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Award of the Götz Friedrich Prize

Lisenka Heijboer Castañón receives the Götz Friedrich Prize 2024

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With the support of the Förderkreis der Deutschen Oper Berlin e. V.

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About the performance

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.

For over twenty years, the Götz Friedrich Prize has been one of the most important institutions for the promotion of outstanding talent in the field of music theater directing - award winners such as Stefan Herheim, Nadja Loschky and Sebastian Baumgarten are just a few examples. After being organized by the German-Speaking Opera Conference in recent years, the Götz Friedrich Prize has returned to the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the main place of activity of its dedicatee, since the 2022/2023 season.

The members of the jury are Viktor Schoner (Stuttgart State Opera), Ina Karr (Lucerne Theater), Andrea Moses (Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar), Jörg Königsdorf (Deutsche Oper Berlin) and Martin G. Berger (director). The Götz Friedrich Prize is financially supported by the Förderkreis of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

The Dutch-Peruvian director Lisenka Heijboer Castañón made her debut on the main stage of the Dutch National Opera Amsterdam in 2020 with the world premiere of FAUST (WORKING TITLE) and, following this success, was entrusted with directing the music theater project I HAVE MISSED YOU FOREVER as part of the Amsterdam Opera forward festival in 2022. Also in 2022, she directed (together with Zack Winokur) the new production of TRISTAN UND ISOLDE at the Santa Fé Opera and KLASSIKERMASCHINE: DON GIOVANNI at Theater Basel. Heijboer Castanón gained stage experience as an assistant to directors such as Pierre Audi, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Laurent Pelly and Lotte de Beer, with whom she has also worked as a co-director. In the 2019/20 season, she was also a Directing Fellow of the Vocal Arts Department at the Juillard School New York.

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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.