Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio
25 [Premiere], 30 November; 3, 18 December 2022; 7, 14 January; 22, 26 February 2023.
This opera is a monolith: it is considered the freedom opera par excellence and is probably the first-ever specifically German opera in its fusion of rescue opera, humanist oratorio and melodrama. David Hermann focuses on the manipulation mechanisms of power and powerlessness ... Conductor: Sir Donald Runnicles / Dominic Limburg [Jan.]; Director: David Hermann; With Thomas Lehman / Philipp Jekal, Jordan Shanahan / Markus Brück, Robert Watson / Klaus Florian Vogt, Ingela Brimberg / Flurina Stucki, Albert Pesendorfer / Tobias Kehrer / Ante Jerkunica a. o.
Welcome
Performances 
26 November; 1, 6 December 2022
Nabucco
Keith Warner's production of Verdi's first successful opera emphasises the basic idea of reconciliation with which the work concludes: Under the wise King Nabucco, the Hebrew people of the Scriptures and the Babylonian warriors may hope for a peaceful future ... Conductor: Carlo Montanaro; Director: Keith Warner; With Amartuvshin Enkhbat, Patrick Cook, Byung Gil Kim, Saioa Hernández / Anna Smirnova, Karis Tucker a. o.
16, 19, 25, 29 December 2022
Les Contes d'Hoffmann
With his opera, Offenbach created a lasting monument to the enthusiasm for the poet E. T. A. Hoffmann. As the protagonist of his own stories, the poet pursues the excesses of his imagination between alcohol and the pain of love, singing puppets and visions of horror. Laurent Pelly's production combines magical stage effects with nuanced direction of the characters ... Conductor: Markus Stenz / Dominic Limburg; Director: Laurent Pelly; With Robert Watson / Oreste Cosimo, Kathryn Lewek, Byung Gil Kim, Stephanie Lauricella a. o.
4, 7, 10, 21 December 2022
Don Quichotte
Few fictional characters are as celebrated as the »Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance«. And nowhere is the Man of La Mancha as gloomy as he is in Massenet’s work. Jakop Ahlbom’s production presents a collision between the eponymous hero’s fantasy world and the harsh reality of life – and also pulls off astonishing tricks to generate some enchanting moments of musical theatre ... Conductor: Daniel Carter; Director: Jakop Ahlbom; With Patrick Guetti, Misha Kiria, Maire Therese Carmack a. o.
17, 22, 31 [14.00 and 19.30] December 2022
Die Fledermaus
Villazón stages this perfect operetta between cork popping waltz bliss and relentless social satire as a whimsical walk through the ages: The boulevard theatre of the 19th century is as much the inspiration as Billy Wilder and the world of science fiction according to the motto "there is always love and deception" ... Conductor: Yi-Chen Lin; Director: Rolando Villazón; With Thomas Blondelle / Burkhard Ulrich, Flurina Stucki / Hulkar Sabirova, Karis Tucker / Annika Schlicht, Jorge Puerta / Attilio Glaser, Philipp Jekal / Thomas Lehman, Katerina von Bennigsen / Meechot Marrero, Ingo Paulick a. o.
11, 28 December 2022; 1 January; 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 ...
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.
LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN - 16, 19, 25, 29 December
Sim Sala Oper
Man, machine, doll? Olympia rises up as if by magic in Laurent Pelly’s production of LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN ... Opera brings to the stage characters and ideas that dispense with all pretence of rationality. Why does that rivet us so? Dramaturg Sebastian Hanusa on the fabulous and wondrous machine that is opera.
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.Our video recommendations
Korngold: Das Wunder der Heliane, from 2 March 2023
Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini, from 19 May 2023
Langgaard: Antikrist, from 10 February 2023
Glanert: Oceane, from 6 January 2023
video - 02:11 min.
Korngold: Das Wunder der Heliane, from 2 ...
video - 02:28 min.
Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini, from 19 May ...
video - 02:21 min.
Langgaard: Antikrist, from 10 February 2023 ...
video - 02:10 min.
Glanert: Oceane, from 6 January 2023
Topics
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 price 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.
In RIGOLETTO - 5, 9, 24 November 2022
Attilio Glaser … My private place of peace: The Spontan Coffee in the Moabit district of Berlin
Attilio Glaser finds peace in a Berlin café. With moderate background music and excellent coffee, the tenor prepares himself - for a season with Verdi (Duke of Mantua / RIGOLETTO, Gabriele Adorno / SIMON BOCCANEGRA), Wagner (title role in LOHENGRIN) and Mozart (Tamino / DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE).
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.«
FIDELIO, from 25 November 2022
Seven questions for ... Ingela Brimberg
In FIDELIO soprano Ingela Brimberg interprets a heroine who is one of a kind in the world of opera: self-determining, courageous, free
PETER PAN, Premiere on 7 December 2022
Dreamlands
School children from the Kinder Ballett Kompanie Berlin are working on a ballet version of PETER PAN. We asked some of them what they’d like to be when they grow up. Recorded by Carla von Braha, who plays Captain Hook.
FIDELIO, from 25 November 2022
Backstage with …Johannes Schütz
Johannes Schütz covers the stage in clay for FIDELIO. The stage set is a reflection on the systemic nature of the prison environment
