Simon Boccanegra
Opera by Giuseppe Verdi - on 29 January [premiere], 1, 4, 9, 17, 19, 25 February 2023
For Verdi, writing operas meant relating to the world, interfering, raising one's voice and speaking out on stage on political issues. Hardly any of his operas, however, pushes the question of what price the individual has to pay for political power to such an extreme as SIMON BOCCANEGRA. It is staged by the Russian director Vasily Barkhatov, who already helped Reimann's L'INVISIBLE to its world premiere here at the house ... Conductor: Jader Bignamini / Yi-Chen Lin; Director: Vasily Barkhatov; With George Petean / Dong-Hwan Lee, Attilio Glaser / Jorge Puerta, Liang Li / Ante Jerkunica, Maria Motolygina / Flurina Stucki, Michael Bachtadze / Joel Allison a. o.
Welcome
Performances 
3, 6 February; 11, 14 June 2023
La Traviata
In setting »La Dame aux Camélias« to music, Verdi explored, in a shockingly direct way, two big themes of the 19th century: prostitution and consumption. Götz Friedrich’s production stresses the futility of Violetta Valéry’s attempt to escape her fate … Conductor: Ido Arad / Francesco Lanzillotta [Juni]; Director: Götz Friedrich; With Mané Galoyan / Mariangela Sicilia [Juni], Giovanni Sala / Matthew Newlin [Juni], Thomas Lehman, Arianna Manganello a. o.
10, 12, 24 February 2023
Antikrist
Langgaard's monolithic work creates an eschatological mystery play that pays homage to the fin de siècle with music reminiscent of Strauss and Wagner, but which does not deny Hindemith and Schönberg. Ersan Mondtag not only directs ANTIKRIST, but also designs the scenic set in his typical powerful expressionist style ... Conductor: Stephan Zilias / Hermann Bäumer [24 Feb]; Director: Ersan Mondtag; With Thomas Lehman / Kyle Miller, Jonas Grundner-Culemann, Valeriia Savinskaia, Irene Roberts, Clemens Bieber, Maire Therese Carmack, Flurina Stucki, AJ Glueckert, Andrew Dickinson, Joel Allison a. o.
2, 11 February; 4 March; 15, 21 April; 27 May 2023
The Magic Flute
In its mixture of Viennese folk theatre, Masonic mystery and fairy tale, this opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is probably the most performed in the German-speaking world and, in Günter Krämer's colourful, highly visual production, a favourite of our audience ...
SIMON BOCCANEGRA – from 29 January 2023
"Simon Boccangera" celebrates its premiere
Today in the news ticker: Genoa is under the spell of a fierce family and class feud. It is - how could it be otherwise - about power, love and murder ... In his new production of Giuseppe Verdi's SIMON BOCCANEGRA at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, director Vasily Barkhatov is particularly interested in the interactions and abysses of politics and private life as well as career and family. Under the musical direction of Jader Bignamini, George Petean / Dong-Hwan Lee, Liang Li / Ante Jerkunica, Michael Bachtadze /Joel Allison, Maria Motolygina / Flurina Stucki and Attilio Glaser / Jorge Puerta, among others, sing and perform.
SIMON BOCCANEGRA – from 29 January 2023
Who makes history?
Is it individual rulers or entire societies who change the course of history? An essay on power and change to mark Verdi’s SIMON BOCCANEGRA – by Ante Jerkunica. Ante Jerkunica was a member of the ensemble here from 2006 to 2018 and continues to be a welcome guest. His numerous roles at Bismarckstraße include Sarastro, Banquo, Gremin, Sparafucile, Marcel / LES HUGUENOTS, Pimen / BORIS GODUNOW as well as Fafner, Daland, Landgrave Hermann or King Marke. In SIMON BOCCANEGRA he now interprets the role of Jacopo Fiesco on 17, 19 and 25 February 2023.
SIMON BOCCANEGRA – from 29 January 2023
Vasily Barkhatov's special place of serenity
"I don’t have a private place of peace as such. And no homeland either. I’ve never been deeply bound to an area of land. It could be that I’m scared of conferring that kind of status on a particular location because it might turn out to be an Achilles heel for me. Although I haven’t lived in Russia for a decade, I still carry the motherland with me because my Russia has always been Russian literature." As a child it was his window on the world; today it’s his font of inspiration. Barkhatov is now staging Verdi’s SIMON BOCCANEGRA
Foyer exhibition until 2023
Tatjana Doll: Check In
For her “Check In” exhibition, Berlin artist Tatjana Doll has selected a striking series of 40 pictures, which she has labelled “Dummy_Akku-Akku”. Ranging in size from large to very large, the pictures present the mystical stone figures of Easter Island, the moai, as powerful self-portrayals. Doll’s artworks were produced between 2014 and 2022. For our blog, she spoke to Jörg Königsdorf about the Akku-Akkus and her foyer exhibition.Our video recommendations
Langgaard: Antikrist, from 10 February 2023
Korngold: Das Wunder der Heliane, from 2 March 2023
Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini, from 19 May 2023
Glanert: Oceane, from 6 January 2023
video - 02:21 min.
Langgaard: Antikrist, from 10 February 2023 ...
video - 02:11 min.
Korngold: Das Wunder der Heliane, from 2 ...
video - 02:28 min.
Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini, from 19 May ...
video - 02:10 min.
Glanert: Oceane, from 6 January 2023
Topics
a. o. in DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE on 2, 11 February 2023
Meechot Marrero: My source of serenity … The Crispy Döner beside the Deutsche Oper
Berlin was quite a culture shock to Puerto Rican soprano Meechot Marrero when she arrived in the city six years ago. And one place in particular took her fancy early on: the doner kebab bistro outside the Deutsche Oper Berlin ... This season you can still experience Meechot Marrero in her parade role of Papagena / DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE, as Musetta / LA BOHÈME, as Odetta in the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli's IL TEOREMA DI PASOLINI or as Biancofiore in FRANCESCA DA RIMINI.
ANTIKRIST - 10, 12, 24 February 2023
Dancing at the door of doomsday
Right now, a hundred years later, there’s a lot of looking back to the Roaring Twenties. The mixture of political tension and uninhibited living for the minute seems to be palpable again today, especially as Berlin was at the epicentre of the decadent »dance on a volcano« feeling a century ago. Rued Langgaard‘s ANTIKRIST is an amazingly clear-eyed end-of-days fantasy from the 1920s, and if anything it has gained in relevance in our times. Experience Ersan Mondtag's production again in February, directed by Stephan Zilias and Hermann Bäumer (24 February).
THE MIRACLE OF HELIANE - from 2 March 2023
Eight questions for ... Sara Jakubiak
"Heliane bumps up my confidence levels. It’s one of the hardest roles I’ve ever sung. I go from the very lowest notes I can manage to the very highest. It’s got me singing tonal shades that I’d not known before." ... Soprano Sara Jakubiak sings the title role in Korngold’s THE MIRACLE OF HELIANE – a creature of almost supernatural strength, who is doing her utmost in the name of unconditional love. Experience Sara Jakubiak alongside, among others, Jordan Shanahan, Mihails Culpajev, Maiju Vaahtoluoto, Derek Welton and Burkhard Ulrich. As in the premiere, the musical direction is in the hands of Marc Albrecht.
FIDELIO – from 25 November 2022
Prison as a private function
Director David Hermann explores the theme of imprisonment with his production of FIDELIO – and asks: What is the price of freedom? ... Beethoven and his librettists display a finely tuned sensibility to the social structures of the prison, with its rules, its dynamics of dependency, its hierarchies and power disparities. David Hermann is interested in what this system does to the people associated with it for whatever reason, be it involuntarily as convicts or as warders and employees acting ostensibly as free agents.
From 11 November 2022
"The Ring of the Nibelung" as DVD or Blu ray box set
At the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Sir Donald Runnicles and Stefan Herheim have now taken on the task of translating the world of thought of Wagner's tetralogy into the 21st century. True to Schiller's dictum that man is only fully human where he plays, Herheim develops the beginning of the tetralogy from the act of playing. Through the playful execution of the myth, society finds itself and its values, which are, of course, only valid as long as the play lasts and therefore have to be found anew again and again. Elisabeth Teige, Iain Paterson, Brandon Jovanovich, Nina Stemme, Clay Hilley, Albert Pesendorfer and others sing and play.
FIDELIO – from 25 November 2022
No Wagner without Beethoven
»I refuse to accept boundaries between symphonic music and musical theatre. Every orchestra, every piece of music sings – whether there is a singer involved or not. Music breathes, the audience breathes with us, and I always try to make the orchestra sing. In his Ninth Symphony, Beethoven opened symphonic music to human voices, an epochal decision. FIDELIO is equally ground-breaking. It is the story of a liberation, one we have to keep telling as long as people suffer imprisonment. Not only in his music, but also in content, Beethoven is more topical than ever.«
