The Deutsche Oper am Rhein's 2024/25 season offers a rich tapestry of performances ranging from opera to ballet, featuring compelling stories and remarkable artists. Key highlights include Alexander von Zemlinsky's poignant 'Der Kreidekreis', the whimsical 'Holle!', and the beloved 'La traviata' by Giuseppe Verdi. The season also showcases vibrant ballet performances and engaging open classes for dance enthusiasts. Each production is set to captivate audiences with its unique narrative and artistic flair, promising a mesmerizing experience at the heart of Düsseldorf's cultural scene.

A Tapestry of Emotion and Art: The Deutsche Oper am Rhein's 2024/25 Season Highlights

Every year in December, the anticipation grows for
a celebration where you can get together with family and friends
get together and enjoy something special.
something special. Our early Christmas present goes to our most loyal supporters: the members of the Friends of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.

Weih­nach­ten mit Freun­den

German Oper am Rhein

When orphan boy Krabat enters the mill in Koselbruch for the first time, he has no idea what secrets are guarded here by the mysterious master miller. The twelve apprentices stacking sacks of flour under the creaking beams are not only taught earthly craftsmanship, but also the art of black magic. Krabat quickly makes friends here, but something seems odd: year after year, one of the mill workers mysteriously dies. The power of the master, who has devoted himself to evil forces, takes its toll in order not to be weakened

Krabat

A dance performance without an audience. Is that possible? Only if the audience themselves become actors! In "Inside Out" you experience a choreography by dancing along with dancers from the Ballett am Rhein. Each participant will be given headphones through which tasks for joining in will be played. No previous dance experience required.

Inside Out

Of course, it's much more fun to play than to help with the housework! Hansel and Gretel know that too. It's just a shame that they smash the milk churn during their boisterous game and there goes their dinner. What should the destitute family put on the table now? The mother scolds her children and sends them into the forest to look for berries. What begins as an adventure quickly turns serious at dusk, however: the siblings get lost and soon fall into the clutches of the evil witch. Now they have to summon up all their courage and ingenuity to free themselves.

Hänsel und Gretel

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!" for the third time, when Jake Muffett and other members of our
and other members of our ensemble will entertain you with relaxed arrangements of popular American Christmas classics from "White Christmas" to "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" to give you a pre-Christmas treat. With elegant understatement, a jazz band consisting of piano, clarinet, saxophone, drums and double bass will accompany you on a musical sleigh ride through "Winter Wonderland".

Swinging Christmas

Count Almaviva is walking on suitors' feet. He would like to win the heart of the self-confident Rosina if there wasn't one problem: her money-hungry guardian Dr Bartolo has his own plans to marry his wealthy protégé and locks Rosina up. Good advice is expensive and Figaro, the enterprising barber of Seville, is happy to pay for it in hard cash. Figaro uses ludicrous schemes to trick the lovers through all the entanglements into marital bliss. Rossini's turbulent endurance race to the dream wedding is a true opera classic, also thanks to the famous "Figaro" aria.

Il barbiere di Siviglia

Under the guidance of qualified and experienced instructors, participants get the chance to get to know different dance styles and to try out dance and creativity. Whether with or without previous experience, all are welcome to discover the different possibilities of their individual bodies together in a safe space.

Mixed-abled dance classes

It is the largest charity event of its kind organised by the German Red Cross in Germany: the festive opera gala of the Duisburg Red Cross has been a highlight of the city's social life for years and is well-known and popular far beyond its borders.

DRK-Gala

CityPalais

Two peoples find themselves in the barbaric grip of war after Nabucco and his troops attack Jerusalem. The Babylonian ruler and Zaccaria, the leader of the Hebrews, do not budge an inch from their opposing viewpoints in this profound conflict, while the daily grind of war continues to bring new suffering to both peoples. The seemingly hopeless conflict does not even stop at their own families: Zaccaria holds Nabucco's favorite daughter Fenena hostage, while she has long since changed sides out of love for Ismaele and lives among the enemy people. Nabucco's other daughter, Abigaille, envies her sister's happiness and her father's throne and forges disastrous plans...

Na­buc­co

Climb into the UFO cave... and off you go on a journey of sound exploration! Here, the drops of water beat to the rhythm. Your own footsteps drum here. And sometimes you can hear what you have just shouted back into the darkness. But don't worry, because you're not alone: with a singer and to the sounds of drums and harp, you'll uncover the secrets of the cave and make some surprising discoveries...

Tiefen­geflüster

“Edgardo, I am yours!”, proclaims Lucia di Lammermoor – beautiful, mad and deeply in love – but this is wishful thinking, thinking with which she is determined to defy reality. Constrained by plotting, power struggles and a family feud, she has married Arturo – in Edgardo’s absence and against her own will. Caught in infinite pain she fantasises, straying every further from reality as she does so: her belief in a happy future with her beloved keeps her image of the world intact while death approaches, driven on by worry and desperation.

Lucia di Lammer­moor

When Eugene Onegin enters Tatyana's orderly life, he appears to her like a character from her novels. The young, inexperienced woman falls head over heels in love with the urbane bon vivant. But he rejects her affection - his restless lifestyle is not suitable for a long-term relationship. Years later, the two meet again: the mature Tatyana has entered into a marriage of convenience with the much older Prince Gremin and has become a wealthy woman. Onegin is shocked to realise that Tatyana would have been the right one for him after all. But now she is the one who rejects his passionate confessions...

Eugen Onegin

King Krax is tired of ruling the land of Abholzhausen. There are too many crises to deal with: Climate change, pandemics, inflation, wars. His cunning chief inventor, Megapfiffikuss, has persuaded the king that he can escape his worries by travelling into space. Lunatick, the king's daughter, is supposed to take care of the problems. However, she has no intention of taking on her father's frustrating tasks and flies off with him into space instead. The destination of their journey is the mysterious Planet 9, which, to everyone's surprise, is already inhabited by the extraterrestrial Ninurians...

Die Reise zu Planet 9

The new ballet director and company of the Ballett am Rhein are presenting their first new production in Duisburg with “Ruß”. At the “Ballet Workshop Extra”, we invite you to immerse yourself in the world of ballet: The program includes a mixture of hands-on activities from “Tanz mit”, the classic panel discussion, in which an insight into the production “Ruß” is provided, as well as exclusive rehearsal insights into the new ballet evening. Meet the new director of Ballett am Rhein and look forward to experiencing the company's dancers up close!

Ruẞ

In our Lied Matinees, ensemble members and pianists in the foyer of Opernhaus Düsseldorf dedicate themselves to the exciting diversity of international Lied art.

“Light and shadow of the north” flow through this song matinee, performed by Finnish ensemble members Jussi Myllys and Sami Luttinen. Accompanied by pianist Ilmo Ranta, they interpret late romantic songs by their compatriot Jean Sibelius and the Norwegian Edward Grieg, among others, as well as expressive modern works by contemporary Finnish composers such as Aarre Merikanto (1893-1958) and Mikko Heiniö (*1948)./

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Liedmatinee

Opernhaus Düsseldorf

Tradition is meant to be turned upside down - that's how the three daughters of the milkman Tevje see it. They prefer to take their personal happiness into their own hands rather than rely on the expertise of the matchmaker Yente. In doing so, the daughters drive their father to despair, for their blithe forging of their own happiness upsets his view of the world; a world in which not only the laws of the family are called into question, but the entire existence in the shtetl is so threatened that flight and exile become a reality. Jerry Bock contrasts the melancholy and sadness of lostness with life-affirming verve and colourful exuberance - and thus gives space to all the longing and hope of village society.

Anatevka

Theater Duisburg

Led by highly trained dance teachers, Open Class I offers anyone interested the opportunity to take part in ballet training suitable for beginners.
The Open Class I is aimed both at people with previous knowledge who want to further develop their ballet technique and at people without previous knowledge who want to try out their first ballet steps.

Open Class I: Beginners

When it's cold outside and smells of gingerbread, the most cozy time of the year begins: the Christmas season. But do you still know the words to the most popular Christmas carols? After all, it's been a whole year since they were last sung.

Alle Jahre wieder

Theatre, theatre everywhere! During rehearsals for the highly tragic period piece ‘Romulus and Ersilia’, everything somehow goes wrong: the prima donna doesn't feel well, the trouser role doesn't like itself and the tenor finally wants to play first violin.
And to make matters worse, Mamma Agata, the second soprano's weird helicopter mother, bursts in...

Prima la Mamma!

Led by our team of ballet masters who supervise the company's daily training, Open Class II offers anyone interested the opportunity to take part in professional ballet training. Enthusiastic amateur dancers with previous knowledge or professional dancers can try out and develop their dancing skills here.

Open Class II: Interme­diate / Advanced

With three impressive signatures, Ballett am Rhein starts the 2024/25 season and lays the foundation for a diverse, virtuoso and technically challenging ballet programme under the new ballet direction. The programme begins with "Four Schumann Pieces", one of the few works by Hans van Manen not yet shown in Düsseldorf / Duisburg.

Signa­turen

Violetta Valéry is beautiful, clever, warm-hearted - and terminally ill. Her life as a noble courtesan is preordained. There is no room for private happiness, not even for her love for the young Alfredo Germont, who conquers her heart and wants to save her from the vicious circle of venal love into a carefree private sphere. There she meets her doom in the shape of Alfredo's father Giorgio Germont....

La travi­ata

What do we see when we watch dance and how would we describe it? Is that even possible? If I tell you what I’ve seen, would you see the same thing in your mind’s eye – or something else entirely? What do we communicate through dance?

Leich­ter ge­tanzt als ge­sagt

Mrs. Holle is slowly outgrowing the daily routine of making the weather: snow flurries or flower meadow weather? Well, if it wasn't all so much work! And once the decision has been made, people keep nagging: it rains too much on vacation, too little in the garden at home, it's too warm for one person, too cold for another... The eccentric weatherwoman decides to simply go on vacation and leave the weather-making to others. But they have no knowledge at all - and soon the weather is in complete disarray...

Holle!

A chalk circle, a child in the centre. Each child's arm is pulled by a woman who claims to be the mother. "The right mother will have the right strength," says Prince Pao - it will be the one who lets go of her child so as not to tear it apart. By the time Haitang is able to hold her child in her arms again, she has an odyssey of injustice under her belt. Abandoned, sold, mistreated, slandered and convicted of murder, it is nothing short of a miracle that justice unexpectedly receives strong intercession here.

Der Kreidekreis

In Düsseldorf soll ein neues Opernhaus gebaut werden. Der Rat der Landeshauptstadt hat im Juni 2023 beschlossen, den Neubau an der Heinrich-Heine-Allee auf dem Standort des alten Opernhauses zu errichten. Die Ausschreibung für einen internationalen Architekturwettbewerb wird derzeit erarbeitet.

Forum Opern­haus der Zu­kunft

Museum Kunstpalast

In the pale light of a candle, the poet Hoffmann revisits the unhappy loves of his past in his mind's eye: The docile Olympia, who turns out to be an automaton. The gloomy Antonia, who is carried off by her own singing due to a mysterious illness. And finally, the passionate courtesan Giulietta, who steals Hoffmann's reflection on behalf of the sinister Dapertutto and even tempts him to commit murder...

Hoffmanns Erzählungen

Join us for a captivating performance of Mozart's beloved opera, "Die Entführung aus dem Serail," featuring the talented soprano Louise Fribo in the role of Blonde. This enchanting opera, set in the beautiful Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, Germany, promises to be a musical journey that will transport you to another world.

Die Entführung aus dem Serail

Into the year 2025! It's vibrating , it's sparkling and the champagne corks are popping: let the year come to a musical close with us. Our singers and the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker will set off acoustic fireworks at the big New Year's Eve concert at Düsseldorf Opera House, creating a witty and amusing last evening of the year with great opera music that invites you to indulge. Prepare to be surprised!

Grand New Year's Eve concert

At regular intervals through the season, we want to open the doors of the ballet house and give all those interested the chance to gain some insights into our work. What does the daily routine look like in the heart, the nucleus of the Ballett am Rhein? Everyone is invited to come and see for themselves.

Insights

The core programme of the opera studio includes scenic workshops, regular musical coaching, repertoire development, ensemble rehearsals, role studies, language courses and audition training. At the same time, the young singers are integrated into the rehearsal and performance process from the very beginning and can thus also benefit from regular collaboration with the ensemble and international guests.

Master­classes

George Balanchine's choreography "Rubies" embodies the essence of this blood-red gem: sharp-edged, energetic and full of fire, the dancers whirl across the stage to Stravinsky's Capriccio for piano and orchestra. Balanchine skilfully combines a firework of complex jumps and pointe dancing with jazz dance steps as seen on the stages of New York's Broadway. Kaleidoscope images in scarlet celebrating the energetic power of dance.

Drei Meis­ter – Drei Wer­ke

With the sadistic police chief Scarpia, Giacomo Puccini enriched opera literature with one of its most abysmal characters.
The painter Cavaradossi falls into his clutches when he helps a political prisoner to escape.
But for Scarpia, Cavaradossi is just a decoy through which he can finally win the celebrated singer Tosca.

Tosca

The "Flying Dutchman" is different from the men who populate Senta's provincial world. An outsider like them, he is also shrouded in a dark doom. The Dutchman once cursed God; as punishment, he must sail the oceans in his ghost ship until a loving woman redeems him from his curse. Senta is destined to turn the legendary sailor's fate around... Director Vasily Barkhatov tells the story of Senta's quest for romantic self-assertion with cinematic intensity.

Der flie­gen­de Hol­län­der

In the stylish ambience of the Düsseldorf opera foyer, members of the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra explore well-known and unknown masterpieces of chamber music together with singers from the opera ensemble.

Symphoniker im Foyer

Cenerentola is poor: the ill will of her stepfamily makes her life difficult. But unlike in fairy tales, her transformation from Cinderella to a beautiful lady whom Prince Ramiro chooses as his wife is part of a turbulent comedy in which wit and disguise play a major role. For the prince also disguises himself in his search for a bride in order to win over the lady of his heart without being recognised. "La Cenerentola" is considered a masterpiece in the field of opera buffa, and to this day its scenic elegance and humour shine in splendid beauty, carried by spiritedly dazzling music

La Cenerentola

In 1900, three keepers disappear without a trace from a remote lighthouse in the north of Scotland. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies based his chamber opera "The Lighthouse" (1980) on this unresolved incident, which retraces the events in a mixture of documentation and vision of what actually happened at the time. Maxwell Davies' composition ranges from the roaring waves surrounding the lighthouse to the chant-like arguments between the three keepers Sandy, Blazes and Arthur that lead to the catastrophe.

Der Leuchtturm / Dido und Aeneas

This season, the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein has arranged to meet in style three times for exciting dates with strong musicians from the region at the stage bar: Klezmer, jazz and drag in musical dialog with aria, song and Lied! A musical rendezvous with a chat about music and the world, before perhaps even jumping into the crossover box while making music together.

Rendezvous um halb 8

Let's talk about music! Vitali Alekseenok, the new chief conductor of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, will take you by the hand, or rather by the ears, and lead you into masterful opera scores and exciting musical (operatic) worlds with stories, explanations and audio examples on the piano. This season, these are Dmitri Shostakovich's “Lady Macbeth von Mzensk” and “Das Rheingold” by Richard Wagner.

Focus on music

After the success of "The Golden Age of Broadway" and "The Golden Age of Swing", rhythms and great emotions are the trump cards when we now embark on a journey into Latin American and Andalusian music from "Granada" to "Besame Mucho"!

The Golden Age of Latin

Katerina Ismailova is wealthily married and lonely, her husband impotent and her father-in-law a tyrant. She is trapped in a world where merciless brutality, despotism and cruelty reign. The woman with a lust for life and love gives way to her raw longing for freedom when Sergei starts working for the Ismailov family. She throws herself into a passionate affair with him and poisons her father-in-law's food. But the increasing radicalism of her desire for self-determination will claim further victims ...

Lady Macbeth von Mzensk

In the "Ballet up close" format, young people and adults can become active themselves and get to grips with pieces from the repertoire through dance. After attending a rehearsal, the guests have the opportunity to discover ideas from the repertoire with their own bodies. They learn improvisation techniques as well as sequences from the choreography and thus gain an insight into the process of creating a ballet evening.

Ballet up close

Only he who renounces love will be able to steal the powerful gold from the Rhine and fashion it into a ring that will enable him to rule the world. Alberich takes the risk: when the Rhine maidens scornfully reject his advances the humiliated dwarf promptly decides to swap love for power. By cursing love, he opens the gateway to a fate that will also afflict the ruler of the gods Wotan, when the lavish construction of his fortress Valhalla places him in financial distress. In this prologue to ‘Ring des Nibelungen’ Richard Wagner crafts the main themes of his four-part opera cycle – the impossibility of reconciling love with possessiveness – into a boldly plotted critique of 19th century capitalism.

Das Rheingold

A change of perspective, away from the opera house: in the facilities of the Central Library in KAP 1, we look at our opera and ballet premieres from a different angle. We question and challenge motifs and get to the bottom of the themes of our pieces. We have invited various knowledgeable guests to join us, and of course there will also be musical contributions.

Changing perspective

Düsseldorf city libraries

The choreographer duo Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich develop their own physical language for each creation, which arises from intuition in conjunction with the dancers and the interplay of stage elements and light, inspired by the symmetries in the music of Philip Glass.

Kalei­dos­ko

An extraordinary evening in the spirit of charity with top-class artists on stage and illustrious names in the audience: for the 15th time, Deutsche Oper am Rhein and the German AIDS Foundation invite you to the gala at Düsseldorf Opera House. International opera stars and award-winning singers from the Deutsche Oper am Rhein ensemble will perform at the gala together with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra. All artists waive their fees so that the net proceeds can go to aid projects of the German AIDS Foundation in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia and for affected children and young people in Ukraine and southern Africa. By purchasing your ticket and making a donation, you are actively supporting this important aid for people with HIV/AIDS.

AIDS-Gala

Don Giovanni: Is he the legendary rake, womanizer and heartbreaker who does not shy away from murder in his pursuit of erotic conquests? Or is he a radical free spirit whose urge for freedom shatters all norms and spares neither death nor punishment?

Don Giovanni

Her daughter needs a prince, the Queen of the Night claims, in order to persuade Tamino to free Pamina from the clutches of the alleged scoundrel Sarastro. And so Tamino sets out together with the bird catcher Papageno to become a hero. But many surprises await him on his adventurous rescue mission...

Die Zauber­flöte

Tell me, Pinocchio, what are you saying? You've seen people turn into donkeys? You sat in the belly of a shark? And you've met the blue fairy, who is the very best anyway? You're teasing us! Don't you know that lies have short legs? Uh... Pinocchio, wait a minute! That can't be true! You made up all these stories!

Pinocchio

A deliberate misinterpretation seals Beatrice di Tenda's miserable fate: an intimate conversation with Orombello comes at just the right time for her heartless and unfaithful husband Filippo. Because he does not love his Beatrice and wants to get rid of her as quickly as possible, the Duke of Milan puts all his eggs in one basket - and demands her death for the adultery that did not take place.

Beatrice di Tenda

Sergeant Don José's world is turned upside down when he meets the seductive Carmen: Entranced by her passion, he falls head over heels in love with the fascinating woman. As quickly as he leaves his fiancée Micaëla, he also forgets his righteous duty as a soldier and moves into the mountains of Spain with Carmen's band of smugglers. But his new-found happiness is short-lived, as Carmen's heart soon belongs to the bullfighter Escamillo. Don José is seized by senseless jealousy and swears revenge...

Carmen

To mark the 150th anniversary of Maurice Ravel's birth, we are celebrating his anniversary with the creation of four choreographies of very different styles to four of his most famous compositions.

Soirée Ravel

The mermaid Rusalka loves the prince - a human! She wants to risk everything, the loss of her family and her home, to become a human woman. Transformed by the witch Ježibaba, she must face the prince in silence, telling him of her love only through her looks and gestures. If the prince does not fall in love with her, he must die and she must live as an outcast from then on. Rusalka's appearance initially beguiles the prince, but the magical, voiceless creature remains a foreign body in the human world, and eventually her lover turns his back on her...

Rusalka

The general Otello has achieved everything an ambitious upstart like him could dream of: Respected as the successful commander of the Venetian fleet and loved by his beautiful wife Desdemona, fate seems to have favored him. But one man senses the self-destructive jealousy smouldering behind the façade of the successful man: Jago. Ever since Otello's ensign was passed over for a promotion, he has been driving his superior's downfall with a coolly calculated destructive fury, cleverly feeding Otello's doubts about Desdemona's fidelity...

Otello

At the end of the first season under new management, the Ballett am Rhein invites you to a grand ballet gala with international guests. From classical to modern, we celebrate the beauty of ballet dance with its diversity of expression, highest technical standards and rousing music. Let yourself be enchanted and inspired by short, varied excerpts from works by well-known and newly discovered choreographers!

Deutsche Oper am Rhein

Dec 2, 2024 - Jun 19, 2025

Ruẞ

4 - 22 Dec, 2024

Die Reise zu Planet 9

Dec 13, 2024 - Jan 19, 2025

Hänsel und Gretel

Dec 18, 2024 - Jan 4, 2025

Krabat

6 - 25 Dec, 2024

Nabucco

Dec 19, 2024

Weihnachten mit Freunden

Dec 18, 2024 - Jan 4, 2025

Krabat

Articles & News

Deutsche Oper am Rhein

Deutsche Oper am Rhein

Dec 2, 2024 - Jun 19, 2025

Ruẞ

4 - 22 Dec, 2024

Die Reise zu Planet 9

Dec 13, 2024 - Jan 19, 2025

Hänsel und Gretel

Dec 18, 2024 - Jan 4, 2025

Krabat

6 - 25 Dec, 2024

Na­buc­co

Dec 19, 2024

Weih­nach­ten mit Freun­den

Dec 18, 2024 - Jan 4, 2025

Krabat

Articles & News

Deutsche Oper am Rhein

Nabucco

Weihnachten mit Freunden