorite receives a delightful staging from director Joan Font, returning to Houston following the triumph of his acclaimed Cinderella.

The Barber of Seville

Wortham Theater Center

Puccini’s one-act opera does not end with a tragic operatic death. The body of the rich Buoso Donati is already laid out when the curtain rises, his loudly lamenting relatives gathered around. But appearances can be deceiving. Puccini paints a family portrait of a shameless and greedy community of heirs. Even shrewd mastermind Gianni Schicchi is only out for himself. This lively ensemble piece is tailor-made for the members of the International Opera Studio. Up-and-coming director Lilli Fischer combines Puccini’s only comic opera with a newly developed prequel.

Gianni Schicchi

The young successor to the throne Aljoscha is unhappy and tormented by loneliness. He avoids contact with women, yet he longs for another person. Eventually, he meets a young man – who, in Lehár’s version, is a girl in disguise. However, for Dutch director and artist Steef de Jong, the situation is more complex … He relocates the story, originally set in Russia, to a more universal fairytale world, focusing entirely on the slowly blossoming love story. He uses beautiful drawings and animations, filmed live and projected, creating a work of art that blends operetta and animated film, capturing the melancholy of Lehár’s music while also adding humor and lightness.

Opera events in Shipshewana, Indiana this week

L'Elisir d'amore

Wiener Staatsoper

The Blue Sow

Deutsche Oper am Rhein

L'elisir d'amore

Wiener Staatsoper

Hamlet

Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater

The Artelize Podcast: 'Am...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast - A ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast: A l...

Artelize

The Magic Flute

Landestheater Detmold

Aida

Staatsoper Berlin

Roméo et Juliette

Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

Ändere die Welt!

Semperoper Dresden

Salome

Wiener Staatsoper

Pinocchio

Opera Las Vegas

Phaedra, in flames

Landestheater Coburg

Norma

Staatsoper Berlin

Falstaff

LA Opera

Il Trovatore

Bayerische Staatsoper

Fidelio

Opernhaus Zürich

Carmen

Semperoper Dresden

Aïda déchaînée

Clermont Auvergne Opéra

The Barber of Seville

Houston Grand Opera

Gianni Schicchi

Opernhaus Zürich

Der Zarewitsch

Volksoper Wien