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Ottorino Respighi: La fiamma
Opening premiere of the 24/25 season on 29 September 2024
Impressive songs and colossal tableaux accompany a story of intrigue, power struggles and an affair between stepmother and son in Ottorino Respighi's last great opera. Surrounded by political battles, the characters become entangled in personal conflicts that mercilessly lead to catastrophe and end with a cruel outcome at the stake ... Conductor: Carlo Rizzi; Director: Christof Loy; With Olesya Golovneva, Georgy Vasiliev, Ivan Inverardi, Martina Serafin, Doris Soffel and others.
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Our next performances
13, 19 April 2024
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: Dominic Limburg; Director: Götz Friedrich; With Adela Zaharia, Amitai Pati, Bogdan Baciu, Karis Tucker / Arianna Manganello a.o.
20, 26, 30 October 2024
Fidelio
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: Stephan Zilias; Director: David Hermann; With Artur Garbas, Joel Allison, Oreste Cosimo, Jane Archibald, Tobias Kehrer, Lilit Davtyan, Thomas Cilluffo a. o.
5, 13 October 2024
Tannhäuser
Wagner's opera about the Minnesinger torn between earthly and heavenly love is one of the works that has shaped the artistic identity of the house over decades - not least because of the famous Pilgrims' Chorus, which is the showpiece of our chorus. In Kirsten Harms' colourful production, which evokes the imagery of the Middle Ages, the members of the chorus appear effectively not only as penitents but also as a magnificently decked-out court company ... Conductor: Axel Kober; Director: Kirsten Harms; With Tobias Kehrer, Clay Hilley, Thomas Lehman, Camilla Nylund a. o.
27 October; 10 November 2024
Tristan und Isolde
Musically highly romantic and crossing the threshold to modernity, Wagner lets his couple run with existential inexorability into a hopeless dilemma. Disturbing and fascinating in its uncompromising portrayal of obsessive love, this work - based on a myth - has become a myth itself ... Conductor: Petr Popelka; Director: Sir Graham Vick; With Clay Hilley, Albert Pesendorfer / Georg Zeppenfeld, Ricarda Merbeth, Thomas Lehman, Jörg Schörner, Irene Roberts a. o.
6, 10, 21 October 2024
Il barbiere di Siviglia
For 200 years Rossini’s BARBIERE has been considered as the epitome of musical comedy. The archetypes of commedia dell’arte are constantly shimmering through the storyline revolving around the resourceful Figaro – an ambiguity that is not lost in Katharina Thalbach’s vibrant and hectic production … Conducted by Giulio Cilona; directed by Katharina Thalbach; with Kieran Carrel, Marco Filippo Romano, Cecilia Molinari / Martina Baroni, Dean Murphy, Manuel Fuentes a. o.
to LA FIAMMA - Premiere on 29 September 2024
Transfiguration of an icon
Ottorino Respighi and his librettist Claudio Guastalla were economical with the truth, transferring the action of a Norwegian witch trial in 1590 to 7th-century Ravenna. No matter that this predated witch trials by centuries and was alien to Byzantine Italy. By altering the era and geography of this story of love and witchcraft, they bigged up the conflict into one between Christianity and paganism, Orthodoxy and heresy. ... Witches’ potential lies in the grey zone between reality and fiction. They are fascinating characters, narrative surfaces onto which we can project our versions of the female sorcerer. Read about this in our blog article and experience Ottorino Respighi's opera LA FIAMMA, which tells the story of a witch hunt.
to LA FIAMMA - Premiere on 29 September 2024
In the maelstrom of intrigue
A FIAMMA throws three women into a brutal conflict full of intrigue, betrayal and denunciation. And that means: three great singers engage in a musical exchange of blows. Two of these interpreters, Doris Soffel as Agnese di Cervia and Martina Serafin as Eudossia, talk about how they approach a great, virtually unknown opera and how they find their way into their roles. Read the interviews in the blog and experience the two exceptional artists in Respighi's LA FIAMMA in the production by Christof Loy (DAS WUNDER DER HELIANE, FRANCESCA DA RIMINI, DER SCHATZGRÄBER) and under the musical direction of Carlo Rizzi.
to LA FIAMMA - Premiere on 29 September 2024
The Sum of his Creativity
LA FIAMMA is the sum of Respighi‘s (left on the picture) creativity. It is an opera which would be unimaginable today: a true melodrama. Nothing more grandiose had been written since the end of Act I of TURANDOT. The opera is set in the Byzantian Ravenna in the 7th century, an epoch Respighi was itching to have his way with, musically speaking. Thus, the literary model was antedated by a meagre 900 years. The opera is full of oriental sounds, Latin chants, veristic cantilenas and Monteverdian monodies. The sound is sombre, archaic, ever earnest and highly dramatic. Read more about Respighi and his last opera in our blog or attend one of our performances.
To the video archive Skip video container ![La fiamma – Audience reaction after the premiere on 29 September 2024]( "La fiamma – Audience reaction after the premiere on 29 September 2024")
![La fiamma – A Teaser, Premiere on 29 September 2024]( "La fiamma – A Teaser, Premiere on 29 September 2024")
![127 seconds with: Doris Soffel, in LA FIAMMA from 29 September 2024]( "127 seconds with: Doris Soffel, in LA FIAMMA from 29 September 2024")
![John Adams: Nixon in China, Premiere on 22 June 2024]( "John Adams: Nixon in China, Premiere on 22 June 2024")
![Richard Strauss: Intermezzo, Premiere on 25 April 2024]( "Richard Strauss: Intermezzo, Premiere on 25 April 2024")
![Pjotr I. Tschaikowskij: Pique Dame, Premiere on 9 March 2024]( "Pjotr I. Tschaikowskij: Pique Dame, Premiere on 9 March 2024")
![George Benjamin: Written on Skin, Premiere on 27 January 2024]( "George Benjamin: Written on Skin, Premiere on 27 January 2024")
![Gaetano Donizetti: Anna Bolena, Premiere on 15 December 2023]( "Gaetano Donizetti: Anna Bolena, Premiere on 15 December 2023")
![Giacomo Puccini: Il trittico, Premiere on 30 September 2023]( "Giacomo Puccini: Il trittico, Premiere on 30 September 2023")
Our video recommendations
La fiamma – Audience reaction after the premiere on 29 September 2024
La fiamma – A Teaser, Premiere on 29 September 2024
127 seconds with: Doris Soffel, in LA FIAMMA from 29 September 2024
John Adams: Nixon in China, Premiere on 22 June 2024
Richard Strauss: Intermezzo, Premiere on 25 April 2024
Pjotr I. Tschaikowskij: Pique Dame, Premiere on 9 March 2024
George Benjamin: Written on Skin, Premiere on 27 January 2024
Gaetano Donizetti: Anna Bolena, Premiere on 15 December 2023
Giacomo Puccini: Il trittico, Premiere on 30 September 2023
video - 03:13 min.
La fiamma – Audience reaction after the ...
video - 00:37 min.
La fiamma – A Teaser, Premiere on 29 September ...
video - 02:06 min.
127 seconds with: Doris Soffel, in LA FIAMMA ...
video - 02:47 min.
John Adams: Nixon in China, Premiere on ...
video - 02:47 min.
Richard Strauss: Intermezzo, Premiere on ...
video - 02:34 min.
Pjotr I. Tschaikowskij: Pique Dame, Premiere ...
video - 02:29 min.
George Benjamin: Written on Skin, Premiere ...
video - 02:02 min.
Gaetano Donizetti: Anna Bolena, Premiere ...
video - 00:35 min.
Giacomo Puccini: Il trittico, Premiere on ...
Topics
18 September 1936 - 13 July 2024
In memory of Ruth Hesse
Her debut was spectacular: Ruth Hesse was just 25 years old when she appeared here for the first time - and then right alongside Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau! It speaks highly of the young mezzo-soprano's ability and nerve that she was not intimidated by this challenge and celebrated her house debut as Mrs Quickly in the Carl Ebert production of Verdi's FALSTAFF on 8 January 1962. That evening also marked the beginning of a relationship that was to last 33 years - until her last performance as Mary in THE FLYING DUTCHMAN in 1995. In these almost three and a half decades, Ruth Hesse appeared on the Bismarckstraße stage on over 800 evenings and interpreted all the important roles in her repertoire. Ruth Hesse passed away on 13 July this year at the age of 87. We will honour her memory.
Now available on DVD / Blu-ray
Rued Langgaard: Antikrist
The Antichrist makes his entrance into a godless world. Sent by Lucifer into the world, he adopts many guises. Mankind is tested and tempted by pride, lust, lies, despondency and hatred in an “all-against-all altercation”. Langgaard’s opera is suffused with fin de siècle atmosphere and pessimism, denouncing the vices of the modern age: egotism, arrogance, frivolity. Langgaard, though, was also an optimist, convinced of the transformative power of art and the importance of music as a thread connecting people to the godhead. ANTIKRIST has now been released on DVD and Blu-ray. Conducted by Stephan Zilias, the production by Ersan Mondtag features Thomas Lehman, Jonas Grundner-Culemann, Valeriia Savinskaia, Irene Roberts, Clemens Bieber, Maire Therese Carmack, Flurina Stucki, AJ Glueckert, Andrew Dickinson and Joel Allison.
We warmly congratulate the award winner.
Lisenka Heijboer Castañón receives the Götz Friedrich Prize 2024
The Götz Friedrich Prize for the 2023/2024 season goes to Lisenka Heijboer Castañón for her production of THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE OTHER MARY by John Adams at the Vienna Volksoper. Chaired by the artistic director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Dietmar Schwarz, the jury voted in favor of awarding the 5,000 euro prize to the Dutch-Peruvian director. The award ceremony will take place on October 16, 2024 in the foyer of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
