Staatsoper Hamburg is all set to enthrall audiences with a remarkable lineup of operatic performances. From the passionate tale of love and gambling in 'Pique Dame' to the historical power struggle in 'Mary Stuart', and the existential musings of 'The Great Silence', this season promises an exploration of human emotions through the powerful medium of opera. Featuring renowned artists and thought-provoking productions, each show offers a unique storytelling experience, inviting opera enthusiasts to immerse themselves in the grandeur of theatrical music.

Staatsoper Hamburg's Opera Extravaganza: A Journey Through Love, Power, and Intrigue

In Wagner's interpretation, the medieval myth about the tragic love between the Irish king's daughter Isolde and Tristan, King Mark's henchman, to whom Isolde was married against her will, becomes a key work of musical theater at the beginning of a new era. This season, the Hamburg State Opera is bringing Ruth Berghaus' legendary production from 1988 back into the repertoire.

Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde)

Hamburg State Opera

"Luisa Miller" is Giuseppe Verdi’s third setting of a play by Friedrich Schiller. “It is a great drama, full of passion and very effective in theatrical terms,” the composer wrote to the librettist Salvadore Cammarano about “Kabale und Liebe”...

Luisa Miller

How do I become what I am not? Between appearance and reality, director Tatjana Gürbaca searches for the melancholic undertones in Gioachino Rossini's masterful comedy. Behind some comic masquerades lies the desire to escape one's role, behind some triumphant vocal acrobatics the fear of missing out on life. Can there ever be a winner in the pursuit of happiness? A masterpiece for all time.

The Barber of Seville

"The success was tremendous and unprecedented! Critics, artists, amateurs and music lovers were intoxicated ... The auditorium roared apart, loudly proclaiming the new miracle." Thus a report on the premiere in 1821 at the Berlin Schauspielhaus. Der Freischütz struck a chord with the times, every barrel organ played the "Jungfernkranz", every street singer performed it, as Heine reports.

The Marksman

Nagasaki, Japan, ca. 1900: Pinkerton, a lieutenant in the American navy, has fallen in love with Cio-Cio-San, also known as “Butterfly”. The Japanese ritual marriage ceremony is merely a farce to him – and shortly thereafter, Pinkerton’s “plaything” is alone again, with their child. Three years later, he returns to Japan, but not because of Butterfly...

Madama Butterfly

Elsa of Brabant is suspected of having killed her younger brother Gottfried in the forest. When King Henry the Fowler asks Elsa to defend herself, she pleads for an imaginary knight to come to her aid. Suddenly, Lohengrin, the Knight of the Swan, appears. He promises to fight for Elsa, but makes her promise beforehand never to question him about his identity or provenance.

Lohengrin

For Leonora, the song of the troubadour Manrico holds the promise and glow of love; Manrico's rival Count Luna perceives in it threat and danger. Verdi's opera is a celebration of Italian opera singing at its best - so it is no coincidence that the title character is a singer himself.

The Troubadour

Culture creates meaning and structure. The music theater project by Christopher Rüping, Omer Meir Wellber, and Malte Ubenauf demonstrates that it can even provide existential support. Here, for an extraterrestrial group, Mozart's music becomes a daily reminder and admonition of what it means to be and remain human. And what happens when it all falls silent. Thus, we rediscover Mozart's music in distant worlds.

The Great Silence

Maria and Elisabetta: two queens fight for power and love. Between them stands Count Leicester, Elisabetta's lover, who is attracted to Maria. The two women meet in the park of Fotheringhay Castle - a duel of emotions, fought with the weapons of bel canto, coloratura on a knife's edge. In the end, the Catholic Maria will ascend the scaffold with her head held high, while the Protestant Elisabetta will keep her throne but lose her love.

Mary Stuart

The outsider Herman loves Liza, who is engaged to Prince Yeletsky. Herman is a passionate gambler: he is desperate to win a fortune and reputation in order to win Liza’s heart. When he learns that her grandmother knows the secret of the three winning cards, fate takes its course.

Pique Dame

Musical theater on the current state of affairs: As avatars of themselves, the exceptional artists Olga Neuwirth and Elfriede Jelinek send two "vampires" on a journey around the world and observe the decline of humanity. But what kind of world is this, one that can only be saved by a monster named Gorgonzilla? Tobias Kratzer stages this brand-new political grotesque as a contemporary Grand Guignol.

Monster’s Paradise

Senta's dreams are directed towards the sea: will the man who will free her from her restricted life at home come from there? It begins stormily; Wagner's first fully valid opera presents a grandiose, overwhelming vision of the elements already in the overture. The fate of the Flying Dutchman and the woman who is to redeem him takes place in the roar of the waves and the ocean. This "romantic opera" aims to transcend boundaries.

The Flying Dutchman

The Flying Dutchma

Violetta is the most sought-after courtesan of the Parisian demimonde. However, her encounter with Alfredo makes her pleasure-seeking life seem questionable: they fall in love and try to build a life for themselves, far from the fast pleasures of the city...

La Traviata

Tristano e Isotta – Tristan and Isolde set an example: Nemorino has the evident idea to boost the feelings of his beloved Adina with a love potion. The charlatan Dulcamara sees his chance for a good deal and sells a bottle of the pretended potion to the unhappy lover...

The Elixir of Love

EPSG:4326

Staatsoper Hamburg

This opera is the world in a theatrical nutshell: it deals with growing older, with trials and tribulations, with intransparent decisions. One person searches for individuality, another is too lazy to do so. Others postulate that the community is the only adequate place for the individual. Power has either been legitimised by long tradition or usurped by new regimes. Values such as assimilation and loyalty are set against self-assertiveness and independence. There is loving and dreaming, cheating and trusting. Suicides are prevented, tests passed, adventures survived. Who is right? Who has been wronged? The world of the magic flute is opaque, and everyone is looking for a pathway: within it, into it or out of it. Who holds the reigns? Who can be trusted? Could it be music?

Hamburg State Opera Choir

7 - 21 Jun, 2026

Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde)

7 - 21 Jun, 2026

Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde)

May 24 - Jun 5, 2026

Luisa Miller

Articles & News

Hamburg State Opera Choir