Fünf Fragen an Dietmar Schwarz - Deutsche Oper Berlin
Five questions for Dietmar Schwarz
The artistic director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin has steered his house safely through the Corona period. Now he looks ahead to exciting opera evenings.
1 Mr Schwarz, the season is already underway - and only now is there a season preview (published at the beginning of November, editor's note), but only a small one. What's going on?
The last one and a half years have been a rollercoaster ride for all of us. At times we couldn't work, we couldn't plan, our orientation was lost, we had to drive on sight. But now it's finally all starting up again: with this preview we present the season starting in November - and at the same time the whole season goes on sale.
2 Short review: How was the start?
Seeing the queues at the entrance to our open-air performances of CARMEN and GREEK and knowing that people want to experience opera again, that touched me. Artistically, I am enormously pleased that GREEK, which was created at such short notice, worked so well. The commitment of the women's team radiated into the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
3 What is the mood like at the house?
I sense a change: the first Lockdown touched us existentially, we realised what we live and work for. Now the main thing is to establish normality. And that is possible at the theatre, because in the meantime almost all the staff have been vaccinated.
4 Many productions were on ice for a long time. How has time changed the works, but also the people behind them?
The plays have been able to mature behind the scenes, the people have grown. The director Ersan Mondtag, for example, has in the meantime staged a RING adaptation for the Schauspiel, and of course his experiences will be incorporated into the final rehearsals for ANTIKRIST. By the way: nothing is lost, all productions that we could not realise due to the pandemic will be shown in the coming years.
5 What are you particularly looking forward to?
We are finally playing repertoire again! That was unthinkable last season. We are finally showing 7 DEATHS OF MARIA CALLAS by Marina Abramović, whom I hold in very high regard as a visual artist. And I am looking forward to Wagner! Of course, it is also special for me to show a new RING at the house. I will sit in all three cycles and await with joyful anticipation how it will all come together.
