Staatsoper Berlin is set to dazzle audiences with an exquisite lineup of performances that blend timeless classics with contemporary interpretations. This season, the celebrated opera house will showcase an eclectic mix of operas, including Richard Wagner's 'The Mastersingers of Nuremberg', Bizet's 'Carmen', and Mozart's 'The Magic Flute'. Alongside these renowned compositions, Puccini's 'Tosca' and Strauss' 'Elektra' add depth to the repertoire. The program extends to interpretations of modern themes with 'End of game', 'Cassandra', and 'Undine'. With stellar casts and visionary productions, these performances promise a captivating experience for all.

A Mesmerizing Season at Staatsoper Berlin: A Journey Through Opera and Theater

The Staatsoper Berlin is set to enchant audiences with an eclectic lineup of performances in 2025. From the gripping drama of 'Tosca' and the complex narratives of 'End of Game' to the comedic yet poignant storytelling in 'Cassandra', this year promises a spectacular array of operas and theatrical productions. With renowned performers such as Michael Fabiano and Iréne Theorin gracing the stage, the performances explore themes of love, betrayal, identity, and environmental awareness, making them not just entertainment, but profound reflections on human experiences.

Diverse Delights: Exploring Staatsoper Berlin's Captivating Lineup

Staatsoper Berlin unfolds a captivating tapestry of opera and drama in its 2025 season. From Puccini's tragic romance in 'Tosca' to the riveting modern themes in 'Cassandra', each performance promises a unique emotional experience. Set against the backdrop of historical and mythical narratives, these events showcase the exceptional talents of artists like Michael Fabiano and Jessica Niles, bringing tales of love, betrayal, and identity to life. Let’s delve into these enthralling performances and the artistic brilliance they offer.

Exploring the Depths of Opera: A Journey Through Staatsoper Berlin's 2025 Season

The Staatsoper Berlin is set to offer an extraordinary season with a range of captivating performances. From the intense drama of Puccini's 'Tosca' to the thought-provoking narratives in 'Cassandra', each event promises to leave a lasting impression. Audiences will be treated to operatic spectacles like 'Madama Butterfly', the mythical 'Idomeneo', and contemporary pieces like 'The Excursions of Mr. Brouček'. With a blend of classic and modern, including Joyce DiDonato's recital, it's a season not to be missed.

A Season of Drama and Melody at Staatsoper Berlin

Staatsoper Berlin is set to present an impressive array of performances spanning classics to contemporary, with captivating narratives and extraordinary talents. From the suspenseful opera 'Tosca' to the thought-provoking 'Cassandra', and the heart-wrenching 'Madama Butterfly', audiences are promised a season of unforgettable experiences. This season also features 'Idomeneo', the adventurous 'The Excursions of Mr. Brouček', and the evocative 'Simon Boccanegra'. With performances that challenge, entertain, and inspire, Staatsoper Berlin invites you on a journey through music and storytelling.

A Season of Captivating Performances: Staatsoper Berlin's 2025 Lineup

This season, Staatsoper Berlin invites us on an extraordinary musical journey. From gripping operatic tales of love and betrayal such as 'Tosca' and 'Norma,' to the thrilling orchestral brilliance in the 'Festive Concert Staatskapelle Berlin,' each event unfolds a unique narrative. With artists like Michael Fabiano, Joyce DiDonato, and Anne-Sophie Mutter gracing the stage, this season promises a diverse exploration of both classical and contemporary themes. Let's delve into the remarkable lineup that promises an unforgettable experience.

Opera and Orchestral Extravaganza: A Season at Staatsoper Berlin

Staatsoper Berlin is showcasing a captivating array of performances that blend the world of opera, ballet, and innovative theatrical presentations. With themes ranging from environmental consciousness delivered through stand-up comedy to timeless romantic tragedies and thrilling operas, this season offers a spectrum of emotions and explorations. Featuring works like 'Cassandra,' 'Der fliegende Holländer,' 'The Troubadour,' 'Roméo et Juliette,' 'Sacre,' 'La Traviata,' and 'The Silent Woman,' each event promises a unique artistic journey, enriched by outstanding performances and visionary direction.

Staatsoper Berlin: A Season of Emotion, Drama, and Artistic Mastery

Staatsoper Berlin is set to enthrall audiences with a diverse range of performances in 2025, promising a blend of thought-provoking themes and artistic brilliance. From the witty stand-up comedy of 'Cassandra' to the evocative ballet of 'Sacre', the timeless romance of 'La traviata', and the humor-infused opera 'The Silent Woman', each event brings its own unique flair. With renowned performers and visionary creators driving these productions, audiences are in for an unforgettable cultural journey.

Staatsoper Berlin 2025: A Fusion of Art, Narrative, and Emotion

The Staatsoper Berlin's 2025 season presents a riveting blend of artistic expression and social consciousness. From the compelling stand-up comedy of 'Cassandra' addressing climate change to the emotional depth of the opera 'La traviata', and the wit and creativity of 'The Silent Woman', this season promises a diverse theatrical experience. These events not only showcase the talents of renowned performers but also challenge audiences to reflect on pressing societal issues and the timeless complexity of human emotions.

Exploring Art and Awareness: Staatsoper Berlin's 2025 Season Highlights

Staatsoper Berlin invites you to a spectacular journey through the world of opera with an extraordinary season lineup. Highlighting timeless classics and captivating performances, this season features the genius of Offenbach's 'Les Contes d’Hoffmann', Puccini's heart-wrenching 'Madama Butterfly', and Mozart's enchanting 'Die Zauberflöte'. From January to July, audiences will be transported into a variety of worlds, each offering unique narratives and unforgettable music. Performances from opera luminaries like Pene Pati, Sonya Yoncheva, and René Pape promise to deliver unforgettable experiences.

A Journey Through Time: Exploring Staatsoper Berlin's Upcoming Opera Highlights

Staatsoper Berlin is set to captivate audiences with a remarkable lineup of operatic classics. This exciting season features Offenbach's 'Les Contes d’Hoffmann,' the heart-wrenching 'Madama Butterfly' by Puccini, Mozart's timeless 'Die Zauberflöte,' and many more. Each opera promises an unforgettable experience, showcasing the immense talents of renowned performers and directors. Join us at Bebelplatz to immerse yourself in these compelling stories brought to life by stellar casts and imaginative productions.

A Dramatic Season of Operatic Masterpieces at Staatsoper Berlin

With his poetic opera The Cunning Little Vixen, Leoš Janáček brought nothing less than the eternal cycle of becoming and passing to the stage. It tells the life story of the young, rebellious vixen Bystrouška, or Sharp Ears, who is captured by the forester and starts a revolution at his homestead before she succeeds in escaping. Back in the freedom of the forest, she founds a family with a fox and is then shot by a poacher. The seemingly so civilized human world looks wistfully at wild nature, which follows its own laws of life and love.

Das schlaue Füchslein

Bebelplatz

The wealthy Count Almaviva has won the heart of the beautiful Rosina under the pseudonym 'Lindoro'. But Rosina’s jealous guardian Dr Bartolo wishes to marry his ward himself and so tries to keep her suitors away. Fortunately, 'Lindoro' is helped by the cunning barber Figaro, who – more or less ingeniously – weaves a web of entanglements and masquerades.

Il barbiere di Siviglia

Sometimes as a cautionary tale of a wrongdoer who eventually gets his comeuppance, sometimes as an allegory of a freedom-loving, unconventional libertine who questions the moral and religious ideas of his day: The figure of the irresistibly attractive yet unscrupulous Don Juan (or Don Giovanni) is a modern myth, among whose numerous adaptations Mozart’s "dramma giocoso" stands out.

Don Giovanni

A schoolyard game: Max has no chance against Kilian and is tossed off the team. Now it will be hard to see Agathe, with whom he has fallen in love. Later, Caspar from his group follows him and promises him a magic potion that will make everything better. Although Agathe and her friend warn Max against it, he meets Caspar one night and allows himself to be convinced to take the magic potion. The next day, it should help for the decisive match …

Der Freischütz für Kinder

Elsa von Brabant is accused of murdering her brother. No one dares prove the young woman’s innocence in this mysterious case. Trapped in a reality that no one seems to share with her, a man enters her life promising to fight for her cause – on one condition: Elsa must trust him blindly and never ask him his name or birthplace.

Lohengrin

When the revolutionary and painter Mario Cavaradossi secretly attempts to help a political fugitive to escape the city of Rome, his lover, the famed singer Floria Tosca, believes he is cheating on her with another woman. Her jealousy is exploited by Scarpia, the unscrupulous chief of police, in order to help him capture Cavaradossi. Scarpia then makes Tosca an offer: if she gives herself to him for one night, he will release her lover.

Tosca

The heart is an especially popular symbol as the physical locus of human feelings, longings, and pain. A man would like to live without the painful feelings in his heart; his lover wants to unite with his heart, while transcendental powers would also like to win it over. The composer Matthias Pintscher invents overwhelming and gripping sounds for the mysterious and strange events that take place in his opera Das kalte Herz (The Cold Heart).

Das kalte Herz

Depending on the demand for their work, the penniless poet Rodolfo and his three witty artist friends live either in destitution or in the lap of luxury, squandering their money. When their neighbour Mimì appears in their garret one day, Rodolfo falls in love with the fragile young woman at first sight. But in the face of Mimì’s illness, the struggling artists are caught up in harsh reality.

La Bohème

The tragic drama of an oppressed person from society’s lower classes: Wozzeck, a hardworking but penniless soldier, is increasingly losing control of his life and his mind. He is seized by increasingly violent psychotic episodes, until in a delusion, he stabs and kills his girlfriend Marie.

Wozzeck

It is one of the classics in the Staatsoper’s repertoire: August Everding’s production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The production is unique for its reconstruction of Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s 1816 set design for what was then the Berlin Court Opera on Unter den Linden – including the legendary starry sky for the Queen of the Night, which has become an icon of scenography and continues to enchant audiences.

Die Zauberflöte (Everding)

Lieutenant Pinkerton has fallen in love with the geisha Cio-Cio-San, known as Madama Butterfly, and wants to marry her according to Japanese custom without entering into a permanent relationship. But Butterfly truly loves Pinkerton and has a child by him. For years she waits in vain for the lieutenant to return. When Pinkerton does return, he arrives with his new American wife to pick up the child, and Butterfly stabs herself with a dagger.

Madama Butterfly

At the age of almost 80, Giuseppe Verdi, who had already achieved mythical status, once again achieved sensational success with this opera. Using the brilliant libretto of the much younger Arrigo Boito as a starting point, he created a masterpiece of comic opera after five decades of tragic works. Although it is based on the same material as Otto Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, Verdi succeeded in writing a distinct, subversive version of the comedy.

Falstaff

Jacques Offenbach composed more than 100 operas and operettas, most of them with unique wit and biting satire, original and inspired. At the end of his illustrious career in Paris, which stretched over five decades, he turned to his most ambitious operatic work Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann), an opéra fantastique based on a play that premiered in 1881.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann

Modest Mussorgsky’s national folk drama centres on a grim episode of late 17th-century Russian history. Ivan Khovansky, leader of the musketeer corps (streltsy), and his son Andrei, are planning a conspiracy, but the ambitious Prince Vasily Golitsyn, the boyar Shaklovity and cleric Dosifey also get involved in the struggle for power.

Khovanshchina

The one who has strayed from the right path – that is Violetta Valéry, who leads a life as a noble courtesan in Paris between splendor and misery. Everything is mere play and illusion, even love, until Alfredo Germont awakens true feelings in her. Happiness, however, is a rare visitor and only short-lived: Violetta, suffering from consumption, is first humiliated and then, after a final flicker of vitality, expires.

La traviata

The most famous lovers ever: virtually mythical figures, Romeo and Juliette from Shakespeare’s eponymous drama have dominated world literature ever since its premiere in 1597. Among the many musical settings of the work, Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette is one of the most performed. It was a triumphant success already at its premiere as part of the 1867 Paris Exposition. Gounod focuses particularly on the emotional life of the two lovers, for whom he composes no fewer than four love duets. At the same time, he also explores the social context of their forbidden love in the form of powerful choral tableaux and a large fight scene between the enemy families. In this production, director Mariame Clément will place the focus on the youth of the title characters, presenting them not as an exaggerated ideal of a couple, but as young people of today who find their way to another despite all odds.

Roméo et Juliette

The setting is Carthage, in ancient times: the hero Aeneas flees from burning Troy and arrives in North Africa via the Mediterranean Sea with his fleet of ships, where he meets the beautiful queen Dido. They are lovestruck – and yet fail to bond because of fate’s intervention. Aeneas continues on his journey to form a new kingdom in Italy, while the abandoned Dido is left no alternative but to stay.

Dido & Aeneas

Two couples in different configurations, motivated by a bet about alleged or actual infidelity, are at the centre of Mozart’s Così fan tutte ("All Women Do It") with the cryptic subtitle "La scuola degli amanti" ("The School for Lovers"). The spirited words by librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte were enlivened with equally thoughtful music by Mozart, who by then was a veteran opera composer.

Così fan tutte

The Norn’s rope of destiny breaks, the world falls apart and the gods idly watch their own demise. People fight to claim power. Brünnhilde and Siegfried are drawn into these power struggles, essentially initiated by Hagen, the son of the ring’s first owner, Alberich. Siegfried dies: however, his death is the harbinger of a catastrophe from which hope for something new can arise.

Götterdäm­merung

Violetta Valéry is a noble courtesan in Paris who has "strayed from the path of virtue" and leads a life that oscillates between splendour and misery. For her everything is a game – even love – until Alfredo Germont awakens true feelings in her. But this rare happiness only lasts fleetingly for Violetta, who suffers from tuberculosis, and who is first publicly humiliated before passing away.

Siegfried, the son of Siegmund and Sieglinde, is young and dynamic an. Raised by the devious Nibelung dwarf, Mime, he does not know his parents. All that remains of his father are fragments of a sword. Siegfried forges its steel into a new, powerful weapon with which he slays the dragon Fafner. Fafner had been guarding the ring that Siegfried now takes for himself. And he wins over Brünnhilde, whom he awakens from sleep.

Siegfried

Wotan wants to secure power through his descendants. The twins Siegmund and Sieglinde seem to be the perfect choice. One day, fate brings them together. However, for Wotan’s wife Fricka, the sibling’s love is a thorn in her side, and even Wotan himself feels emotionally torn. When his favourite daughter, the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, revolts against him, he puts her to sleep, casting a circle of fire around her that only a fearless person can walk through.

Die Walküre

The Nibelung dwarf Alberich robs the Rhinemaidens of the Rhinegold to forge a ring that confers "endless power". Meanwhile, Wotan, the father of the gods, is forced into action. To reward the giants Fasolt and Fafner for building the castle Valhalla, he steals the Nibelungs’ treasure with the help of Loge, the cunning fire god. Alberich curses the ring and all its future owners – the tragedy takes its course.

Das Rheingold

In the early 1930s, for Richard Strauss — approaching 70 — it was an auspicious moment when Stefan Zweig, a renowned author known for his artful, profound novels and plays, proposed writing a new libretto. In a mutually inspiring collaboration, they created a truly “comic opera” based on a play by Ben Jonson from the Shakespeare period filled not only with striking characters, tempo, and wit, but profound reflection as well. “The opera is a perfect, but perhaps for the twenty-first century,” according to Strauss himself, who in a difficult, dark time created a work of creative compositional virtuosity and a relaxed sense of humor, a story of people longing for rest or who lose themselves in busyness. This will be director Jan Philipp Gloger’s debut and it will be Christian Thielemann’s first new production as general music director, a position once held by Strauss himself.

The Silent Woman

A three-part ballet evening with music by three composers who counted among the avant-garde artists of their day: Hector Berlioz, Claude Debussy und Igor Stravinsky. From Roméo et Juliette, the unexpectedly successful "Symphonie dramatique" that Berlioz completed in 1839, Sasha Waltz has choreographed the major love scene between the protagonists, which features delicate sound and multifarious orchestration. Debussy is represented with his Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, about which Pierre Boulez said, "the flute of the faun brought new breath to the art of music"

Sacre

Azucena had to witness her mother being burned as a witch. In revenge, she kidnapped the younger of the two sons of the old Count di Luna, who ordered her mother’s burning, but in her delirium she threw her own son onto the flames instead of the Count’s son. Years later, the new Count di Luna, the brother of the kidnapped child, and the »Troubadour« Manrico, the supposed son of Azucena, not only fight on opposing sides in a civil war, but also encounter each other because they both love the lady-in-waiting Leonora. Nobody suspects that Manrico is actually Luna’s kidnapped brother – until Leonora sacrifices herself for her beloved and the hate-filled Luna kills his rival.

The Troubadour

In the spirit of romanticism, the young Richard Wagner shaped the legend of the Flying Dutchman into an opera of bold music and irrepressible force. It is a dark and mysterious tale, the atmosphere of which Wagner captured so succinctly in his striking score. He unleashes forces of nature in the orchestra, while echoing folkloric music in the chorus, and the solo scenes, duets and ensembles are highly expressive. Dream and reality blur; imagination and reality can barely be distinguished. Since the Dresden premiere in 1843, The Flying Dutchman has sailed across the opera stages of the world, and has often laid anchor in Berlin. This production by Philipp Stölzl presents Wagner’s work as a colourful pirate story and an adventurous spiritual journey with some surprising twists and turns.

Der fliegende Holländer

Berlin State Opera

Set in a faraway island paradise, Georges Bizet tells the story of a love triangle complicated by true friendship. Zurga and Nadir are old friends, but in the past they were nearly driven apart by their mutual love for Leïla, a priestess of Brahma. The two men swore to renounce their love for the beautiful young woman, but neither this promise nor Leïla’s vow of chastity prevents her and Nadir from being overcome by longing when their paths cross again.

The Pearl Fishers

It is exactly 100 years since the birth of Pierre Boulez, the influential, groundbreaking composer and conductor who was closely associated with the Staatskapelle Berlin. He often conducted concerts by the orchestra, which appointed him honorary conductor in 2005 on the occasion of his 80th birthday. This year's FESTTAGE concert will feature music that is directly associated with Boulez, music by two composers with whom he had a special relationship, Alban Berg and Gustav Mahler. There will also be a composition by Boulez himself, the Notations for large orchestra, with which the Staatskapelle is very familiar thanks to repeated performances in the past.

EPSG:4326

Festive Concert Staatskapelle Berlin

Berliner Philharmonie

The will to resist the Roman occupiers 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

The Grail Knights are a brotherhood sworn to strict chastity. They guard two relics that promise salvation and eternal life: the Holy Grail and the Holy Spear. However, after their king Amfortas breaks his vow of chastity with the mysterious Kundry, the spear falls into the hands of Klingsor, a former knight expelled from the order, who uses it to inflict an unhealable wound on the king. According to prophecy, only a "pure fool made wise by compassion" can save Amfortas from eternal agony and retrieve the spear. Gurnemanz, the brotherhood’s spiritual leader, believes that the naive Parsifal is this new saviour. But Parsifal has a long path of enlightenment to tread first …

Parsifal

Four times throughout the season, outstanding singers from the international opera world will be guests in the Great Hall of the Unter den Linden with solo evenings. The repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the modern era, and Schubert's Winterreise , a true "classic" of song literature, is also represented. Sonya Yoncheva, Camilla Nylund, Joyce DiDonato and Elīna Garanča will cast a spell over the audience with their personalities and the music itself.

Liederabend Joyce DiDonato

Staatsoper Unter den Linden

The title Orbit: A War Series is a reference to the New York artist Nancy Spero: deeply moved by the photographs of the Vietnam War that were circulating in the media, Spero investigated the links between sexuality, violence, and power in The War Series (1966–70). The subject of oppressive power structures revealed in her art is horrifyingly relevant today. Orbit: A War Series appeals to the images in our minds: Brigitta Muntendorf’s immersive 3D audio space oratorio is like an electroacoustic series of narratives in which sounds, texts, voices, and space become transmitters of power structures.

Orbit – A War Series

Humboldt Forum

Music from Giuseppe Verdi
Text from Francesco Maria Piave with additions by Giuseppe Montanelliin the new version by Arrigo Boito after Antonio García Gutiérrez

Simon Boccanegra

In immersive soundscapes, musicians from Ensemble Modern and the Apollo Choir of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden invite the audience to explore the creative and transformative power of melancholic worlds.

Melencolia

Berliner Festspiele

At his local Prague bar, the landlord Brouček has a reputation for being a petty philistine. He himself is tired of dealing with insolvent renters and dreams of getting away from all the daily hassle. When one night he has had one beer too many, his wish comes true in a miraculous way with two fantastic excursions: first, Brouček lands on the moon inhabited by a strange, overly intellectual society of artists. Then he finds himself in medieval Prague, stuck between the fronts of a battle between the confessions, and is about to go to war on the side of the Hussites.

The Excursions of Mr. Brouček

A storm rages off the coast of Crete, forcing King Idomeneo, who is returning from the Trojan War, to make an ill-fated promise to Neptune: if the enraged god lets him reach land safely, he will sacrifice the first man he meets. When Idomeneo arrives on the beach, he meets his son Idamante. But the unforgiving world of the gods seems determined to exact the king’s promise.

Idomeneo

A schoolyard game: Max has no chance against Kilian and is tossed off the team. Now it will be hard to see Agathe, in whom he has fallen in love. Later, Caspar from his group follows him and promises him a magic potion that will make everything better. Although Agathe and her friend warn Max against it, he meets Caspar one night and allows himself to be convinced to take the magic potion. The next day, it should help for the decisive match 

Der Freischütz for Children

Librettist Jaroslav Kvapil used various fairy tales and myths as a source for his psychological and symbolist text. Antonín Dvořák’s opulent and dazzling score, which turned out to be his first operatic success, is a true feat of composition whose complex subject matter is open to a wide range of interpretations. Kornél Mundruzcó, who recently staged the opera Sleepless by Peter Eötvös, which was awarded the Staatsoper "Premiere of the Year", emphasises the relevance of the material today in his interpretation. The piece is a drama about a woman’s soul as well as a modern fairy tale that raises questions about identity and physicality.

Undine

In a villa by the sea in a summer resort, where Figaro is on holiday, emotions run high, old grudges are settled, and intrigues spun. At the end of this "great day", however, there is forgiveness. Once again, love triumphs and everyone is happy – the Count and Countess, Figaro and Susanna, Bartolo and Marcellina, and even Cherubino, who had hitherto stirred everything up.

The Marriage of Figaro

Like a call issuing from a mythical distant past, Richard Strauss’ Elektra summons the magic of eerie gloom and archaic brutality. An almost inevitable 'tremendous increase to the very end' (Strauss) in musical tension plunges the listener deep into Electra’s world, which is shaped by grief, pain, and thirst for vengeance. Humiliated and tormented by her family, Electra, the daughter of the king of Mycenae, devotes her life to a single obsessive goal: day in and day out, she invokes the memory of her father, who was murdered treacherously by her mother Clytemnestra and Clytemnestra’s lover Aegisthus, and she waits for the return of her brother Orestes, who is supposed to avenge his father’s murder. The deed must be paid back in kind. Vacillating between hatred, hysteria, weakness, hubris, deep sadness, obsession and sarcasm, Electra has lost every connection to the people around her. She is unkempt and has rejected her femininity.

Elektra

Sandra presents the results of her research on the melting polar ice caps in the form of stand-up comedy and hopes in this way to sensitize people to the alarming situation of our planet. While on the one hand applauded for her efforts, she is also constantly confronted with skeptical questions. Her warnings go unheard even in her own family, as is true of the mythical figure Cassandra who predicts the destruction of Troy in flames. The God Apollo grants her visionary powers, but because she refuses to give into his attempts to seduce her, he ensures that no one believes her prophecies.

Cassandra

The Viennese aristocracy are no strangers to family feuds: boorish Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau interrupts the morning tête-à-tête between his cousin, the Marschallin, and her young lover Octavian, to ask for her help with his wedding plans, which are steered more by financial gain than love. Ochs does not suspect that Octavian himself, who is chosen to deliver the engagement rose, will eventually fall in love with the bride.

Der Rosenkavalier

Endgame, game over. With four characters. Hamm and his servants Clov. Hamm’s parents Nagg and Nell. A play with rules, rituals, memories, and words. Words that are sung, which has only been rarely done with Samuel Beckett’s texts. György Kurtág’s opera Fin de partie is the only full-length setting of one of his plays.

End of game

The Magic Flute (Everding)

An opéra comique with a tragic ending that depicts the eternal game of passion and torturous jealousy, and whose fiery music continues to appeal to audiences worldwide – that is Bizet’s Carmen. Idiosyncratic, memorable characters suffer the ultimately fatal consequences of their alternating attraction and repulsion.

Carmen

When Richard Wagner developed his initial ideas for Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in the mid-1840s, he had no intention of writing a monumental "festive opera". The work was intended to be a facile comedy, a jovial and humorous satyr play to place alongside his Tannhäuser, since – like Tannhäuser – reflections on art and artists are its focus. More than two decades later, he had a musical score that was one of the most extensive and multi-layered of his entire repertoire, and that aroused controversy.

The Mastersingers of Nuremberg

Princess Turandot does not want to be anyone’s bride. And she is willing to do anything to protect her independence. Her strategy so far for ridding herself of burdensome suitors has been this: anyone who wants to marry her needs to solve three riddles. One wrong answer costs her prospective groom his life. Hundreds of men try their luck and fall victim to Turandot’s violent despotism. But then comes one man who can solve the riddles.

Turandot

The jealously guarded daughter of the powerful spirit ruler Keikobad was once hunted by the emperor of the Southern Islands when she had taken on the form of a gazelle and then became empress by marrying him. Now, to prevent the emperor from being turned to stone, she must cast a shadow, which in her world means that she must be able to bear a child. In the human world, she tries to buy the shadow of a childless, dissatisfied dyer’s wife. But when she realises that she can only buy her luck through this couple’s misfortune, she decides to relinquish her wish.

The Woman Without a Shadow

A documentary account of a bizarre complex inheritance dispute, a crime drama, a meta-opera featuring a singer playing a singer, a treatise on the sense and nonsense of human immortality. 'The Makropulos Affair' is all of the above. With inexplicably detailed background knowledge, opera diva Emilia Marty inserts herself into a century-long inheritance dispute and recklessly exploits her irresistibility to men for her own cryptic purposes.

The Makropulos Case

It was his first great success, in a sense, his breakthrough: Nabucco. Premiered at Milan’s Scala in the spring of 1842, this work marks the start of the brilliant career of Giuseppe Verdi, who would become the leading Italian opera composer, going virtually unrivalled for decades. Set in biblical times in Jerusalem and Babylon, Nabucco deals with the fates of two peoples and cultures, but also the arrogance of the protagonist, who with an inflated sense of self-importance declares himself a god, only then to descend into madness. Tableaux with ceremonial gestures and poignant music, such as the famous chorus “Va pensiero” sung by the imprisoned Hebrews, are combined with scenes of intense expression, filled with drama and passion.

Nabucco

The Barber of Seville

»When it’s out of necessity, anything is permissible, he says. Maybe you’re right, she says.« The place: Bergen, Norway. It’s cold. It’s raining. Asle and the heavily pregnant Alida wander around the coastal city. The young couple are turned away wherever they go. The likes of them are not welcome here. Each pause masks a further drift into a surreal psychological haze. Driven by desperation, they break into a stranger’s house. A series of mysterious encounters in which the past comes to life proves to be a disastrous race against time.

Sleepless

In masks and costumes, the characters in Verdi’s opera try to conceal their identities or to construct alternative ones. The powerholder Riccardo does so in order to avoid those plotting against him, his friend Renato to escape unrecognized, Renato’s wife Amelia to hide her love for Riccardo from her husband, the guests at the masked ball to enjoy playing with beautiful appearances.

Un ballo in maschera

A young woman is given a job as a governess at a country house, Bly, where she will be looking after two orphan children, Flora and Miles. She has been hired by the children’s uncle and guardian, who doesn’t want to be bothered by anything and who makes the young woman swear to absolute secrecy about the goings-on at his estate. Mysterious things do indeed start to happen at the house, including strange behaviour by the children. She also finds something inscrutable about the housekeeper Mrs Grose, who has apparently spent half her life at Bly. Later, the governess believes she sees hazy apparitions of a man and a woman gliding through the rooms of the house, and she identifies them as the spirits of former employees Peter Quint and Miss Jessel. Demonic forces appear to be running rampant and plaguing the characters. At the end, one thing is certain: one of the characters lies dead. Everything else remains unanswered …

The Turn of the Screw

Few operas have more to say about remaining true (to yourself) in matters of art and love than Ariadne auf Naxos: should you cling to the one you love unconditionally, or remain open to new loves?

Ariadne auf Naxos

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

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.

Die schweigsame Frau

Unter den Linden & Bebelplatz

He commands a world empire and yet he is deeply unsettled. Philip II of Spain not only fears losing command but also feels betrayed and deserted by his wife Elizabeth von Valois: she and his son Carlo are in love. Over all this hangs the threatening shadow of the Inquisition. In vain, King Philip seeks trust in a hostile world.

Don Carlo

With the world premiere of Pelléas et Mélisande in 1902, Claude Debussy challenged his contemporaries to listen to music in a new way. His instrumentation was without precedent. He transposed the Wagnerian leitmotif technique into a subtle tone painting and described atmospheres and dispositions of the soul that elude description and that even music is often only able to gesture towards.

Pelléas et Mélisande

In the summer of 1782, in his twenties, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart celebrated his greatest opera success yet. With Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio), he composed an enormously significant, pioneering work for the Deutsches Nationalsingspiel that had been founded by the Habsburg emperor Joseph II in Vienna, with inspired music and impressively rendered characters.

Die Entführung aus dem Serail

Hostility, hatred and religious wars, power, helplessness and desire: in the Hebrew struggle for freedom, Samson, as God’s chosen one, rebukes the hostile Philistines. Samson seems invincible until his love for the Philistine Dalila exposes him. She finds out the secret of his extraordinary strength. The loss of his identity is at stake, and a race against time begins.

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