26th [première], 30 January; 2, 5, 8, 11 February 2025
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„Die Frau ohne Schatten“
Opera by Richard Strauss – 26 [première], 30 January; 2, 5, 8, 11 February 2025
With ARABELLA and INTERMEZZO, our Strauss cycle has already shown in a striking way how relevant Strauss's operas are today. In the third part, too, the 1919 premiere of THE WOMAN WITHOUT A SHADOW, Kratzer sees a very contemporary discourse at the centre: is surrogacy morally justifiable and a relevant chance for happiness in life?... Conductor: Sir Donald Runnicles / Axel Kober; With Clay Hilley / David Butt Philip, Daniela Köhler, Marina Prudenskaya, Jordan Shanahan, Catherine Foster and others.
Welcome
on DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN – Premiere on 26 January 2025
Strauss, show yourself
ARABELLA shows the emancipation of the title character and could also be narrated as a transgender journey through time by the minor character Zdenka/Zdenko. INTERMEZZO describes the ups and downs of a composer's marriage, playfully, with emphasis, as a precursor to today's auto-fictions. DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN is now the synthesis of the themes that were previously laid out: man, woman, society, family, classes, roles and conflicts. At its core, it is a fairy tale that tells of the difficult path to child happiness. A married couple, an emperor and an empress, suffer from the fact that the woman casts no shadow, a metaphor for their childlessness. They turn to another couple, a man and a woman who are dyers, to make up for their deficit. The story sounds simple, but in its complexity it cannot be resolved morally... From 26 January, you can experience how Tobias Kratzer approaches this complex work on our stage.
A success story since 2020/21
Our Talent Circle scholarship holders
What do Theodora Schnauck-Betow and Dr Angelika Volle, Dr Constanze and Olfert Landt, Ulrike and Walter Sandvoss, Rolf Haeger and Florian Chiutu-Haeger have in common? They are all supporting our young ensemble soloists in the Talent Circle. This season, the members are Lilit Davtyan, Chance Jonas-O'Toole, Alexandra Oomens, Martina Baroni, Nina Solodovnikova, Kyle Miller and répétiteur Jisu Park. If you would also like to support our young artists or productions, then find out more about becoming a member of our support association, the Förderkreis.
An initiative of the Foundation for the Deutsche Oper Berlin
Support our young audience...
Children and young people are the opera audience of today and tomorrow. The Stiftung für die Deutsche Oper Berlin is responsible for ensuring their continued attendance and would like to keep ticket prices stable for this target group in the future. To this end, the Stiftung für die Deutsche Oper Berlin has launched this project, which compensates for the necessary price increase following cuts to the cultural budget. Support this valuable project for young people with your donation, so that the world of opera remains accessible to children and young people. Help to spark and sustain their enthusiasm for opera!
Our next performances
11, 19, 25 January 2025
Giuseppe Verdi: „Macbeth“
In 1847, Verdi set Shakespeare's dark story of nebulous prophecies and bloody power struggles in the Scottish royal family to music: he condensed the plot and intensified the dramatic tension. A maelstrom is created, drawing the characters towards their grisly end – perfect material for the visually stunning stage director Marie-Ève Signeyrole... Under the direction of Enrique Mazzola, Roman Burdenko / Thomas Lehman, Byung Gil Kim, Felicia Moore and Andrei Danilov, among others, will be singing and acting.
10, 17, 27 January 2025
Rigoletto
In his opera about the hunchbacked court jester, Verdi took the tension between the improbabilities of the plot and the emotional overwhelming power of musical theatre to extremes. Jan Bosse's production tells the tragedy of a man who fails to separate private life and public action ... Conductor: Michele Spotti / Friedrich Praetorius; Director: Jan Bosse; With Andrei Danilov, Etienne Dupuis, Brenda Rae, Geon Kim, Tobias Kehrer, Stephanie Wake-Edwards a. o.
For the last time on 12, 18 January 2025
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: Sir Donald Runnicles; Director: Sir Graham Vick; With Clay Hilley, Derek Welton, Stéphanie Müther, Leonardo Lee, Jörg Schörner, Annika Schlicht a. o.
1, 7, 14 February 2025
Turandot
In his last, unfinished opera Puccini addressed the aesthetic of cinema, the new medium for mass consumption. In his version of the work Lorenzo Fioroni makes a connection between the repressed, yet sensationalist Chinese opera people and the consumers of modern media content … Conductor: Jordan de Souza; Director: Lorenzo Fioroni; With Saioa Hernández, Clemens Bieber, Jorge Puerta, Sua Jo / Maria Motolygina, Byung Gil Kim, Michael Bachtadze, Kangyoon Shine Lee, Thomas Cilluffo a. o.
16, 20, 25 February 2025
Der fliegende Holländer
The eerie world of Romanticism with its revenants and ghost ships inspired Wagner to write his first mature work. Christian Spuck tells the story of the "Cursed of the Seas" and the lonely captain's daughter as a dark fairy tale from the memory of Senta's spurned admirer, the hunter Erik ... Conductor: John Fiore; Production: Christian Spuck; With Patrick Guetti, Gabriela Scherer, Attilio Glaser, Stephanie Wake-Edwards, Chance Jonas-O'Toole, Derek Welton a. o.
Ticket sales for both cycles from 16 May to 31 May 2026 will begin on 1 February 2025
Der Ring des Nibelungen
In May 2026, you can experience two cycles of the RING DES NIBELUNGEN in Stefan Herheim's production with artists such as Ya-Chung Huang (Mime), Iain Paterson and Thomas J. Mayer (Wotan), Annika Schlicht (Fricka), Michael Sumuel (Alberich), Matthew Newlin (Siegmund), Elisabeth Teige (Sieglinde, Brünnhilde), Clay Hilley (Siegfried), Trine Møller and Catherine Foster (Brünnhilde) and Albert Pesendorfer (Hagen / Fasolt). These eight performances also mark the farewell of our General Music Director Sir Donald Runnicles... The performances of the first cycle from 16 to 25 May are available individually; the performances of the second cycle from 26 to 31 May are only available as a four-performance package.
To the video archive Skip video container ![Die Frau ohne Schatten – A Teaser, Premiere on 26 January 2025]( "Die Frau ohne Schatten – A Teaser, Premiere on 26 January 2025")
![Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth, Premiere on 23. November 2024]( "Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth, Premiere on 23. November 2024")
![Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth – A Teaser, premiere on 23 November 2024]( "Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth – A Teaser, premiere on 23 November 2024")
![Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth – A Teaser, premiere on 23 November 2024]( "Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth – A Teaser, premiere on 23 November 2024")
![Rehearsal visit to ‘Macbeth’, premiere on 23 November 2024]( "Rehearsal visit to ‘Macbeth’, premiere on 23 November 2024")
![Ottorino Respighi: La fiamma, Premiere on 29 September 2024]( "Ottorino Respighi: La fiamma, 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
Die Frau ohne Schatten – A Teaser, Premiere on 26 January 2025
Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth, Premiere on 23. November 2024
Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth – A Teaser, premiere on 23 November 2024
Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth – A Teaser, premiere on 23 November 2024
Rehearsal visit to ‘Macbeth’, premiere on 23 November 2024
Ottorino Respighi: La fiamma, 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 - 01:48 min.
Die Frau ohne Schatten – A Teaser, Premiere ...
video - 03:02 min.
Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth, Premiere on 23. ...
video - 00:45 min.
Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth – A Teaser, premiere ...
video - 00:29 min.
Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth – A Teaser, premiere ...
video - 02:54 min.
Rehearsal visit to ‘Macbeth’, premiere on ...
video - 02:49 min.
Ottorino Respighi: La fiamma, Premiere on ...
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 ...
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Giacomo Puccini: Il trittico, Premiere on ...
Topics
Now available in stores as a CD box set
Jules Massenet: Hérodiade
Few female figures have inspired the art of the late 19th century as enduringly as the Judean princess Salome. In France in particular, writers, painters and composers were fascinated by this material and its blend of Orientalism and decadence, of eroticism and opulence. Jules Massenet also took up the story, although at the centre of his HÉRODIADE is not, as it was a quarter of a century later for Richard Strauss, the royal child-woman Salome, but her mother Herodias, the wife of King Herod. And while Strauss would later push open the door to the 20th century with his first operatic success, in Massenet's work, 19th-century grand opera celebrates one of its last triumphs, complete with pathos, posturing and a Hollywood-style script. Under the direction of Enrique Mazzola, you can hear Etienne Dupuis, Clémentine Margaine, Nicole Car and Matthew Polenzani, among others.
An obituary
In memory of Patricia Johnson
The role of Marcellina in THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO is probably one of the most underrated in the entire operatic repertoire: to bring her to life on stage credibly, you need not only style and voice, but also, and above all, stage presence. It is no coincidence that this role, of all things, was to accompany Patricia Johnson throughout her entire stage career. She appeared on our stage as Marcellina 157 times and embodied Figaro's mother in three different productions – first, soon after her house debut in 1962, in Carl Ebert's production, then in Gustav Rudolf Sellner's version, and finally, until shortly before her farewell in 1995, in Götz Friedrich's production. During these 33 years, Patricia Johnson was one of the ensemble's most influential singers: she appeared here on 921 evenings in 45 different roles. It has only recently become known that Patricia Johnson passed away on 16 December 2024. Deutsche Oper Berlin mourns the loss of a great singer and actress and 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. This DVD was awarded the ‘Diamant d'Opéra’ by ‘Opéra Magazine’ in December 2024.
