Il Teorema di Pasolini
Giorgio Battistelli - 9 [premiere], 16, 21 June 2023
With his 1968 film "Teorema", Pasolini formulated a radical reckoning with the bourgeoisie: the upper-middle-class family at the centre of the work is held together only by conventions, and the erotic seductive power of a stranger alone is enough to break apart this ossified system ... Conductor: Daniel Cohen; Directed by Dead Centre; Starring Ángeles Blancas Gulin, Davide Damiani, Monica Bacelli, Nikolay Borchev, Meechot Marrero, Andrei Danilov et al.
Welcome
For the 23/24 season, we are focusing on the human being. At the threshold of fiction and reality, we appeal to the individual's power of judgement with questions about the challenges facing humanity.
7, 10 June 2023
Lucia di Lammermoor
A historicised staging forms the backdrop for Lucia's tragedy, which is negotiated as a pledge of military alliances. Her heart belongs to Edgardo, the mortal enemy of her brother Enrico, who has other plans for his sister. With its nostalgic atmosphere, Filippo Sanjust's production is a classic in the repertoire ... Conductor: Stefano Ranzani; Director: Filippo Sanjust; With Germán Enrique Alcántara, Adela Zaharia, Andrei Danilov in place of Rolando Villazón, Thomas Cilluffo / Ya-Chung Huang, Byung Gil Kim a. o.
4, 8, 17 June 2023
Carmen
Bizet described his opera as an "operetta with a bad ending" - and rightly so, because what is unique about CARMEN is the mixture of romantic opera, realistic drama and Offenbach operetta. Ole Anders Tandberg's production tells the story in powerful images that constantly alternate between shock, grotesqueness and great emotion ... Conductor: Dominic Limburg; Director: Ole Anders Tandberg; With Irene Roberts, Valeriia Savinskaia, Attilio Glaser / Matthew Newlin, Joel Allison a. o.
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: Francesco Lanzillotta; Director: Götz Friedrich; With Mariangela Sicilia, Matthew Newlin, Thomas Lehman, Arianna Manganello a. o.
25 June; 2 July 2023
Lohengrin
Soon after the failure of the 1848 revolution, the political refugee Richard Wagner wrote his LOHENGRIN: an opera about a hero who tries in vain to pacify a divided people. Kasper Holten's production deliberately leaves open whether this leader fights by fair means ... Conductor: Ivan Repusic; Director: Kasper Holten; With Albert Pesendorfer, Attilio Glaser, Flurina Stucki, Thomas Johannes Mayer, Anna Smirnova, Thomas Lehman a. o.
Jules Massenet – 15, 18 June 2023
Hérodiade (concert version)
Few female figures inspired the art of the late 19th century as much as the Judean princess Salome, who, according to legend, was responsible for the beheading of John the Baptist. In France in particular, people were fascinated by this material and its amalgamation of orientalism and decadence, of eroticism and opulence. Massenet also took up the challenge: however, the focus of his opera is not Salome but her mother Herodias, the wife of King Herod ... Conductor: Enrique Mazzola; With Etienne Dupuis, Clémentine Margaine, Nicole Car, Matthew Polenzani, Marko Mimica a. o.
HÉRODIADE - 15, 18 June 2023
Seven questions for ... Clémentine Margaine
"With each appearance on stage Hérodiade is overwhelmed by a different set of feelings, and anger is the common denominator, hovering over everything. Her very first words are »Venge-moi« (Avenge me), which sets the tone for the opera. The challenge is to convey the different aspects of her character credibly, without overdoing it or presenting her as hysterical." - says the French mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine, who embodies the title role in the two concert performances of Massenet's HÉRODIADE. She is joined by Etienne Dupuis, Clémentine Margaine, Nicole Car, Matthew Polenzani, Marko Mimica under the baton of Enrique Mazzola.
International Composition Competition
New Scenes VII
Deutsche Oper Berlin, in cooperation with the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music, is announcing the seventh NEUE SZENEN International Composition Competition. The competition is primarily aimed at teams of two people (composition and text). Applications in the composition category alone are possible; applications in the text category only will not be admitted to the competition. Up to three winning teams of the competition will receive a) a scholarship to write a text for b) a scholarship for the composition of a music theatre work of 20 to 30 minutes (cast: max. 4 singers and max. 15 instrumentalists). The music theatre works will premiere in April 2025 in the Tischlerei of the Deutsche Oper Berlin as part of the production NEW SCENES VII, staged by three directorial teams and featuring vocal and instrumental students, all from the Hanns Eisler School of Music. Closing date: 31 July 2023
Press statement by Senate Department for Culture and Europe, 6th February 2023
Aviel Cahn takes over as Artistic Director of Deutsche Oper Berlin
The Board of the Berlin Opera Foundation today ratified the contract appointing Dr. Aviel Cahn as Artistic Director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1st August 2026. He will succeed Dietmar Schwarz, whose contract runs until the summer of 2025. Aviel Cahn is currently the general director of the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
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
Interview with Dead Centre on "Il teorema di Pasolini", from 9 June 2023
Interview with Battistelli on "Il teorema di Pasolini", from 9 June 2023
From the opening night: St. Matthew Passion, from 5 May 2023
St Matthew Passion - A Rehearsal Visit (Premiere on 5 May 2023)
Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini, from 19 May 2023
Langgaard: Antikrist, from 10 February 2023
Korngold: Das Wunder der Heliane, from 2 March 2023
Glanert: Oceane, from 6 January 2023
video - 03:29 min.
Interview with Dead Centre on "Il teorema ...
video - 13:52 min.
Interview with Battistelli on "Il teorema ...
video - 02:32 min.
From the opening night: St. Matthew Passion ...
video - 01:38 min.
St Matthew Passion - A Rehearsal Visit (Premiere ...
video - 02:28 min.
Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini, from 19 May ...
video - 02:21 min.
Langgaard: Antikrist, from 10 February 2023 ...
video - 02:11 min.
Korngold: Das Wunder der Heliane, from 2 ...
video - 02:10 min.
Glanert: Oceane, from 6 January 2023
Topics
LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR –from 17 May 2023
Seven questions for ... Adela Zaharia
"When arranging the coloraturas I let myself be inspired by the great singers of opera history, as well as conductors and vocal instructors whom I work with. But I think it’s really frustrating to hear singers who only care about making their voices shine. Sometimes it’s said that this comes with the territory of bel canto. No. While showcasing your virtuosity and skill, the bel canto vocals also have to convey the emotion of the scene and the music. It's about the music, not your ego! That’s what I tell myself." So says Adela Zaharia, who will take over the title role of Lucia from 17 May. She will be joined by Markus Brück / Germán E. Alcántara, Javier Camarena / Rolando Villazón, Ya-Chung Huang / Thomas Cilluffo and Byung Gil Kim.
IL TEOREMA DI PASOLINI – from 9 Jun 2023
Dead Centre: Our place of serenity
Directors Bush Moukarzel and Ben Kidd go to the parklands around a Dublin museum to muse on the tension between reality and our perception of it – for them one of the pivotal questions of TEOREMA. "We think that TEOREMA is mostly about smashing rulebooks that are no longer seen as such by the very people who comply with them. The industrialist’s family leads a middle-class existence studded with centuries-old aspirational rituals. It takes the arrival of an unpredictable variable in the form of a mysterious stranger to break the mould. Funnily enough, it doesn’t take much for the stranger to set off a landslide. Through his sensuality and the mere fact of his existence he alters their way of seeing things and tweaks their perspective on a familiar reality. A bit like the effect that our place of soulful serenity has on us – albeit in a much more radical way."
MESSA DA REQUIEM - from 14 April | Staatsballett
Eight questions to ... Christian Spuck
Christian Spuck brings his successful Zurich production to Berlin, which tells of feelings such as fear, anger, pain and grief in visually powerful scenes and deals with the boundaries between life and death. We asked him eight questions on the Deutsche Oper Berlin blog ... Experience the dancers of the Staatsballett Berlin, soloists such as Olesya Golovneva, Annika Schlicht and Karis Tucker, Andrei Danilov and Lawson Anderson, the Rundfunkchor Berlin and the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
