The Deutsche Oper Berlin, a cornerstone of the global opera and ballet scene, presents a magnificent lineup of performances that promise to enchant and captivate audiences throughout 2024 and 2025. Featuring classic tales such as 'Peter Pan,' 'Carmen,' 'The Magic Flute,' and many more, these events showcase the unparalleled talent of international performers and the timeless beauty of operatic and ballet compositions. As you dive into each performance, let the stirring melodies and intricate dance movements transport you into realms of fairy-tale wonder and dramatic intensity.

Exploring the Wonders of Opera and Dance at Deutsche Oper Berlin

The Deutsche Oper Berlin is set to captivate audiences with a riveting lineup of events, from timeless opera classics like 'Carmen' and 'The Magic Flute' to the joyous ballet 'The Nutcracker' and a special jazz night celebrating Blue Note Records. This season, patrons will be transported through a rich tapestry of storytelling and music, with performances by world-class artists bringing iconic roles and melodies to life. It's a celebration of diverse genres and themes that promise to resonate with audiences in profound ways.

Deutsche Oper Berlin: A Diverse Showcase of Opera, Ballet, and Jazz

In the heart of Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin presents a tantalizing array of musical performances spanning opera's rich legacy and dynamic modern jazz. From the seductive allure of Bizet's 'Carmen' to the innovative echoes of Blue Note Records, each production is an exploration of narrative depth and artistic mastery. This season, audiences are invited to engage with timeless tales and revolutionary sounds, promising an unforgettable cultural experience.

A Symphony of Storytelling: Exploring Deutsche Oper Berlin's Diverse Musical Offerings

The Deutsche Oper Berlin is set to present a dazzling array of operatic and musical theater performances in the 2024/25 season, drawing audiences into a world of timeless music and compelling storytelling. Featuring iconic productions like 'Carmen,' 'The Magic Flute,' 'La Traviata,' and more, this season promises a rich tapestry of genres and narratives. With a talented ensemble of artists and an emphasis on both classical and contemporary themes, the Deutsche Oper Berlin continues to be a beacon of cultural excellence and innovation.

Opera Highlights at Deutsche Oper Berlin: A Season of Diverse Narratives

Step into the world of Deutsche Oper Berlin, where timeless tales and musical masterpieces converge in a spectacular series of events. From the passionate allure of Carmen to the enigmatic realms of The Magic Flute, these performances promise to captivate audiences with their rich narratives and exceptional artistry. Join us as we delve into the highlights of this operatic season, celebrating the creative genius of composers and performers alike within the historic walls of this Berlin opera house.

A Symphony of Stories: Exploring Iconic Operas and Ballets at Deutsche Oper Berlin

The Deutsche Oper Berlin's 2024/25 season promises a rich tapestry of performances that explore the depths of human emotion and societal themes through opera and ballet. From Bizet's captivating 'Carmen' to Mozart's enigmatic 'The Magic Flute', the season showcases timeless classics interpreted by talented artists. Highlights include Verdi's 'La traviata', Wagner's 'Tannhäuser', and the delightful chaos of Rossini's 'The Barber of Seville'. Adding to the mix are the magical 'The Nutcracker' ballet and a jazz-infused New Year's gala 'Swingin' 25'. Join us in exploring these vibrant events and their cultural significance.

Opera Odyssey: Unveiling the Heart of Deutsche Oper Berlin's 2024/25 Season

The 2024/25 season at Deutsche Oper Berlin promises an array of diverse performances that are bound to capture the imaginations and hearts of audiences. Set in the heart of Berlin, this season offers a blend of timeless operas, insightful lectures, and engaging ballets, featuring works by Bizet, Mozart, Verdi, and more. With a lineup including 'Carmen', 'The Magic Flute', 'La traviata', and other remarkable events, the season is a celebration of music, culture, and artistic expression. Join us as we delve into the performances, explore the talents of world-renowned artists, and immerse ourselves in the vibrant atmosphere of Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Discover the Musical Wonders at Deutsche Oper Berlin: A Season of Enriching Performances

Berlin is renowned for its vibrant cultural scene, with Deutsche Oper Berlin at its heart, offering a spectacular lineup of performances. From the passionate tale of 'Carmen', the whimsical journey of 'The Magic Flute', to the tragic romance of 'La traviata', the opera house presents a diverse range of operatic experiences. Adding to the excitement are jazz-filled 'Swingin` 25' and insightful 'Opera Lectures'. Join us as we delve into the artistry, stories, and talents that make these events truly unforgettable.

A Night at the Opera: Unveiling the Drama, Music, and Magic of Deutsche Oper Berlin

Deutsche Oper Berlin's 2025 season is set to captivate audiences with an eclectic blend of traditional opera, innovative performances, and educational insights. From Mozart's enigmatic 'The Magic Flute' to the avant-garde 'Lash' by Rebecca Saunders, the season promises to engage both the heart and mind. Join us as we delve into the fascinating world of opera, jazz, and beyond, where each performance offers a unique narrative brought to life by talented artists and creative minds.

Exploring the Rich Tapestry of Deutsche Oper Berlin's 2025 Season

Deutsche Oper Berlin's 2025/26 season is set to be a cultural extravaganza, featuring a rich tapestry of operas and dance performances. From Verdi's iconic 'Aida' and 'Rigoletto' to Mozart's 'The Magic Flute', the season promises a diverse selection of operatic classics. Adding to the variety, performances such as Ohad Naharin's 'Minus 16' and Detlev Glanert's original 'The Three Riddles' showcase the transformative power of dance and contemporary opera. As the curtain rises on a season of storytelling through music and movement, audiences can look forward to an unforgettable journey.

Opera and Dance Converge at Deutsche Oper Berlin: A Spectacular 2025/26 Season

The Deutsche Oper Berlin's 2025/26 season offers an enthralling lineup of operatic classics and innovative performances. From the timeless tragedies of Verdi's 'Aida' and 'Rigoletto' to Mozart's enigmatic 'The Magic Flute' and Puccini's poignant 'Madame Butterfly', the season promises a rich tapestry of narrative and musical artistry. Adding to the diversity are the zany adventures in 'The Three Riddles' and the passionate tale of 'Carmen'. With renowned artists gracing the stage, this season captures the essence of operatic brilliance.

Unveiling Operatic Masterpieces: Deutsche Oper Berlin's 2025/26 Season

Deutsche Oper Berlin's upcoming season promises a captivating blend of opera and ballet, featuring timeless masterpieces and intriguing discussions. From Verdi's Aida to Mozart's The Magic Flute, and Puccini's Turandot, audiences will be treated to a feast of performances. The season also includes insightful talks and a focus on dance's role in societal issues, ensuring a multifaceted and enriching experience for all attendees. With a host of talented performers and directors, this season is set to be an unforgettable celebration of the arts.

Opera Splendor at Deutsche Oper Berlin: A Season to Remember

In a pleasant atmosphere, we offer a concert format that allows babies and toddlers their space to move and offers them the opportunity for first contact with live classical music. We invite parents to observe and support their children in their perception.

Baby concert

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Italy, the cradle of opera, was the cultural centre of Europe for centuries. The most famous instrumentalists and composers were educated here, and European writers travelled here to overcome their writer's block. We juxtapose original Italian music with music inspired by cultural exchange and read from Goethe's ‘Italian Journey’. Listen to works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Antonio Vivaldi and Isabella Leonarda.

Chamber Music IV: Where the lemons bloom – Italy, a place of yearning

The opportunity is unique and will never be repeated: On a Sunday morning before the big event of the premiere or world premiere, Artistic Director Christian Spuck and Dramaturg Katja Wiegand welcome you to a premiere talk. This classic format allows for unique insights into the new productions, which are often only available through personal interaction with the artists on the team. It's an opportunity to experience the atmosphere that characterizes the exciting days leading up to every ballet premiere.

Premiere Talk: Nureyev

Following on from Puccini’s LA RONDINE and Johann Strauss’s DIE FLEDERMAUS, Rolando Villazón returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin to tackle one of the great comedies of the bel canto genre and demonstrate that he can do humour. L’ITALIANA IN ALGERI remains one of the most popular works by Gioacchino Rossini, who is said to have dashed the piece off in less than a month and was a tender 21 years of age when the opera premiered at Venice’s Teatro San Benedetto in 1813. It’s a testament to Rossini’s boldness that he chose material that had been set to music only a few years before by his more experienced colleague Luigi Mosca. His audacity paid off, with the subsequent triumph bringing him immediate fame across Italy and widespread popularity soon afterwards throughout Europe.

L’Italiana in Algeri

In a courtyard of the Mycenaean palace servant girls speak disparagingly about Elektra. Elektra has not got over the murder of her father, Agamemnon, and the idea of revenge dominates her thoughts. Only one of the maidservants shows sympathy for her and is punished as a result. Elektra is yearning for the moment when vengeance will be hers and fully believes that it will come about by the actions of her brother, Orest, who was brought up in a distant region. Her sister, Chrysothemis, finds Elektra’s existence hard to bear and attempts to protect her from their mother, who has evil intentions. Chrysothemis wants to leave that awful place along with her sister so that they can live in freedom. Their mother Clytemnestra, who has been plagued by nightmares since she killed her husband, asks her daughter Elektra for help and while their conversation lasts it seems as if the two women might be reconciled. But Elektra’s hatred flares up again when Clytemnestra lies to her daughter over the whereabouts of her son, Orest. Elektra replies ambiguously to Clytemnestra’s question about the remedy for her anguish and fear, telling her mother that once the proper animal has been sacrificed under the axe her bad dreams will cease. Two strangers arrive and report the death of Orest. Elektra expresses her desire to ally with Chrysothemis in committing the deed, but her sister cannot contemplate such a thing. Determined to avenge herself, Elektra resolves: “Fine, then, I’ll do it alone!” One of the strangers moves closer to Elektra; shaken at the sight of her physical and emotional state, he allows her to see who he is: Orest. He exits to do the deed and presently Clytemnestra’s screams can be heard as she dies. Whereupon Elektra lures Aegisthus into the palace and he is killed by Orest as well. Agamemnon has been avenged. Nonetheless, Elektra stays in the palace feeling no sense of relief; she dances herself to death.

Elektra

A nation is cowed by its princess. Turandot, beautiful and fascinating representative of a royal dynasty, presides over a gruesome ritual: only her marriage to a suitor will bring an end to the violence, but no would-be bridegroom has yet managed to solve the riddles. The same old spectacle plays out, ending in yet another execution, until Calaf, the son of a deposed ruler from a foreign land, unexpectedly answers the riddles correctly. He then turns the tables on Turandot, forcing her to answer his own question if she wants to steal out of her obligation. Puccini’s times are changing rapidly, the art world is going through drastic transformation and new, abstract forms are being coined to reflect modern-day experience. And the composer, in his early 60s, is again trying to break new ground.

Turandot

It began as a song cycle for two voices and piano accompaniment and became a choral symphonic mammoth work: Arnold Schoenberg's ‘Gurrelieder’ tell the story of the love between Tove and King Waldemar, based on poems by the Danish writer Jens Peter Jacobsen. In the ‘Gurrelieder’, Schönberg, in the tradition of Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss, combines all the musical influences of late Romanticism into an almost two-hour monumental work that is a high point of that artistic epoch – and at the same time a turning point: In fact, Schönberg had already taken the step towards atonality during the years of the completion and world premiere of ‘Gurrelieder’.

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Gurrelieder

Berliner Philharmonie

Director Christof Loy has already helped four little-known operas from the early 20th century make a successful comeback at the Deutsche Oper Berlin: Erich Wolfgang Korngold's DAS WUNDER DER HELIANE and Riccardo Zandonai's FRANCESCA DA RIMINI were followed by other long-forgotten operatic treasures: Franz Schreker's DER SCHATZGRÄBER in 2022 and finally Ottorino Respighi's LA FIAMMA in 2024.

The Treasure Hunter (Der Schatzgräber)

For five of our performances, we have adapted our popular ‘Opera Workshop’ format, where you can attend a rehearsal in advance of the performance, after our dramaturges have given you some interesting facts about the work in an introduction. After the performance, you can talk about what you have seen with selected guests. The title of this series is ‘Coming up:...’ You can look forward to these events for the revivals of FRANCESCA DA RIMINI, SIMON BOCCANEGRA, DER SCHATZGRÄBER, THE THREE RIDDLES and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

Coming up: The Treasure Hunter (Der Schatzgräber)

With the world premiere of his one-act opera, VIOLANTA, the 18-year-old Erich Wolfgang Korngold shifted overnight from child prodigy to one of the leading opera composers of his generation. For VIOLANTA not only heralded the arrival of a young maestro who was as independent as he was variegated in his musical palette, who had an unerring feel for how to render his vision on stage, and who could write melodies that were both expressive and catchy to boot; the 75-minute work to a libretto by Hans Müller, later to be known for co-writing THE WHITE HORSE INN, also served notice that Korngold had caught a contemporary Viennese mood that encapsulated Art Nouveau, psychoanalysis and an end-of-days atmosphere, a quintessence framed by Freud, Klimt and Schnitzler – all mirrored perfectly in the storyline: Violanta, the wife of Venice’s governor, plots during Carnival to avenge, through assassination, her sister, who committed suicide after being seduced by Prince Alfonso. When the moment comes, however, she acknowledges her true motive: to snuff out her own desire to abandon herself to passion. She sacrifices herself to free herself from “lust and guilt”.

Violanta

Violetta Valery, living in kept splendour at the expense of Baron Douphol, has apparently recovered from a serious illness. To celebrate, she throws a party where she meets and falls for Alfredo Germont. As their love for each other is frowned upon, they set up house outside of Paris. Alfredo’s father insists that she break with his son in order not to jeopardise the marriage prospects of Alfredo’s sister. Violetta accedes to his wish and cuts off relations. In a showdown at another party Violetta tries to convince Alfredo that she’s in love with the Baron, causing Alfredo to hurl his gambling winnings at her feet, calling them “fees for services rendered”. Soon afterwards, at the height of the Paris carnival, Violetta is on her deathbed. She receives Alfredo, who has heard from his father her real reason for leaving him. Violetta forgives him, gives him her blessing and dies.

La traviata

The Dutchman is a cursed man, an outsider, a driven individual. Richard Wagner came upon the character of the famous drifter via Heinrich Heine, who lent the Romantic material his typically ironic touch. Wagner’s interest was tweaked not by Heine’s packaging of the story, which relegated the Dutchman-based action to the margins, but by the tale of the enigmatic mariner, which led to him writing his first opera about the man’s quest for a woman who could offer him redemption. The Dutchman, restlessly plying the borderlands between life and death, encounters Senta, who appears equally ill-at-ease and rootless and yearns for a masculine character, the Dutchman, a figment of her imagination.

Der fliegende Holländer

It is common knowledge that Giuseppe Verdi, by nature a critical man, not only found much to disapprove of in the trends of his day but also subjected his own work to a continuous process of editing and revision.

Don Carlo

After the phenomenal success of the last two New Year's Eve celebrations, our BigBand will also ring in the new year this season: Celebrate 2026 with renowned jazz greats and versatile ensemble members and start the new year in a good mood under the direction of Manfred Honetschläger.

Swingin` 26

It’s a rambunctious tale: an old curmudgeon is set on marrying his own ward of court with a view to snapping up her considerable inheritance. He leaves no stone unturned in his efforts to keep the fair Rosina cloistered from the outside world and thus from any potential young suitors. A pity, then, that Count Almaviva has fallen head over heels for her. Assisted by Figaro, an enterprising barber, he plans to outwit the old man, win over Rosina – and ensure that it’s love that attracts her to him rather than his rank and wealth. Not an easy job for Figaro, seeing as the opposite camp is scheming with equal tenacity … Love wins out in the end, and it turns out that all precautions were useless!

The Barber of Seville

“Blame it on the champagne, tra la la la la !” That’s the half-truth that the protagonists in Johann Strauss’s THE BAT sign up to at the end of a drink-fuelled night of mistaken identities and erotic escapades. But alcohol is only partly to blame; the confusion is largely due to the wiles of the humiliated Dr Falke, who was once exposed to small-town ridicule dressed in the costume of a bat and is now seizing his chance to avenge himself on his ‘good pal’, bon vivant Gabriel von Eisenstein. And so it is that the maid disguises herself as an actress, the wife as a Hungarian countess and Eisenstein himself as a French marquess and off they trot to Prince Orlofsky’s masked ball. That they end up bewailing their fate in jail early the next morning is less down to champagne than to the natural course of events. In THE BAT Johann Strauss pulled off a work that proved to be the prototypical Viennese operetta, bursting with waltzes and polkas and oozing wicked irony. Inspired by Offenbach’s opéras buffes from Paris, Strauss’s work was merciless in the way it held up a mirror to the bourgeois salon-going public - and many audience members recognised themselves in the absurd antics onstage.

Die Fledermaus

Lieutenant Pinkerton is attached to an American ship currently moored in Nagasaki harbour. He has been courting a 15-year-old geisha girl named Cio-Cio-san, known as Butterfly, who is from a poor but genteel family and takes love very seriously. Pinkerton wants to enter into a “time-limited marriage” – not uncommon between European men and geishas at the time – and is even being helped by Goro, the marriage agent, to find a cottage in which they can spend their honeymoon. The US consul, Sharpless, warns him against such a step, but Pinkerton brushes him off and even toasts the day when he will take an American to be his “real” wife.

Madame Butterfly

Hansel and Gretel, children of a poor broom maker and his wife, are sent into the woods one day by their mother to pick berries – as punishment for larking around instead of doing their chores. When their father arrives home bearing a bag full of treats after a successful working day, he berates his wife, because the woods are home to an evil witch. The parents set off to look for the kids, who have meanwhile filled their baskets but then eaten all the berries themselves out of sheer hunger. They also realise darkness has fallen and they’re lost, so they lie down for the night and say their prayers, falling asleep and having a strange and wonderful dream. In the morning they wake to see a cottage made of gingerbread and other sweetmeats. Nibbling at the house, they are surprised by the witch, who takes them captive, planning to bake the children in her oven. Instead, they play a trick on her and push her into her own oven. The spell is broken and all the children who had been transformed into gingerbread by the witch regain their human form. The pair’s parents appear and the reunited family returns home.

Hansel and Gretel

It is the summer of 1789. A festivity is being prepared in the castle of Countess de Coigny. Charles Gérard, a servant of the Countess´ voices his hatred of the French aristrocracy´s decadence. His aged Father is forced to labour all day long and Gérard himself leads the undignified life of a lackey. Moreover, he is secretly and unhappily in love with Madeleine de Coigny, the daughter of the House with whom he was raised. The political situation is very tense. When the visitors attending the ball finally arrive, they try to distract themselves from the disquieting news from Paris with the help of arcadian idylls and games. The young poet André Chénier is among the guests. Madeleine requests him to recite a poem. He sings of love and laments the injustice of the powers that be in such a convincing manner that Madeleine is deeply moved and forced to quit the room. The doors are suddely opened and a mob of irate people led by Gérard shocks the ball guests. However, the Countess manages to pacify and disperse the mob. The dancing continues.

Andrea Chenier

It's Christmas Eve. After the wonderful festivities, little Klara falls into a deep sleep. She dreams of a fantastic journey to the fairytale sugar country, accompanied by the nutcracker, her most beautiful gift.

Children' s ballet - The Nutcracker

An evening of Christmas traditions and music from all over the world: The Famous Christmas Swingers perform Christmas carols and Christmas standards under the direction of Christian Meyers.

Jazz & Lyrics I: Christmas in Jazz

Figaro and Susanna, servants at the court of Count Almaviva, are soon to marry and are furnishing the lodgings that they’ve been allotted in the Count’s castle. Figaro is gleefully taking measurements for the conjugal bed, but Susanna is worried: the Count’s passion for his wife has long since cooled, meaning that he might invoke his “right to the first night”. Figaro is determined that it won’t come to that, but another issue is plaguing him too: before lending him a sum of money, Marcellina, the Count’s housekeeper had wrung from him a pledge to marry her if he defaulted, and that time has now come. To complicate matters, in the Countess’s chambers Susanna is asked by the Count’s page, Cherubino, to put in a word for him because he’s been fired for a dalliance with Barbarina, the Count’s gardener’s daughter. The Count enters suddenly and tries to negotiate a tryst with Susanna, forcing Cherubino to hide, whereupon Basilio the music teacher arrives, and finally Figaro. The situation heats up and the only person to keep a handle on things is Susanna.

Le nozze di Figaro

Umberto Giordano’s FEDORA swings between whodunnit and the world of political intrigue, at once a tragic love story and a riveting psychogram. The opera was based on the play of the same name by Victorien Sardou, a French playwright who had already provided the source material for Puccini’s TOSCA. The triumphant world premiere of FEDORA in 1898 at the Tetro Lirico in Milan went down in history for featuring the break-out performance of the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso, who established its best-known aria, “Amor ti vieta”, in the collective memory of the world’s operagoers. That first production went on to huge international acclaim, touring Vienna, Paris, Hamburg and the New York MET. Giordano’s best received work after ANDREA CHÉNIER, FEDORA continues to thrill audiences with its musical richness and iconic melodies as it goes about depicting a fin-de-siécle elite whose private issues become entangled with political wheeling and dealing.

Fedora

Discover the world of dance from a different perspective! In the Forum discussion series, Dramaturge Katja Wiegand delves into pressing societal questions and their connections to dance. Together with experts from other artistic disciplines, academia, and practice, the 2025/26 season once again fosters interdisciplinary exchange. Using pieces from the current repertoire as examples, the series highlights the intersection of dance with cultural and social themes. This season’s focus is on the captivating world of collections, archives, and artistic styles in dance.

Forum

The Republic of Genoa is split into two camps headed by their respective arch rivals, Simon Boccanegra and Fiesco, who have been at loggerheads for decades. Yet the two men are connected by a long-dead woman – Fiesco’s daughter, the lover of Simon – who bore Simon a daughter named Amelia, who in turn vanished into care as an infant. When Amelia reappears 25 years later, she becomes a pawn in a power struggle that eventually claims Simon. The original version of SIMON BOCCANEGRA, which premiered in 1857, is one of Verdi’s explorations into the dichotomy between public actions and private urges. Here, the stark differences between the two old men, Simon and Fiesco, set the stage for suspicion, conspiracy and assassination – with little prospect of a happy end. And not even the victory of one side can guarantee a lasting peace.

Simon Boccanegra

As in all operas by Puccini, TOSCA is an illustration of how human attentiveness and pleasures of the palate can be mutually dependent if the composer’s artistic intentions become a benchmark for directorial interpretation. Puccini’s humane attentiveness is essentially dependent on an outcry and/or a sense of resignation. The pity inherent in his music does not content itself with abstract gestures; it wants to unsettle, to bring about change. Out of the “small things” named by Puccini as the source of his inspiration and the focus of his music “big things” grow – as long as we want them. Puccini’s choice of material owes something, directly or indirectly, to the spirit of Zola, Gorki and Hauptmann, and the link between that material and his compositional style places him likewise as a direct descendant of Verdi and an exponent of verismo. He was also known as an admirer of Wagner, although a Wagner imitator he assuredly was not.

Tosca

Coming up: Simon Boccanegra

This season, too, an unusual and personal programme will be presented under the title "Spotlights": musicians of the orchestra will play works that are particularly close to their hearts. The programme ranges from world-famous pieces of the chamber music repertoire to real rarities that are hardly ever heard in the concert hall. Listen to favourite pieces, rarities and evergreens

Chamber Music I: Spotlights

Richard Wagner referred to TRISTAN AND ISOLDE as a “storyline in three acts”, signalling a radical break with his previous large-scale romantic operas LOHENGRIN and TANNHÄUSER. The description was also Wagner’s way of serving notice that in his seventh work for the stage he would no longer be serving up grandiose crowd scenes à la grand opéra but rather that he had developed a musical language to express the inner motivation of his characters. This irresolvable knot of the conscious and sub-conscious, which determines the fate of the lovers, is the real theme of TRISTAN AND ISOLDE, its “storyline” being a path whose route is determined by the opposing poles of Eros and Thanatos. Revealing the psychology of protagonists against a minimalist backdrop is also characteristic of the work of Berlin director Michael Thalheimer. His acclaimed production of TRISTAN AND ISOLDE was born of a collaboration with the Grand Théâtre de Genève, where it was performed in September 2024.

Tristan and Isolde

Little brothers are a nuisance. They are loud, always play differently than you want them to – and chase you out of your mother's bed: Hoshe is now too big and Elli is old enough to sleep alone in the children's room. But Elli doesn't feel comfortable there. How can she know that in the dark, when the lights are out, everything will stay the same and nothing will change? Because one night it happens. Elli finds herself in the house of the octopus lady. Here, door knobs, walls and floors come to life, she meets her goldfish Mr Puddles again – and ultimately learns that even the lady, despite her suction cups, ink and tentacles, has fears that she can only overcome with Elli's help.

Octopus lady

Georges Bizet’s titular heroine is as captivating a character as any in the history of opera. The different interpretations of Carmen are legion: we have the seductress, the personification of forbidden yearning, the standard bearer for the “eternally female” in the brutal battle of the sexes, the anarchist unfettered by bourgeois angst and compulsions, the archaic clairvoyante seeing her own death in the cards - yet free, as she does not dread her destiny. Few opera heroines are so open to interpretation and hence so able to serve as a mirror held up to society.

Carmen

He was touted as the new star in Italy’s operatic firmament around 1910. Publisher Tito Ricordi had big plans for the young Riccardo Zandonai and was sparing no cost to achieve the same triumphs with him as Giulio Ricordi had done a generation earlier with the young Puccini. For a huge fee, Ricordi secured the rights to a scandalous contemporary play - Gabriele D’Annunzio’s 5-act drama “Francesca da Rimini” – which had created a stir with its bloody civil-war scenes, cruel passions and adulterous couple. D’Annunzio’s fin-de-siècle-esque “poem of blood and lust” was all the rage in artist circles. The 31-year-old Riccardo Zandonai spied his chance to pen a florid opera of grandiose scale in a musical language fusing a raft of styles and epochs. And sure enough, Zandonai ploughs his individual European furrow of musical theatre, encompassing Italian bel canto, hints of Renaissance madrigals, gritty verismo, pre-Fascist marches, Wagner’s TRISTAN as a point of reference and a French Impressionism à la Debussy.

Francesca da Rimini

Lasso didn’t choose to have the childhood he had, being brought up by Popa, a frazzled single mother who not only has her son to take care of but also a rowdy pub to manage. Which is why Lasso leaves home to seek his fortune. Along the way he hears about Princess Scharada and her three riddles. A man can ask her three questions: if she fails to answer them correctly, he gets to marry her and rule the realm; if she solves the riddles, he is put to death. But whatever happens, Lasso will not only have travelled the world and crossed paths with robbers, wild boars, astrologers, clairvoyants, scheming politicians and stern ladies-in-waiting – he’ll also have found a great friend and companion. In his THE THREE RIDDLES, an erratic blend of fairytale, social drama, road movie and full-scale opera, composer Detlev Glanert presents a witty, zany and slightly scary story of two very different children, who team up to hold their own in the big, wide world and find their own way.

The Three Riddles

About 560 employees and innumerable guests behind and before the stage see to it that at the Deutsche Oper Berlin “the cloth is raised”, enabling the audience to leave the scene enriched by unforgettable impressions. We cannot introduce you to every personality at once in our OPERNWERKSTATT series. But if you regularly visit the OPERNWERKSTATT you will gradually get to know them: the clever brains behind the Opera as work of Art, and the dreams, thoughts, emotions and ambitions associated with her. OPERNWERKSTATT brings you together with directors, conductors, singers, study directors, dramaturges, theatre creators. Each event starts with a visit to a scenic or musical rehearsal. After a glimpse into the workshop we shall introduce you to the emerging project and answer your questions. So that you can see what moves us.

Opera Lecture: The Three Riddles

A collective media meditation: coloured foam is gently sliced into disks, a dirty carpet gets a thorough deep clean, a hydraulic press crushes a variety of objects. Pointless processes, absurd repetitions, one-size-fits-all automations: they all trigger a sense of contentment and wellbeing in us as a counterpoint to an increasingly complex reality. “Oddly Satisfying” is the name given to an internet phenomenon that forms the focus of SATISFACTIONACTION, an installation that has attracted millions of views on multiple platforms. Most of us are familiar with the odd sense of comfort afforded by day-to-day routine actions. Suddenly everything jells, luggage fits snugly into the car boot, the train is caught calmly with a minute to spare, the blackhead is discreetly squeezed. What is it that gives us that warm feeling and what lengths are we prepared to go to to bring it about? Do these hard-to-define mechanisms function only on an innocent neuronal level or is there a social element at play involving norms of behaviour, success and failure, belonging and exclusion? And are these deep-seated needs not also met by our schadenfreude at the plight of an irritating colleague or by our membership of a group, which automatically implies the exclusion of others?

Satisfactionaction

Ohad Naharin is a world-renowned Israeli choreographer and the inventor of the Gaga movement language, which, originating from the Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv, has now spread globally and is taught worldwide. To allow dancers to form a personal and emotional connection with the material and the moment of the performance beyond the choreography itself, the Gaga method works towards complete emotional openness.

Minus 16

Repelled by the dispassion of the Wartburg society of minnesingers, Tannhäuser, a singer-knight, removes to the interior of the Venusberg in search of fulfilment. Eventually his longing for Elisabeth leads him to leave again. Back at the Wartburg castle, Tannhäuser takes part in a singing contest whose theme is the nature of love, but when he sings that love is ideally about sensual satisfaction, he is cast out and sent to Rome to seek papal absolution. He returns from Rome without the hoped-for indulgence and resolves to return to the Venusberg. Then a miracle occurs and he finds redemption after all.

Tannhäuser and the Singers' Contest at Wartburg

It’s the most performed opera in the German-speaking region, an unusual – and masterly – blend of Viennese folk theatre and fairy tale, mythology and freemasonry mystique: Mozart’s THE MAGIC FLUTE remains a puzzle to this day. Did Mozart and his librettist Schikaneder switch horses from the Queen of the Night to Sarastro half way through? Is the message not one of distrust towards a supposedly infallible priesthood and its simplistic good-versus-evil ideology? Are some Mozart experts right when they talk of a disconnect between text and music? Whatever the answer, it’s the music that allows us to relate to the story’s contradictions. Far from denouncing the characters, it confers an existentiality on their conflicts.

The Magic Flute

Calaf has solved Princess Turandot's riddles. But Turandot categorically refuses to marry the stranger, so Calaf offers her a way out. If she knows his name by the next day, he will kill himself and she will remain unmarried. And so an entire country sets out in search of this one name, and no one is allowed to sleep that night: ‘Nessun dorma’. In this act, you will experience how love can still blossom from this situation.

What's coming up? ... Turandot, Act 3

The milk jug is broken, and the precious cream has spilled onto the floor. And the stocking knitting and broom binding are far from finished. In her anger, the mother has sent her two children, Hansel and Gretel, into the nearby forest to pick strawberries. At the beginning of the second part of the first act – this is where the music begins in the auditorium – the two children are alone in the springtime forest. The flowers are blooming, the wind is blowing through the pine trees and sweet fruits are plentiful. It's a wonderful way to spend the day. As evening falls, the children have lost their way. To keep them from getting too scared in the eerie forest, the Sandman appears.

What's coming up? ... Hansel and Gretel, Act 1, Part 2

Rigoletto, the hated and feared courtyard jester at the court of Mantua, has tried everything to keep the existence of his beloved daughter secret from the womanising Duke and the cynical court society. But to no avail: Gilda has fallen in love with the Duke. So, at the beginning of the third act, Rigoletto sees only one way out: to confront his daughter with the Duke's erotic excesses. At the end of the third act, Rigoletto will have lost everything, and only the Duke's ‘La donna è mobile’ echoes through the night.

What's coming up? ... Rigoletto, Act 3

The Parisian demi-monde is celebrating wildly in the salons of the courtesan Violetta Valéry. Alfredo Germont enters the hall, and with him the love he celebrates in his famous drinking song. Violetta, who has never experienced such romantic, fiery affection, is torn between responding and fear. In this first act of Giuseppe Verdi's melodramma, the opera hits flow seamlessly into one another, from exuberant choruses to grand duets and finally the famous ‘È strano! è strano!’ sung by the title heroine.

What's coming up? ... La traviata, Act 1

King Henry I, “the Fowler”, is in Brabant to hold the Assizes and assert the nobles’ duty to provide militias to assist in military campaigns. Since the death of the Duke of Brabant, however, the succession has been a source of conflict. His children, Gottfried and Elsa, are wards of Count Telramund, but Gottfried has vanished and Telramund suspects Elsa of having killed him. A duel between her accuser and Elsa’s champion is organised to decide the issue. At the last moment a knight appears in a boat drawn by a swan, ready to defend Elsa’s honour. He is also prepared to take her as his wife on condition that she never ask him his name or where he hails from. Elsa agrees and the knight defeats Telramund.

Lohengrin

Company member Dominik White Slavkovský creates Chicxulub or The Devil’s Flea, a dance piece for children aged 6 and up – and for grown-ups who aren’t afraid of eccentric encounters with dinosaurs, off-the-wall characters, and a wildly imaginative world

Chicxulub or The Devil's Flea

A concert in cooperation with Berliner Festspiele / Musikfest Berlin. We are delighted to continue our collaboration with Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg and EuroArts at this year's Big Band concert as part of the Musikfest Berlin! ‘Jazz de Paris’ at the Philharmonie Berlin will be broadcast live on ‘radio3’ and will subsequently be released on CD and digitally on all major streaming platforms.

Jazz de Paris

Gustav Mahler described his ‘Song of the Earth’, which was not premiered until 1911 after his death, as the most personal work he ever wrote. Antonello Manacorda precedes the symphonic song cycle in his concert with the orchestral piece ‘Blossoming II’ by the multi-award-winning Toshio Hosokawa. With Okka von der Damerau and David Butt Philip.

Symphony concert as part of the Musikfest Berlin

In describing the attributes of his 1851 melodrama based on Victor Hugo’s acclaimed play “Le roi s’amuse” Verdi also puts his finger on the challenges that any director has to address: RIGOLETTO is namely a masterpiece whose particularity lies in the clash between the characters’ psychology and the improbable action of a fantasy storyline.

Rigoletto

“Amore, sommissione, dolcezza” – the traits that Giuseppe Verdi gave his eponymous heroine, Aida, who embodies pure love, tenderness and submissiveness. And these characteristics put her firmly in the tradition of 19th-century female protagonists who were not so much fully rounded personalities as sex objects and a focus for male fantasies, women whose inevitable fate was to die of a broken heart. And Aida is no different.

Aida

One of the astonishing facts of music history is that almost all of the great operas based on Goethe were written in France. Alongside Gounod's and Berlioz's Faust settings and Ambroise Thomas's MIGNON, Jules Massenet's WERTHER is the most prominent example in this series. Premiered in Vienna in 1892, the work is also one of Massenet's most successful operas and, in its expressive immediacy, a pinnacle of the "drame lyrique".

Werther (concert version)

Kick drum instead of opera singing: At the Playground Festival, the Deutsche Oper Berlin is transformed into a techno club. The fourth edition will once again take place in the heart of the opera house, on the stage of the Grosses Haus: where opera stars normally belt out their arias and huge stage sets stand, there will be partying and dancing. The line-up invites bands and artists to take to the stage, playing electronic music on acoustic instruments and bringing handmade, danceable dancefloor sounds. After appearances by acts such as Brandt Brauer Frick, Ameli Paul and Komfortrauschen, the rave at the opera house has now become a small tradition and an invitation to opera lovers and techno fans alike: no queuing, no stressful outfit choices and no "hard door" - everyone is welcome.

Playground Festival 2025

RISE AND FALL OF THE CITY OF MAHAGONNY in Benedikt von Peter's production will take place in the foyers and on the stage - guests can move freely between the venues and video screens. There will be free choice of seating, including on mattresses.

Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

Songs such as ‘Night And Day’, ‘Love For Sale’ and ‘I've Got You Under My Skin’ have made Cole Albert Porter a legend. Experience the evergreens in funky arrangements and enjoy a summer evening full of swing. The BigBand of the Deutsche Oper Berlin plays under its musical director Manfred Honetschläger.

On Broadway

EMERSION concludes the two-part Hinterhalt series of the 2024/25 season at the Tischlerei. Thematically following on from IMMERSION (September 2024), director Ariane Kareev looks for connecting elements and parallels between the new productions of the entire season and continues the themes raised from today's perspective. The result is a transdisciplinary evening with contemporary artistry, real-time visuals and techno.

Emersion

Opera Lecture: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

The Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) is making a guest appearance at the Staatsballett Berlin with an extraordinary project: Figures in Extinction , a trilogy about climate change that choreographer Crystal Pite and director Simon McBurney are developping over several years at the NDT. «We are living in an age of extinction. Can we ever hope to give a name to what we are losing? What does it mean to bear witness to a violence in which we are both perpetrators and victims? Across continents, these world-renowned artists have exchanged ideas reflecting on their fears and cautious hopes for the age we are living in, and how artists can meaningfully create in the face of mass destruction. Now NDT and McBurney’s company Complicité present a major new collaboration that has seen these artists work together over four years to create three new works for NDT 1, each developed in response to the last. The first work, Figures in Exctintion [1.0] premiered in The Hague in 2022 and was awarded the Zwaan» (Swan) for the most impressive dance production in 2022. The second work, premiered in February 2024, is a searing examination of our need for connection in a separated world. In Figures in Extinction [2.0] - But then you come to the humans , a complex scientific text sounds from off-screen, warning us not to neglect our empathic right brain in favour of the data-processing left. The third and final piece will continue this cross-disciplinary exchange, premiering in the UK in February 2025, and offering a spark in the darkness as to where we might go. Founded in 1959, Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) is a leading international contemporary dance company dedicated to the research and creation of new work. Complicité is an international touring theatre company based in London led by Artistic Director and co-founder, Simon McBurney. Complicité creates work that strengthens human interconnection, using the complicity between performer and audience that is at the heart of the theatrical experience. Complicité works across art forms, believing theatre, opera, film, radio, installation, publication and participatory arts can all be sites for the collective act of imagination.

Dutch In Theater & Complicity

It has been a tradition for decades that the students of the Staatliche Ballett- und Artistikschule Berlin present the results of their training work in a festive gala held every year on the stages of Berlin’s opera houses. From the youngest to the graduates, the school’s students are involved in a programme that shows the multifaceted nature of professional dance education, while challenging the adolescent artists to present what they can do and show how they are enjoying themselves in their unique vocation.

State Ballet and Artistry School

This chamber music evening is all about mythological transformation stories in text and music: Richard Strauss' "Metamorphoses", Benjamin Britten's "Narcissus" and works by Karol Szymanowski and Thea Musgrave will be performed.

Chamber Music VI: In the mirror

Strobe lighting is used during the performance. At the end of the performance, a shot with a blank cartridge sounds on stage.

Queen of Spades

A woman finds herself on the verge of death when a seemingly endless cascade of questions comes pouring out of her, all directed toward a beloved, coveted and absent Other. With these are memories of a life well lived, of the longing for love and sex, of the faltering of her yearning and the tragedy of death behind it. The woman breaks down into four different facets of her own personality, each depicted by a different performer, representing the various perspectives and viewpoints of one individual. What forms is a web of interconnections between seeing and being seen, touching and being touched, feeling and being felt, understanding and being understood. It is a sensual play about sex, the body, love and death – with a surprising ending. LASH is the first opera by celebrated German-British composer Rebecca Saunders. With it, she is creating a work about the base, existential experiences of the human body that we spend our lives in and with which we experience and comprehend the world around us. The work is based on the strikingly pictorial texts of video artist and writer Ed Atkins.

Lash

All little explorers are welcome! In a cosy setting, children from the age of 3 are invited to experience new worlds of sound, to join in, to move and to be enchanted by the sounds of the musicians.

Concert for Kids

“Distant Resonance” is an artistic research project scheduled to run for three years. “Sounding Situations” is teaming up with Kampnagel, Radialsystem Berlin, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and various other institutions to explore the ways in which its own sound and sensation and story are connected to and resonate with distant locations. The first part of the “Wagner Worldwide” trilogy is set to premiere in the Tischlerei of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Wagner worldwide

For his first commission for the Paris Opéra Verdi demanded a libretto that was “immense, passionate and original”. What he eventually got from star author Eugène Scribe was a text whose political edginess rivalled the grand opéras of Giacomo Meyerbeer, with whom Scribe had collaborated on LES HUGUENOTS and LE PROPHETE. Like these two works, LES VÊPRES SICILIENNES explored a subject that was not only historical but also highly topical. Parallels could easily be drawn between the “Sicilian Vespers” uprising in 1282 against the island’s French occupiers and the most conspicuous of France’s mid-19th-century expansionist ventures, the conquest and colonialization of Algeria, which began in 1830 and was dogged by an ongoing series of brutally quelled revolts.

Les Vêpres Siciliennes

Giuseppe Verdi’s third opera was his break-out work. By the end of the gestation of NABUCCO the 29-year-old had found his musical style, one that audiences latched onto immediately. It was first and foremost the sheer impact of the chorus scenes and the daringly loud orchestral movements that announced a new chapter in the history of opera. NABUCCO was the first opera to make the chorus one of the main protagonists and the material was ideal for this, with the liberation of the Israelites from Babylonian captivity providing ample occasion for crowd scenes conveying the yearnings and stirrings of an oppressed people. And to top it all, it was not an aria but the “Va, pensiero” Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, sung by the Jewish deportees on the banks of the Euphrates, that became the best known number in the opera – and the most famous Verdi tune of all.

Nabucco

He played the guitar in his very own way and founded European jazz in the process - the guitarist and bandleader Django Reinhardt was already an absolute icon during his lifetime. Jazz guitarist Joscho Stephan - an important representative of modern gypsy swing for more than 20 years - is dedicating a very special evening to this exceptional artist.

Jazz Festival: The great Django

The eventful biography of Georg Friedrich Händel from Halle, who died in London on 14 April 1759, resembles the lives of jazz legends, and the richness of his music invites jazz interpretation. The Berlin pianist Rolf Zielke arranges impressions from the music of various Handel compositions for the unusual instrumentation of this evening. A promising undertaking: Handel's music, characterised by baroque joie de vivre, meets the rhythmic sensuality of South America and the sparkling joy of playing of this rousing jazz ensemble. Rolf Zielke's arrangements shed new light - full of respect - on Handel's original music.

Jazz Festival: Händel ́s Journey to Jazz

What do Sleeping Beauty and Pamina from THE MAGIC FLUTE have in common? What stories can be told with music? And how many instruments can a single percussionist actually play? We set out together in search of answers with the help of music by Maurice Ravel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Georges Bizet as well as newly told fairy tale classics.

Rosa is awake

Three angels look back to a period in the past when books were precious artefacts with texts written on skin. One of the angels acts out the role of an olden-day illustrator who has been commissioned by the rich and powerful Protector to create a beautifully illuminated manuscript setting out the Protector’s biography. In his patron’s home the angel encounters Agnès, the Protector’s younger wife, who is still a virgin on account of her husband’s self-imposed abstinence. Despite this, he is jealous and keeps a close eye on her – to no avail, because Agnès begins an affair with the angel in his incarnation as an artist. The Protector learns of their relationship and kills the illustrator. Then he serves his unwitting wife the heart of her lover as part of a meal.

Written on Skin

Opera is full of heroes who have to overcome difficult trials and women who sacrifice themselves for love. Do these role categorisations still apply to us today? Who is actually a hero or heroine for us? We scrutinise opera stories critically and up close with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Giuseppe Verdi.

Role Models

What does a future look like in which researchers aren’t just creating with artificial intelligence, but have also learned to copy people at the computer? This scenario was put forth by economist Robin Hanson in his book The Age of Em – Work, Love and Life when Robots Rule the Earth. Composer Zara Ali from Memphis, Tennessee is currently working on bringing Hanson’s physical-digital hybrids to the stage in what she describes as a sort of “spherical installation” that will place the audience in the perceptual world of these “Ems”.

New Scenes VII

The Antichrist makes his entrance into a godless world. Sent by Lucifer into the world, he adopts many guises. Mankind is tested and tempted by pride, lust, lies, despondency and hatred in an “all-against-all altercation”. Langgaard’s opera is suffused with fin de siècle atmosphere and pessimism, warning of catastrophe and denouncing the vices of the modern age: egotism, arrogance, frivolity. Langgaard, though, was also an optimist, convinced of the transformative, transcendental power of art and the importance of music as a thread connecting people to the godhead. So it is that the world is freed of all evil and sorrow in the culminating chorus scene in ANTIKRIST.

Antichrist

Countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, described by the New York Times as a "young star" and "consummate artist" and by the San Francisco Chronicle as "extravagantly gifted", is one of the most promising rising stars in the world of classical singing. With his house debut here as Boy and Angel in WRITTEN ON SKIN (in which role he also returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin in the 24/25 season), he has taken the hearts of Berlin audiences by storm. Experience him in this concert together with two other colleagues and listen to the greatest arias for countertenor.

Concert: The Three Countertenors

DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG was Richard Wagner’s only light-hearted opera and remains one of his most popular works. This notwithstanding, MEISTERSINGER is also the musical manifesto of a German national art movement and, as such, has accumulated so much baggage over the years that people are apt to lose sight of the opera’s essence – a jolly and coherent comedy with its helter-skelter storyline centring on illusion and reality, love, ageing and the plying of one’s art – and this despite the core theme of a life dominated by music determining not only the cast of characters but also the action of the piece. The members of the master-singers guild have convened to make music in accordance with their strict rulebook. One of the singers, the wealthy Veit Pogner, has granted his daughter Eva the freedom to choose which suitor she will marry – with the proviso that it be a master singer, in other words the winner of a public singing competition. A pity, then, that Eva is in love with Walther von Stolzing, who is talented but devoid of formal training. Nonetheless he takes part in the competition, aided and abetted by master singer Hans Sachs, who has to forego his love for Eva in the process.

The Mastersingers of Nuremberg

In a proven and moving mixture of words, images and sound, musicians from the orchestra remember former employees of the opera who were expelled by the National Socialists from 1933 onwards. Between the movements, Margarita Broich reads from personal documents of Paul Feher (tenor), Theo Front (assistant director), Berthold Goldschmidt (musical advisor) and Hilde Reiss (chorus singer).

Chamber Music V: Against forgetfulness

Walking barefoot, enjoying the sun, playing outside in the evening ... not yet. Not quite yet. But very soon. Winter really will soon be over at the beginning of April. Let's see if we can speed things up a bit with the right music. The small chorus of the children's chorus and the generational chorus invite you to a spring sing-along in the foyer, where everyone will have the opportunity to sing along.

Springtime Singing

Shen Yun takes you on an extraordinary journey through China's 5000-year-old divinely inspired culture. Exquisite celestial fairies, profound wisdom of past dynasties, timeless legends and ethnic traditions are brought to life through classical Chinese dance, a rousing live orchestra, authentic costumes and patented interactive sets. Experience a time when scholars and artists sought harmony with the Dao, the way of the cosmos, and walked the earth as divine beings to inspire humanity. Join us for an evening of courage and wisdom, light and hope ... Experience Shen Yun!

Shen Yun

With his symphonic poems such as "Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche", "Ein Heldenleben" and "Also sprach Zarathustra", Richard Strauss became the most internationally acclaimed young German composer around 1900. Hotly disputed due to the drastic nature of his musical language, these works made Strauss the epitome of the "young savage", who did not shy away from musical shock value for the sake of effect. With the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lorenzo Viotti, chief conductor of the Amsterdam Opera and one of the most celebrated conductors of his generation, shows that the fascination of the symphonic composer Richard Strauss is still unbroken today.

Symphony Concert: Richard Strauss

To this day, "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks" is one of Richard Strauss' best-known works, not least because Strauss uses the boldness of his orchestral treatment to create a musical depiction of Eulenspiegel's pranks that is as drastic as it is memorable and does not even shy away from the - apparent - end of the prankster on the gallows. Lorenzo Viotti, who not only conducts Strauss' tone poem in this family concert but also explains it himself, returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin with this Strauss programme, where he made his successful debut in 2023 with Mahler's First Symphony.

Family Concert

Audiences exiting the theatre after the world premiere of Richard Strauss’s eighth opera INTERMEZZO felt wrong-footed and out-of-sorts. Instead of drawing on classical material or mythology, the composer had served up a straight story with him and his wife as characters, showing contempt for the boundary between private life and literary work. What they hadn’t realised was that Strauss had once again demonstrated that he was not only hip to musical-theatre trends but could also make them his own: for INTERMEZZO is Strauss’s response to 1920s audiences’ desire for “modern” opera subjects and can be seen as part of a line of avant-garde works by the likes of Arnold Schönberg (VON HEUTE AUF MORGEN) and Paul Hindemith (NEUES VOM TAGE). Unlike them, however, Strauss remains true to his classical sound and creates another of his famous soprano roles, shimmering with cantilenas, in the form of the main character, Christine, the fictional composer’s wife.

Interlude

This season, too, an unusual and personal programme will be presented under the title "Spotlights": musicians of the orchestra will play works that are particularly close to their hearts. The programme ranges from world-famous pieces of the chamber music repertoire to real rarities that are hardly ever heard in the concert hall. Listen to favourite pieces, rarities and evergreens, including works by Bohuslav Martinů, Ernest Chausson and Rebecca Clarke.

Chamber Music IV: Spotlights

Long after the Paris world premiere in 1896 Oscar Wilde’s tragedy “Salomé” remained a thorn in the flesh of the establishment across Europe. In Wilhelminian Germany and the Danube Monarchy, too, official art adjudicators considered the subject “repulsive” and the text “an insult to morality”. In the minds of the guardians of public morals the New Testament story of Herod’s daughter was as ill-suited to the stage as it was to pictorial representation, which was experiencing a boom at the time. Salomé’s stepfather, Herod, the Roman’s client king of Judea, Galilee and Samaria who is said to have ordered the massacre of the innocents around Bethlehem, persuades her to dance for him. Encouraged by her mother, she demands to be given the head of John the Baptist as a reward.

Salome

Vienna, circa 1860. The financially strapped Count Waldner is lodging with his family in a Viennese hotel. His only path to solvency is for him to secure an advantageous marriage for one of his two daughters – and the family can only afford to present Arabella, the eldest, in the upper circles of society. To conceal the family’s indigence, the parents have raised Zdenka as a boy, dressing her accordingly. Arabella is not short of suitors but has resolved to wait for ‘Mr Right’. When Mandryka, an aristocrat from a distant region, arrives, he and Arabella are instantly smitten. Arabella only asks to be able to bid farewell to her friends and suitors at the Fasching ball that evening.

Arabella

Lurking in the bowels of the Deutsche Oper Berlin is a long-forgotten realm from the dark ages. In this location, a.k.a the set and props depository, the ghosts of King Gunther, Siegfried and Brünhilde are up to no good, ever fighting over who gets to go on stage next. Nothing’s off-limits to Wagner’s offspring when it comes to winning over the audience! And so it goes: murder and mayhem, drama upon drama, day after day. High time for someone to bang some heads together — and do it with humour, too! Wait a sec: humour!? That’s really not something the German crew knows the first thing about. But then Berlin’s underground scene rides to the rescue: a clique of operetta singers will sort it out – but wait: are these hallowed portals really going to host a work of operetta? Whatever would Richard make of it?

Into the ring!

Two of the world’s most powerful men shake hands – as the world looks on. With their opera about the state visit by US President Nixon to China in 1972 composer John Adams and librettist Alice Goodman rendered a recent historical event in operatic form. They envisioned a »heroic opera« telling of modern myths and the power of images. This rapprochement between the two great powers gave rise to one of the most prodigious media spectacles of the 20th century. Nixon himself put the event on a par with the moon landing. The opera, whose composition was pushed for by Peter Sellars, the director of the eventual premiere, is a depiction of both the details of the visit and the coverage by the media. Alice Goodman’s libretto reflects the tradition of 19th-century opera, with larger-than-life characters interacting and the protagonists dealing with both affairs of state and their private lives. Staged in the style of an excessively satirical documentary, the minimal-music opera sticks close to protocols from the state visit, depicting the larger-than-life protagonists swerving between exhibitionism, helplessness and the desire to reach a mutual understanding.

Nixon in China

The comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of the most well-known and beloved works by William Shakespeare, exploring the power of love, the confusions of human emotions, and the magic of fantasy. The plot skilfully weaves together various storylines: lovers fleeing strict laws, fairy kings and queens ruling over the natural realm, and a group of clumsy craftsmen preparing a performance for the royal court. Amidst a dense forest, a setting full of secrets and inexplicable powers, love couples encounter obstacles that test their bonds. The fairy kingdom plays its own game with human love destinies, confusing lovers with a magical love potion that makes them fall in love with the first person they see. Themes such as the irrationality of love, the boundaries between reality and dream, and the dynamics between power and fantasy are skilfully interwoven. Choreographer Edward Clug, Ballet Director of the Slovenian National Theatre Maribor, dedicates himself to this classic, bringing his unique vision to the stage and transporting audiences with his vision into a world full of magic and deep emotions. The choreography highlights both the comic and dramatic aspects of the story. Clug's choreographic interpretation, set to the music specially composed by Milko Lazar for this piece, tells Shakespeare's story through a contemporary lens – a tale that explores the depths of human nature while remaining humorous and enchanting.  The music by Milko Lazar is a commissioned work that is composed in close connection with Clug's creation and will have its world premiere with the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

The Flying Dutchman

Originally from the French Basque region, Maurice Ravel had a lifelong penchant for Spanish folk music. Alongside the "Bolero" and the "Rhapsodie espagnole", his short opera L'HEURE ESPAGNOLE, premiered in 1911, is the best-known example of Ravel's sophisticated stylisation of Spanish dance rhythms - and like the "Bolero", the almost hour-long stage work about the sexually unfulfilled watchmaker's wife Concepciòn is a masterpiece of the laconic elegance typical of Ravel. The celebrated mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa can be heard in the role of Concepción, with the young French conductor Maxime Pascal conducting the one-act opera, which is paired with Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic suite "Scheherazade".

Symphony Concert: Rimsky-Korsakov and Ravel

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. This classic format offers unique insights into the new productions, which often only unfold in personal exchanges with the artists of the team. There is an opportunity to sense the atmosphere that characterizes the exciting days before every ballet premiere. The event will be conducted in German. English passages will be summarised in German.

Premiere Talk: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Classical art songs and modern poetry – lieder recital meets poetry reading in this series of events organised jointly with the Haus für Poesie Berlin. Each of the four evening events held in the foyer of the Deutsche Oper Berlin will feature a poet reading original works whose themes complement the songs on the programme.

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Mar 21 - Apr 26, 2026

Nureyev

Jan 11 - Mar 22, 2026

Don Carlo

Mar 22, 2026

Springtime Singing

Sep 13, 2025 - Mar 26, 2026

Aida

26 - 28 Mar, 2026

Concert for Kids

17 - 18 Mar, 2026

Baby concert

Mar 16, 2026

Chamber Music IV: Where the lemons bloom – Italy, a place of yearning

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