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The Ring of the Nibelung - Deutsche Oper Berlin

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Welcome

16, 26 May 2026

Das Rheingold

A group of people meet a concert grand piano on an empty stage, a note is struck, and slowly a world of fantasy, longing and intoxication unfolds, captivating everyone and causing them to merge into a community. This is how DAS RHEINGOLD begins, directed by Stefan Herheim ... Conductor: Sir Donald Runnicles; Director: Stefan Herheim; With Iain Paterson, Thomas Lehman, Thomas Blondelle, Michael Sumuel, Ya-Chung Huang, Albert Pesendorfer, Tobias Kehrer, Annika Schlicht, Flurina Stucki et al.
Das Rheingold
17, 27 May 2026

Die Walküre

After the reign of the gods has reached its radiant zenith at the end of the RHEINGOLD with the entry into Valhalla Castle, the signs in the WALKÜRE are stormy: the people are frozen in greed for power, mistrust and possessiveness, the gods confine themselves only to monitoring compliance with the old laws instead of questioning their meaning ... Conductor: Sir Donald Runnicles; Director: Stefan Herheim; With Matthew Newlin, Tobias Kehrer, Thomas Johannes Mayer, Elisabeth Teige, Annika Schlicht, Trine Møller et al.
Die Walküre
23, 29 May 2026

Siegfried

Wagner described his SIEGFRIED as a "heroic comedy" which, in its balance between comic and tragic elements, remains the challenge for its directors to this day. For Herheim, it is the act of the play that joins the opposites into a whole. The boundaries between animal and human become as blurred as those between the characters and their creator... Conductor: Sir Donald Runnicles; Director: Stefan Herheim; With Clay Hilley, Ya-Chung Huang, Iain Paterson, Michael Sumuel, Tobias Kehrer, Lauren Decker, Elisabeth Teige et al.
Siegfried
25, 31 May 2026

Götterdämmerung

In the final part of the tetralogy, the theatrical devices that dominate Stefan Herheim's version of the RING also come together for the grand finale: the concert grand piano, where the play once began, is just as present as the white cloth, which, among other things, mutates into the shroud of the murdered hero. And, of course, the suitcases are also present, which in the course of the tetralogy have repeatedly created new landscapes and play situations. In the end, this world sinks, only to be reborn in the next play ... Conductor: Sir Donald Runnicles; Director: Stefan Herheim; With Clay Hilley, Thomas Lehman, Michael Sumuel, Albert Pesendorfer, Catherine Foster, Felicia Moore, Annika Schlicht et al.
Götterdämmerung
Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach, Jörg Königsdorf

An introductory lecture on: Das Rheingold

The eve of the RING is reserved for mythical figures: Gods, dwarves and giants open the struggle for power that will later also determine the fate of mankind. And already here it becomes clear that the unbridled lust for power ultimately only claims victims.
An introductory lecture on: Das Rheingold
Questions to Stefan Herheim

"All that lives loves change and transformation. That play I cannot forgo."

It’s precisely this collective humanity that we make into the nucleus of a play. This is acted out among fugitives who have lost their home and are now searching for it in myth. All parts of the RING revolve around the powerlessness of love and the lovelessness of power, and all players are at the mercy of its deceptive mechanisms.
"All that lives loves change and transformation. That play I cannot forgo."
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Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach, Jörg Königsdorf

An introductory lecture on: Die Walküre

People are frozen in a lust for power, mistrust and possessiveness, the gods limit themselves only to monitoring compliance with the old laws instead of questioning their meaning. Thus, the brother and sister Siegmund and Sieglinde are abandoned to death, and the Valkyrie Brünnhilde also falls under the spell when she dares to defy the verdict of her father Wotan.
An introductory lecture on: Die Walküre
With Jörg Königsdorf

An introductory lecture: Siegfried

Wagner described his SIEGFRIED as a "heroic comedy", which is still a challenge for its directors today in its balance between comic and tragic elements. For Herheim, it is the act of the play that joins the opposites into a whole. The boundaries between animal and human become as blurred as those between the characters and their creator.
An introductory lecture: Siegfried
An essay by Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach

“Luminous love, laughing death!”

Laughing plays a notable role in the RING. It occurs over a hundred times in the libretto and the stage directions of the tetralogy – over three dozen times in SIEGFRIED alone – not including Mime’s laughter composed on one note “Hihihi”, his sniggering, or the orchestra’s reprise of the latter. Essentially laughter can be construed as having two meanings in the RING: mockery and joy.
“Luminous love, laughing death!”
read more
Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach, Jörg Königsdorf

An introductory lecture: Götterdämmerung

A group of people are on the run, pause and try to find their footing in the world again through the act of playing. This is how Stefan Herheim's retelling of the RING DES NIBELUNGEN begins, which now finds its conclusion in the here and now in the last part of the tetralogy. A game unfolds that must end with the downfall of a world so that it can start all over again.
An introductory lecture: Götterdämmerung
To the video archive Skip video container

Our video recommendations

Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold
video - 03:06 min.

Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold

Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold
Richard Wagner: Die Walküre
video - 02:56 min.

Richard Wagner: Die Walküre

Richard Wagner: Die Walküre
Richard Wagner: Siegfried
video - 02:30 min.

Richard Wagner: Siegfried

Richard Wagner: Siegfried
Richard Wagner: Götterdämmerung
video - 02:59 min.

Richard Wagner: Götterdämmerung

Richard Wagner: Götterdämmerung

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24
DEC

Advents-Verlosung: Das 24. Fensterchen

With ARABELLA [again from 7 March] and INTERMEZZO [again from 13 March], our Strauss cycle has already shown in an amazing way how relevant the operas of Richard Strauss still are today. Be among the first to experience Tobias Kratzer's take on the great fairy-tale opera that Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal created in 1919 with DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN [THE WOMAN WITHOUT A SHADOW].

Today – on Christmas Eve – we are giving away two pairs of tickets for the premiere of DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN on Sunday, 26 January 2025 at 5 p.m. If you would like to take part in the draw, please send an e-mail to advent@deutscheoperberlin.de today with the subject line ‘The 24th window’.

Tobias Kratzer has placed the monumental fairy-tale opera at the end of his Strauss cycle at the Deutsche Oper Berlin: in ARABELLA, he looks at the difficulties of even beginning a relationship on equal terms, while INTERMEZZO shows the portrait of an everyday married life. In DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN, director Tobias Kratzer also focuses on a very contemporary discourse: because the Empress cannot have children, she tries to persuade the dyer's wife to become a surrogate mother in order to save their relationship. But is this morally justifiable at all, or is it just exploiting the frustrated dyer's emotional plight? And isn't it much more important to find a way of living together that offers everyone the greatest possible chance of happiness?

In a letter to Richard Strauss written as early as 1911, Hugo von Hofmannsthal described his idea for a further collaboration, saying that this new opera would be to THE MAGIC FLUTE what DER ROSENKAVALIER was to LE NOZZE DI FIGARO. And indeed, the work that was finally premiered eight years later is reminiscent of Mozart's ‘grand opera’: the encounter of different social classes, the fairytale-like plot laden with symbolism, but above all the awareness of an elementary turning point in time that questions the previous order and makes reflection on the fundamental values of human coexistence an urgent issue. And in both cases, this realisation can only be gained through difficult trials. The shadow, as a symbol of female fertility, plays a central role here: the Empress, who is unable to have children herself, and her nurse, act it out in their marriage to the frustrated dyer's wife. But it is only when the Empress realises that she does not want to build her marital and child happiness at the expense of others that the path opens up for social coexistence.

Experience this opera conducted by our General Music Director, Sir Donald Runnicles, with such great performers as Jane Archibald, Marina Prudenskaya, David Butt Philip, Jordan Shanahan and Catherine Foster in the main roles.

We thank you all for your vivid interest in our Advent calendar and very much hope to have brought you joy in the Advent season with our Foyer programme and our online raffles. Now it only remains for us to wish you a very Merry Christmas!



Closing date: 24 December 2024. The winners will be informed by email on 27 December 2024. The tickets will be sent to the winners online as Ticket direct. There is no right of appeal.