Welcome to our orchestra season!
As people who commute to work at an opera house, our day job consists of channelling our energies and enthusiasm into using music and drama to tell stories. But in addition to this we all nurture a secondary passion – a desire to simply play music straight, to enjoy it for its own sake without the costumes and stage set. This can be in the form of jazz, kunstlieder, chamber music or the full-bodied sound of the orchestra delivering a symphony. The Deutsche Oper Berlin provides a space for all these initiatives, material that includes chamber music concerts in the Tischlerei, the “Songs and Poets” and “Jazz & Lyrics” programmes, and concerts on the main stage given by our orchestra and the BigBand ... We look forwards to seeing you, Your Dietmar Schwarz
Welcome
3 September 2023 - Admission free
Season Opening Concert 23/24
Experience highlights from the operas of the 23/24 season - Conductors: Sir Donald Runnicles, Dominic Limburg, Giulio Cilona; With Chance Jonas-O'Toole, Omar Mancini, Elmina Hasan, Andrei Danilov, Natalie Lewis, Thomas Lehman, Philipp Jekal, Dean Murphy, Lilit Davtyan, Chorus, Children's Chorus and Orchestra
Symphony Concert - 9 October 2023
Days of Exile - Benefit Concert in aid of the Exilmuseum i. Gr.
In the concert, the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Sir Donald Runnicles remind us that injustice also took place at our house: Conductors Fritz Stiedry, Paul Breisach and Kurt Sanderling were dismissed in 1933 and forced into exile. On the programme: works by Schreker and Schönberg as well as Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5.
4 November 2023
27. Grand Opera Gala in aid of the Deutsche AIDS-Stiftung
For all the enjoyment - the humorously presented opera highlights and the roaring party into the morning hours - the help for people living with HIV is at the centre of the evening, which has been supporting projects worldwide for decades. Experience newcomers and stars of the opera scene. Conductor: Andrea Sanguineti; Presenter: Rolando Villazón.
Symphony Concert - 8 April 2024
Gustav Mahler's 9th Symphony
After the celebrated performances of the Second, Third and Fifth Symphonies, among others, it is now Mahler's turn to sing his farewell to the great symphonic form with his Ninth.
The orchestra of tomorrow
The Orchestra Academy offers young talents the opportunity to get to know an extraordinarily large repertoire in the practice of everyday opera. Now the young talent programme is celebrating its 40th birthday: with a symphony concert on 18 March 2024 and a chamber concert on 13 March 2024. In 40 years the Orchestra Academy has become a model of success: In the meantime, there are sixteen positions instead of the initial six - also thanks to the financial support of the Förderkreis der Deutschen Oper Berlin - and there are an average of 100 applications for each of the two-year positions. This is also due to the fact that the Academy's original offer has been expanded and now includes not only the introduction to everyday opera life, but also mental preparation for auditions for permanent positions. Today, Academy graduates play not only in the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, but also in other top orchestras from Zurich to Hamburg. For the jubilee concert on 18 March, as many as possible are to be reunited on the podium.
Chamber music in the Tischlerei
Tischlereikonzerte
The selection of works and the dramaturgical conception of the Tischlereikonzerte are in the hands of the musicians of the orchestra. They are inspired by the new productions or revivals of the opera programme to create stimulating themes and unusual programmes that are unparalleled in their musical range in Berlin. From solo violin to songs to percussion ensembles, from Josquin Desprez to Mozart's "Ein musikalischer Spaß", Dvořák's American String Quartet to Shostakovich, Cage and Xenakis, everything is heard in the special atmosphere of the Tischlerei.
Chamber Music I - 23 October 2023
Walking the tightrope
The first Tischlerei concert of the 23/24 season is dedicated to composing in the system between conformity and artistic freedom and features works by Dmitri Shostakovich, Hanns Eisler, Witold Lutosławski, Arvo Pärt, Sofia Asgatowna Gubaidulina and György Ligeti.
Chamber Music II - 20 November 2023
Spotlights
Traditionally, this one chamber concert each season focuses on favourite works by our orchestral musicians. The exact programme will be published soon.
Chamber Music III - 19 February 2024
Luck, coincidence...?
With reference to our premiere of Tchaikovsky's PIQUE DAME, this chamber music evening is dedicated to works by Josquin des Préz, Witold Lutosławski, Igor Stravinsky, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis and John Cage, among others.
Chamber Music IV - 13 March 2024
40 Years Orchestra Academy
The musicians of our Orchestra Academy perform one chamber concert per season. The programme for this concert will be published at the beginning of the 23/24 season.
Chamber Music V - 29 April 2024
This is a joke
In view of our premiere of Richard Strauss' "Bourgeois Comedy" INTERMEZZO, the musicians of the orchestra will play works that make us laugh ... Among them Hindemith's Overture to the FLYING DUTCHMAN, as played by a bad spa band at the fountain at 7 a.m. for string quartet.
Chamber Music VI - 4 June 2024
From the New World
The last premiere of the 23/24 season is John Adam's NIXON IN CHINA. With works by Antonín Dvořák, Béla Bartók, Luciano Berio and Leonard Bernstein, the musicians of the orchestra embark on a journey to America.
Jazz, Jazz, Jazz
The Big Band of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and its "little sister", the JazzCombo, have long since established their own tradition at the house. In addition to the established Jazz & Lyrics series and two large concerts on the main stage, the fourth festival will take place in spring.
BigBand Concert - 27 November 2023
It’s Croonertime
The invention of the microphone made the soft, intimate voices of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Marvin Gay and Miles Davis possible in the first place. The Big Band has invited Max Mutzke as vocalist for this homage to the "crooners of jazz".
BigBand Concert - 1 January 2024
Swingin` 24
A New Year's Jazz Gala "Best of Berlin" with the BigBand of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and renowned guests from Berlin's cultural and jazz scene: including Pat Appleton, Uschi Brüning, Irmgard Knef, Atrin Madani, Katharine Mehrling (on the photo), Marc Secara.
Jazz & Lyrics / Tischlerei - 7, 8 September 2023
Händel´s Journey to Jazz
Handel's music, characterised by a baroque joie de vivre, meets the rhythmic sensuality of South America and the sparkling joy of a rousing jazz ensemble led by Rolf Zielke (photo), Rolo Rodriguez and Guilherme Castro, among others.
Jazz & Lyrics / Tischlerei - 18, 19 November 2023
Loveletters
Famous declarations of love from theatre, opera and literature with music by Wolfgang Köhler, Marc Secara and Peter Weniger.
Jazz & Lyrics / Tischlerei - 5, 6 March 2024
Philosophy meets Music
The Berlin audience of Bar jeder Vernunft knows and loves songs like "Heidegger" and "God is dead" and knows that philosophy can be rapped and sung. But there is much more to discover.
Children's concerts in the hall and in the Tischlerei
This year we are travelling to Great Britain with our children's concerts in the Great Hall and the Tischlerei. The programme includes Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and a jazz setting of Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost.
Children's Concert [6+] - 18, 19 March 2024
The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
When all the instruments play at the same time in concert, they are often difficult for untrained ears to distinguish. In Benjamin Britten's masterpiece, on the other hand, the individual orchestral groups are introduced one by one and their different sounds are explored. At the end, the entire orchestra comes together in a complex fugue.
A Jazz Storytelling Concert [6+] - 21, 22 April 2024
The Canterville Ghost
A very special jazz format for school classes and the whole family is available in the form of a storytelling concert in which the story of "The Canterville Ghost" is presented in a jazzy way with the Wild Jazz Orchestra and narrator Christian Brückner.Our video recommendations
Digital Instrument Presentation: The Percussions
Digital Instrument Presentation: The Tuba
Digital Instrument Presentation: The Harp
Digital Instrument Presentation: The Oboe
Digital Instrument Presentation: The Violoncello
Digital Instrument Presentation: The Trumpet
video - 14:13 min.
Digital Instrument Presentation: The Percussions ...
video - 12:46 min.
Digital Instrument Presentation: The Tuba ...
video - 15:37 min.
Digital Instrument Presentation: The Harp ...
video - 10:35 min.
Digital Instrument Presentation: The Oboe ...
video - 13:25 min.
Digital Instrument Presentation: The Violoncello ...
video - 09:28 min.
Digital Instrument Presentation: The Trumpet ...
Topics
Since 2009 our General Music Director
Sir Donald Runnicles
The musicians are together
