Performance Dates: November 13, 16, 19, 22, 24(m), 29 & December 1

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Her Passion is Freeing. His Obsession is Deadly. As free as a rebellious bird, it is hard to escape the magnetic allure of Carmen. Entranced by her passionate seguidilla, the soldier Don José descends into a dangerous spiral of desire.

Jealousy and obsession lead to fatal consequences in Francesca Zambello’s production in which matadors bump shoulders with factory workers in the heat of Seville.

Bizet’s evocative score features some of the most recognizable music in opera, brought to life by conductor Benjamin Manis.

Performance Dates: December 14 & 17

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

In honeyed tones, Lord and Lady Macbeth reveal their passionate and bizarre emotions to us. But behind this beauty there lurks an abyss, which Verdi unveils with one of the cruelest dramas in the history of world literature. In their struggle to seize power and retain it once it has been usurped, Macbeth and his lady commit one murder after another. The unwavering nature of their desire imbues their love with a radicality that would have been unthinkable on the operatic stage before this work. “The subject matter of this opera is neither political nor religious: it is fantastic,” wrote Verdi and brought Shakespeare’s play closer to a more “romantic” reading. In actual fact, the witches, ghosts and apparitions, the eerie elements, which dominate the musical and dramatic flow, in short the whole world of this opera can be regarded as an outward image of its protagonists’ inner state.

ABOUT THE CONCERT

Performance Dates: December 19 & 20

Christmas in Vienna looks for perfection at the highest level, looks for the best classical voices and finds the stars of this world. Classical music conquers the hearts of fans... The concert takes its audience into a world of its own for a few moments, gets in the mood for Christmas and awakens a feeling of peace in people - from humanism or religious conviction. Plácido Domingo invited the superstars to Vienna every year. The list of names line up like pearls on a necklace: Diana Ross, who started the dance with José Carreras, Dionne Warwick, Michael Bolton, Sarah Brightman, Patricia Kaas, but also legends like Charles Aznavour and Tony Bennett. A special highlight in 1999 was the concert with the three tenors. The attacks in 2001 and their consequences created a turning point for Christmas in Vienna and the crisis in the record industry involved almost dealt the world-famous Vienna gala concert a death blow.

However, fame and brand survived and in 2003 a new and independent Christmas in Vienna was created. The message of peace remained and Karl Scheibmaier, as artistic director, carefully led the gala concert into a new format in which classical literature dominated the program from then on. The risk was worth it, because the superstars of classical music were soon singing again in the Vienna Konzerthaus: artists such as Thomas Hampson, Grace Bumbry, Juan Diego Flórez and Elīna Garanča brought the Christmas gala concert to new levels of popularity, which the Great Hall still enjoys bursting at the seams. Thousands of spectators enjoy the festive event live in the Vienna Konzerthaus, hundreds of thousands follow it on their screens, and millions listen to the songs from Christmas in Vienna at home on CD or You Tube.

The meaning of Christmas in Vienna for singers and audiences is well reflected by José Cura's words: “Once in your life you have to sing Christmas in Vienna.”

Performance Dates: January 12, 15, 19 & 22

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

The production shifts the action to the 1930s and thrives not least on numerous nuances, colors and small gestures: Santuzza's only hinted-at pregnancy, which makes her situation seem all the more hopeless, the fact that she obviously realizes from the outset that Alfio knows full well about his wife's adultery, the reinforcement of the couleur locale through the inclusion of the children, who are so important in society. It emphasizes the strength of the individual women, who, under the pressure of the prevailing stock reactionary machismo, hardly dare to articulate themselves, or only within certain conventions. Inwardly collapsing, they stand almost frozen in front of the audience, in stark contrast to the lamenting women in the background, who "officially" give space to their suppressed feelings.

Performance Dates: February 17, 19 & 21

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Il TABARRO : Michele lives on a barge that transports water on the Seine with his young wife, Giorgietta.
Michele, a mature man, is tormented by jealousy, as he believes that his wife is having an affair with Luigi, one of the dock workers, which is true…
LE VILLI ( Opera-ballet ): Anna and Roberto, two young lovers, get married. For sweet Anna, happiness will be short-lived, as Roberto must leave on a journey, plunging Anna into a sea of ​​bad feelings and deep pain…

Luigi/Roberto – JONATHAN TETELMAN
Giorgetta/Anna  – CARMEN GIANNATTASIO
Michele/Guglielmo – ARIUNBAATAR GANBAATAR

Musical direction – LORENZO PASSERINI
Stage direction – DANIELE PISCOPO

GRAN CANARIA PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
OPERA FESTIVAL CHOIR – Director, OLGA SANTANA

Performance Dates: April 12, 15 & 20

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

New production – Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirill Petrenko

Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly has been moving audiences since its premiere in 1904. The story of the geisha Cio-Cio-San and the American officer Benjamin F. Pinkerton includes everything that makes a successful opera: great emotions, drama, and sound paintings that showcase the orchestra in all its facets. Director Davide Livermore has already been honored three times to open the season of La Scala in Milan.

Jonathan Tetelman almost feels at home in Baden-Baden. He sang the title role in Werther and roused the audience to storms of applause at the season-opening gala in 2024. Butterfly Eleonora Buratto celebrates her Baden-Baden debut with one of her star roles.

Performance Dates: April 25 & 27

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE

For her it is true love, for him just an affair. Giacomo Puccini transformed John Luther Long’s 1898 story of teenaged geisha Cio-Cio-San and cavalier American naval lieutenant Pinkerton into one of the most popular operas of all time – and a commentary on colonialism that remains ripe for re-examination. His music reflects both the orientalism of his time and the sentimentality of late verismo. After leading staged performances in Baden-Baden, Kirill Petrenko presents Madama Butterfly in concert to the Berlin public. The title role will be sung by Eleonora Buratto, who was celebrated for her performance of this part at the New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Star tenor Jonathan Tetelman takes the role of Pinkerton.

Performance Dates: May 8, 14, 17, 25 & 29

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Marco Arturo Marelli brings Verdi's epic opera classic to the stage in a visually stunning way. The struggle for freedom and independence under the rule of the absolutist King Philip II is emphasized as a central theme. The unshakeable power of the church, which is chiselled into the foundations of this society, is always present behind everything. Embodied in the Inquisition, it makes short work of anything that could pose a threat to it by attempting to shake up the existing conditions.

Performance Dates: July 9 & 12

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

“The artist is a man, and he must write for men. … and you will see true hatred and its bitter fruit.” In the Pagliacci prologue, Tonio tells us what this opera is about – it seeks to put the reality of life on the stage. This applies for both works, which will now enjoy their first new staging at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 46 years (1978). Together Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo simply exemplify verismo. The basic situation: A woman is unfaithful. Another reveals this to the husband, and he, spurred on by this woman, takes bloody revenge on the lover. Cavalleria rusticana is about Turiddu, who returns to find his old flame Lola again, but she is now married to the carter, Alfio. Turiddu then consoles himself by seducing Santuzza. But the old love is reignited, and Lola betrays her husband, and Turiddu his girlfriend. In Pagliacci, the plot revolves around Nedda and her husband Canio, the leader of a group of comedians. Nedda’s love for him has grown cold, so she turns to the farmer, Silvio. 

The direction team at Francesco Micheli’s side have found a common thread for the two operas, written independently of each other, but often performed together: “We want to construct one single story, the story of a man who in Cavalleria rusticana has lost his roots and in Pagliacci tries to re-establish his original ties in a new society, however fails miserably in doing so.”

Performance Dates: July 23 & 25

ABOUT THE CONCERT

One of the astonishing facts of music history is that almost all of the great operas based on Goethe were written in France. Alongside Gounod's and Berlioz's Faust settings and Ambroise Thomas's MIGNON, Jules Massenet's WERTHER is the most prominent example in this series. Premiered in Vienna in 1892, the work is also one of Massenet's most successful operas and, in its expressive immediacy, a pinnacle of the "drame lyric".

Concert performances of WERTHER at the Deutsche Oper Berlin have often offered the opportunity to experience the great tenors of their time in the role of the suicidal poet. After Alfredo Kraus in 1998 and Vittorio Grigolo in 2014, this time it is the turn of the American Jonathan Tetelman, who has already introduced himself to Berlin audiences as Luigi in Puccini's IL TRITTICO and as Paolo il bello in Zandonai's FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. At his side, Aigul Akhmetshina, one of the most exciting female singer discoveries of recent years, sings the role of Charlotte.