The Bayerische Staatsoper is set to enthrall audiences with a captivating array of events, blending the rich tapestry of musical and theatrical art forms. From orchestral tours to rare operatic performances, and from romantic ballets to insightful tours and discussions, this season promises an enriching experience for all art enthusiasts. Highlights include the mesmerizing 'Lady Magnesia', the classic ballet 'La Sylphide', and the heart-wrenching 'Káťa Kabanová'. Dive into a world of artistic excellence and cultural heritage as the Bayerische Staatsoper unveils its meticulously curated lineup.

Exploring the Artistic Wonders of Bayerische Staatsoper's Upcoming Season

Dive into the rich tapestry of events hosted by the Bayerische Staatsoper, where city exploration meets musical brilliance. From ballet classics to insightful opera tours, each event offers a unique glimpse into the vibrant world of performing arts. Join us as we explore the prominent events and artists that shape this cultural odyssey, offering fresh perspectives on art and history.

Exploring the Bayerische Staatsoper: A Journey Through Artful Performances

The Bayerische Staatsoper presents a dazzling lineup of events, each with its unique artistic flair, from city exploration blended with musical life to captivating operatic performances. As we dive into the world of ballet, opera, and cultural dialogues, this season promises to enthrall audiences with both tradition and innovation. Let's explore the highlights, including the poignant 'La Sylphide', the engaging 'Unter 6 Augen', and the iconic 'Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci', among others, creating an unforgettable artistic journey.

Unveiling the Artistry at Bayerische Staatsoper: A Journey Through Events and Performances

The Bayerische Staatsoper's 2024-2025 season is a vibrant tapestry of artistry and storytelling, unfolding across a series of captivating events. From the timeless elegance of 'La Sylphide' to the poignant drama of 'Káťa Kabanová', and the introspective dialogues in 'Unter 6 Augen', this season promises to enchant audiences with its blend of tradition and modernity. As the curtain rises, immerse yourself in an exceptional blend of ballet, opera, and cultural exploration, each event offering a unique experience that transcends time and geographical boundaries.

Unveiling the Bayerische Staatsoper's 2024-2025 Season: A Journey Through History, Innovation, and Emotion

In Leoš Janáček’s opera, Kát’a Kabanová, the eponymous heroine is ensnared at the heart of an ominous mesh of relations. Her domineering mother-in-law, Kabanicha, oppresses and controls her son Tichon, whose marriage to Kát’a suffers massively from heteronomy. Because Kát’a finds no fulfilment in this family, she flees and fulfils her unsatisfied erotic desires in an affair with Boris. As composer and librettist, Janáček bundles the plot of the literary template, Alexander N. Ostrovsky’s drama, The Storm. The libretto largely dispenses with the portrayal of the external social circumstances, from whence Kát’a’s essence and choices are decisively determined. Instead, Janáček traces the development of the title character in a psychological-sensitive musical language. Kát’a’s feelings of guilt increase continuously until they discharge into a public confession as an emotional storm. The turbulent and in places fanciful music opens the space for passages of lyrical grace and allows us to experience the essence of the characters. In Kát’a, director Krzysztof Warlikowski sees an outsider, who is denied a life in harmony with her desires, and at the end prefers death over lies. The destructive power of religion behind it all is not only found in a small Russian town on the banks of the Volga in the 1860s, where the libretto places the plot, but rather can also be seen everywhere all over the world.

Káťa Kabanová

Max-Joseph-Platz

Danae must marry a wealthy man to settle her father's debts. All dream of gold here, and Danae more than all others. A powerful man takes an interest in her and sends another ahead. It would appear the right husband has been found. But, of course his wealth comes with a condition which stands in the way of true happiness. Danae must, Danae can choose between wealth and love, between dreams and reality, between the promises of wealth and riches, and of love and all its happiness. 

The Love of Danae

La Fille du régiment, or the “regiment’s daughter”, is what they call the young Marie, who was found when just a child on the battlefield by soldiers. The troops commit to raising the evidently abandoned girl themselves. A young man of course must soon enter the scene and stir a special interest in her, and the secret of her origins will soon also be revealed. In the best tradition of French opéra comique, with his team of librettists, Gaetano Donizetti created a piece that in a truly original way combines Alpine idyll, patriotic enthusiasm and romantic love with comic situations and heightened conflicts. While Donizetti’s piece was at times extremely popular, the “regiment’s daughter” faded from favour somewhat in the 20th century. It can now be rediscovered, from the famous overture right through to the both amusing and cryptic music, in its first new production at the Bayerische Staatsoper in almost ninety years

La Fille du régiment

Dr. Arnold und Emma Bahlmann, DIBAG Industriebau AG, Rolf und Caroli Dienst, Vera und Volker Doppelfeld-Stiftung, Dr. Dierk und Veronika Ernst, Monika und Karl Ertl, Christa Fassbender, Dr. Joachim Feldges, Freunde des Nationaltheaters e.V., Dietlinde und Carl-Peter Forster, Oliver und Claudia Götz, Regina Hesselberger, Stefan und Maria Holzhey, Dirk und Marlene Ippen, Christine und Marco Janezic, Dr. Hans-Dieter Koch und Silvie Katalin Varga, Christof Lamberts, LfA Förderbank Bayern, Christiane Link, The Opera Foundation, A+Olivia Rogowski, Schwarz Foundation, Dr. Martin Steinmeyer, Georg und Swantje von Werz, Oliver und Kaori Zipse

Aria evening of the opera studio

Aschaffenburg

Blaibach

Cuvilliéstheater

Mertingen

Wie wird in der Oper das unterschiedliche Licht erzeugt? Wer sagt den Sänger:innen den Text ein? - Die „Abenteuer Oper“-Führung beantwortet diese Fragen und soll die Kinder vor allem auf die Welt der Oper und den riesigen Betrieb, der dahinter steckt, neugierig machen: angefangen von der interessanten Geschichte des Hauses bis hin zu den Räumlichkeiten wie der Königsloge, dem Zuschauerraum und dem Bühnenbereich

Kinderführung „Abenteuer Oper"

Alfons-Goppel-Straße

La Sylphide is considered the romantic ballet classic par excellence. This two-act work by Filippo Taglioni, in which the dancers embodied the illusion of weightlessness as aerial spirits, not only marked the breakthrough of pointe dance in the 1830s; together with the white tutus of the ghostly creatures, an image of this art form was created that still symbolises classical dance today. In 1972, Pierre Lacotte, who died in 2023, staged his reconstruction of the work at the Paris Opera. In order to come as close as possible to the traditional Romantic ideals and the style of Filippo Taglioni, Lacotte studied historical images and records intensively. Lacotte's version differs from August Bournonville's version, in that it is characterised by a movement language influenced by the French school. In addition, Lacotte's version is musically based on the original score by Jean-Madeleine Schneitzhoeffer.

La Sylphide

„Was Sie schon immer über unsere Oper wissen wollten…“ – frei nach diesem Motto werden sich in dieser neuen Reihe jeweils zwei Persönlichkeiten aus dem „Kosmos Staatsoper“ zu einem Gespräch in der Rheingoldbar treffen. Die Moderatorin Teresa Vogl wird dabei die Gesprächsführung übernehmen.

Unter 6 Augen

Rheingold bar-bistro

Es war eine kleine Sensation. Im Februar 2024 wurde in den Themenkonzerten – vorbereitend auf die Neuinszenierung von Mieczysław Weinbergs Oper Die Passagierin – eine andere, äußerst selten gespielte Oper dieses Komponisten aufgeführt: seine schwarze Komödie Lady Magnesia, pointiert in Szene gesetzt von Theresa Maria Schlichtherle in der Firmenzentrale von Brainlab. Die eigentlich als einmalige Vorstellung geplante Produktion fand beim Publikum so großen Anklang, dass sie nun weitere drei Mal auf dem Spielplan erscheint.

Lady Magnesia

Brainlab

In unregelmäßigen Abständen gibt es in der Bayerischen Staatsoper die Möglichkeit, selbst auf einer kleinen Bühne zu stehen.

Wenn du Musik machst, alleine oder in einer Band, tanzt, singst oder Texte schreibst, bist du bei uns richtig. Es gibt für alle, die mitmachen möchten, kostenloses Coaching im Vorfeld (Stimme, Bewegung, Bühnenpräsenz – was auch immer du brauchst). 

Open Stage

Freunde-Foyer

Eine Führung durch das Nationaltheater gibt Ihnen die Möglichkeit, die Oper von einer neuen Seite zu entdecken. Sie vermittelt Wissenswertes über die verschiedenen Abläufe im Haus und über den Aufwand, der erbracht werden muss, bevor es am Abend heißen kann: „Vorhang auf!“ Sie erfahren interessante Informationen über die Architektur des Hauses und die Persönlichkeiten, die die über 350-jährige Geschichte der Bayerischen Staatsoper geprägt haben. Der Rundgang beinhaltet unter anderem die Besichtigung des Königssaals, der Ionischen Säle, des Zuschauer:innensaals sowie, nach Verfügbarkeit, des Bühnenbereichs.

Führung

Führungen Oper

Following a tradition long years in existence, with the Academy Concerts the members of the  Bayerisches Staatsorchester present themselves to their audience as soloists. It is now Emanuel Graf’s turn, who since 2015 has been performing here as 1st principal cellist, both in the orchestra pit and in numerous chamber concerts. On the stage of the Nationaltheater, he will now interpret Antonín Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, one of the essential solo pieces for this instrument, about which Johannes Brahms is said to have said: “Why didn’t I know that one can write a cello concerto like this? If I had known, I would have written one a long time ago!” Krzysztof Urbański conducts the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. He made his debut with the Munich Academy Concerts in turbulent times. The second 2020/2021 Academy Concert was converted at short notice into a “Montagsstück”, and therefore performed and enjoyed as a live stream, because of the repeatedly increased pandemic- related protective measures introduced at the time. The young Polish conductor now returns to the Nationaltheater’s podium and brings us a truly virtuoso piece, whose elementary force is still as overwhelming is it has always been. Stravinsky’s ballet, Le sacre du printemps, or “The Rite of Spring”, was the scandal of the day when it celebrated its world premiere.

2. Academy Concert: Krzysztof Urbański

An individual combination of city exploration and musical life.

Tour of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester

Tageskasse der Bayerischen Staatsoper

All peace is followed by war, behind all happiness awaits disaster. Tragedy also shares this universal view, and in his grand opera “Les Troyens”, Hector Berlioz presents it in the face of two women: Cassandra and Dido lose their personal happiness, as it has no place in the struggle between the peoples and heroes, and ultimately lose their life. In the first part of “The Trojans” the seeress Cassandra proclaims the fall of Troy. Being the only one to do so, none believe her. With her entire people, she falls victim to the Greeks’ stratagem. In the second part, Berlioz puts Dido, Queen of Carthage, at the centre of the piece. Her love for the Trojan hero Aeneas turns to hate when he leaves her to found a new Troy.  Berlioz wrote the libretto loosely based on Vergil’s Aeneid. He went his own way with the music, which was never performed in its entirety while the composer lived, to produce grand opéra, spectacular choirs and ballets, along with new form experiments. Les Troyens remains a challenge for musical theatre to this day, and is indeed one of the monumental conceptual pieces of the previous century.

EPSG:4326

Les Troyens

Nationaltheater

A poet has published a poem about a lonesome hunter, who he recently saw in the mountains. Josuke Misugi, who has recognised himself as the mountain hunter, subsequently contacts him. He sends the poet three letters, in which three women that are important for him tell of the long relationship he had with his sister-in-law, Saiko. A relationship of which nobody but they knew, or at least they thought so. Now we learn, however, that his wife Midori has long since known, and in her letter tells of the consequences. In her farewell letter, Saiko herself struggles with her long years of guilty conscience. And Shoko, Saiko’s daughter, also never wants to see her uncle again, as she has learnt of their secret from her mother’s diary. A man between two women – five views of the same facts. Yasushi Inoue’s 1949 novel could be set anywhere, and at any time. Modern people plot against each other, four lives turn out to be lies. At the end, one person is dead, and a successful businessman has become a lonely hunter in the mountains. For this chamber opera, which celebrated its world premiere at the Bregenz Festival in 2018, Austrian composer Thomas Larcher has been developing his sounds from the germ cells of music – a rhythm, an interval, a scale and singing, sometimes almost entirely silent, sometimes exploring the limits of the human voice.

Das Jagdgewehr

Munich Residence

The somnambulistic piece Matsukaze, a reworking of theJapanese Nō theatre material of the Master Zeami from the 15th century, recounts the unhappy love of two sisters, the salt water maidens, Matsukaze and Murasame, for the courtier, Yukihira. When he must leave one day, he promises them he will return, for his longing will call him back. But, he dies. The two sisters are left imprisoned by their yearning, become ghosts, return to the living again and again. Only a monk can help them out of their entrapment. Hosokawa’s composition transforms nature moods into tender, loving sounds, plays with silence, traces the passage of time and non-passage of intimate feelings, madness, the relationship between past, present and future, between the fundamental connection of human existence and nature. The world premiere was celebrated in 2011 at the Opéra La Monnaie in Brussels. For the Bayerische Staatsoper production, the director duo Lotte van den Berg and Tobias Staab will now collaborate for the first time with the visual, internationally active artist, Alicja Kwade.

Matsukaze

Utopia

“The artist is a man, and he must write for men. … and you will see true hatred and its bitter fruit.” In the Pagliacci prologue, Tonio tells us what this opera is about – it seeks to put the reality of life on the stage. This applies for both works, which will now enjoy their first new staging at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 46 years (1978). Together Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo simply exemplify verismo. The basic situation: A woman is unfaithful. Another reveals this to the husband, and he, spurred on by this woman, takes bloody revenge on the lover. Cavalleria rusticana is about Turiddu, who returns to find his old flame Lola again, but she is now married to the carter, Alfio. Turiddu then consoles himself by seducing Santuzza. But the old love is reignited, and Lola betrays her husband, and Turiddu his girlfriend. In Pagliacci, the plot revolves around Nedda and her husband Canio, the leader of a group of comedians. Nedda’s love for him has grown cold, so she turns to the farmer, Silvio. 

Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci

“Chi è morto, voi o il vecchio?,” jokes the servant Leporello cryptically, after Don Giovanni has murdered “Il Commendatore”. The story of the “punished debauchee” has long since been the stuff of myth. Don Giovanni plays out in a field of tension between heaven and hell, as opposites collide in this dramma giocoso, set among amorous desires and the fall of angels. In this kaleidoscope of situations and characters, there is an absolute absence of clarity, evident alone in the fact that each of these characters lies – either to each other or to themselves. The timeless comedy motifs of role and dress change assume an oppressive ambiguity here. The master of transformation Don Giovanni, this polyerotic hedonist, is hard to fathom. In endless metamorphoses, he appears just as suddenly as he then immediately disappears again. The other characters know – they need him, as a mirror of themselves. And so for Leporello it becomes clear after his master’s death that Don Giovanni leads an eternal life and will affect ours again and again. This Don Giovanni now completes the Da Ponte cycle. “Faust” winner David Hermann stages at the Bayerische Staatsoper for the first time. General Music Director Vladimir Jurowski conducts the piece, in which Mozart threw open the doors to a new world, from which there can be no return.

Don Giovanni

2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Gabriel Fauré. In his day, he was a highly estimated composer of Kunstlieder (art songs) and chamber music, as well as being the Director of the Conservatoire de Paris. His works can now be found in larger instrumentation arrangements on international programmes, and his Requiem in particular. His only opera, Pénélope, will now be performed for the first time at the Bayerische Staatsoper. The plot follows the final chants from Homer’s Odyssey, now a proverb as the eponymous hero’s years of wandering to reach his homeland, Ithaca, after the Trojan War. The opera revolves around his wife, Pénélope, who for years has successfully fought off the machinations of power-hungry men, who seek to usurp the throne of her given up for lost husband, Odysseus. With chamber musical transparency and the use of key themes inspired by Richard Wagner, the composer created a score in which the orchestra is applied thoroughly symphonically, where the human voice’s lyrical melodic expression and comprehensibility of text are front and centre. Director Andrea Breth addresses the question as to whether a reuniting of the regal couple, Pénélope and Odysseus (Ulysses), after years of separation can run harmoniously or must also endure disaffection and alienation.

Pénélope

Prinzregententheater

In Das Rheingold, the “eve” of Richard Wagner’s operatic tetralogy, Der Ring des Nibelungen, the course is set for the apocalypse. It will be unleashed by two entirely opposing worldviews exploding into one another. The tragedy of Alberich, who, being mortal, believes he must take everything within his own lifetime. And the drama of Wotan, who in his, real or illusory, immortality must recognise the emptiness and sameness of being eternal.

Bayerische Staatsoper

Mar 17 - Jul 7, 2025

Káťa Kabanová

Nov 28, 2024 - Apr 1, 2025

Unter 6 Augen

Nov 24, 2024 - Jun 3, 2025

Tour of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester

2 - 11 May, 2025

Das Jagdgewehr

3 - 11 May, 2025

Matsukaze

Mar 17 - Jul 7, 2025

Káťa Kabanová

Feb 7 - Jul 25, 2025

The Love of Danae

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Bayerische Staatsoper