With Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden continues its acclaimed Da Ponte Cycle, designed jointly by director Vincent Huguet and conductor Daniel Barenboim. “Huguet places the action in a French-style and coherent manner in an environment that could be set either in today’s world or in the flower child world of the late 60s and 70s. In doing so, he understands Cosi as what it probably was according to the intentions of Mozart and Da Ponte. And Cosi fan tutte, which has always been thought to have a tendency to be misogynistic, suddenly shimmers in a friendlier, modern light: Is it not free love that is the problem, but the strict, outdated, basically inhuman understanding of fidelity?” (Der Tagesspiegel). Federica Lombardi, Marina Viotti, Gyula Orendt, Paolo Fanale, Barbara Frittoli, and Lucio Gallo embody their roles vocally impressively and with pleasure in the play. “The work of the young French director Vincent Huguet showed well pointed humour” (Musik heute).
Le nozze di Figaro
Set designer Aurélie Maestre and costume designer Clémence Pernoud have moved the action of this Staatsoper Berlin production into the 80s, imbuing it with a retro ambiance that adds to the natural comedy of the opera. Throughout this adaptation of Le nozze di Figaro, stage director Vincent Huguet has an eye for more than just entertainment: the extraordinary singing and acting talent of the soloists, including the stellar Elsa Dreisig, Nadine Sierra and Emily D’Angelo, also allow him the leeway for nuanced reflections on human behavior. This already fantastic bill is topped off by the world-class Staatskapelle Berlin with the Daniel Barenboim at its helm: a sheer delight for eyes, ears, and mind! “Quirky action comedy à la Almodóvar.” Tagesspiegel
Falstaff
Falstaff is Verdi’s masterpiece of comic opera, in which the behaviour of the ageing Sir John Falstaff, a devious freeloader and would-be ladykiller, causes uproar in the petty-bourgeois household of the Windsor’s. In Berlin, Mario Martone updates the action to the present day and shows Falstaff as ageing rebel in dodgy sideburns and leather jacket. Among the “exquisit vocal cast”, Michael Volle gives his debut in the title role “as if he had been preparing for this role for a lifetime” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).
Macbeth
Giuseppe Verdi’s powerful opera “Macbeth” received a fulminant staging at the newly reopened Staatsoper Unter den Linden by legendary stage director Harry Kupfer. In this new production superstars Plácido Domingo and Anna Netrebko were singing the title roles. Maestro Daniel Barenboim led the Staatskapelle Berlin portraying the many-layered motives of the opera’s characters “at their very best” (NZZ). This “magical moment of opera” (NZZ) was an “exhilarating success” (SZ). While Domingo “still fascinates the audience after decades” (rbb24), Netrebko performed “perhaps the best role of her life” yet (rbb24). Kwangchul Youn and Fabio Sartori shone as Banquo and Macduff. With monumental choral scenes, the Staatsopernchor did not only sing, but also play ist acting role brilliantly. With ist black marble halls and ist larger-than-life-projections, the stage design by Hans Schavernoch was striking. “A lot of cheering for this evening of legends.” (BR Klassik)
Jenufa
Leoš Janácek’s third opera, with its echoes of folk music from the composer’s native Moravia, was his first real success and got the name “Moravian national opera”. Besides
this, Janácek’s music has a special quality: while it explores psychological extremes leading to violence and infanticide and lays bare characters’ emotions in an unsparing manner,
no one is judged. Jenufa has a special relationship with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden: when it premiered in Berlin in 1924, its success on the German stage was assured until nowadays. “Rattle reveals a dynamic understanding of Janácek’s musical language in a reading that’s urgent, unsentimental and richly flavoured” (bachtrack.com). The FAZ described the production as “a beguiling mixture of speaking articulation and tonal roundness.”
Festive Re-Opening Staatsoper Unter den Linden – Scenes from Goethe’s Faust
The Staatsoper Berlin is back in ist place of origin: Unter den Linden! After major renovations, it reopens with Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Under the direction of Jürgen Flimm and in the sets of acclaimed German artist Markus Lüpertz, Schumann’s orchestral work is transformed in a captivating drama. In the glow of the renovated opera hall Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin perform alongside soloists such as Roman Trekel, Elsa Dreisig and René Pape. Besides the vocal parts, the main characters Faust, Gretchen and Mephistopheles are embodied by the renowned actors André Jung, Meike Droste and Sven-Eric Bechtolf.
150th Anniversary Wiener Staatsoper – Open Air Gala
The Vienna State Opera celebrates its 150th birthday with a glamorous open-air gala, gathering an extraordinary summit of operatic superstars like Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva, Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, French tenor Roberto Alagna, Uruguayan baritone Erwin Schrott or Italian bass Feruccio Furlanetto to name only a few. Together with soloists of the new generation of the house like sopranos Valentina Nafornita or Olga Bezsmertna – “a triumph for the ensemble” (Die Presse) – they present a firework of famous opera arias, accompanied by the Orchestra and Choir of the Wiener Staatsoper under the rousing baton of Maestro Marco Armiliato, a regular and appreciated guest at the Vienna State Opera. Nestled in the beautiful city centre, the State Opera is one of the most prestigous opera houses in the world with a long and significant history, a Mecca for international opera fans. Praised by critics as “mega event”, about 10,000 spectators came to witness this jubilee concert and celebrate musical passion in a fantastic atmosphere,
a feast for the ears and for the eyes.
Beethoven Celebration Berlin
In 2020, Ludwig van Beethoven is the focus of the Staatskapelle Berlin’s suberb open-air concert. With star violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter playing Beethoven’s Violin Romances Nos. 1 & 2, the composer anticipated the romantic genre of the „song without words“. In capturing the expressive „singing on the instrument“, the virtuoso talent and remarkable art of Anne-Sophie Mutter are once again demonstrated. Daniel Barenboim has devoted his life to Beethoven‘s work and mentality. The musical director, pianist and cultural activist conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin and the State Opera Chorus in this concert. Giving justice to the 9th Symphony with its insistent appeal to humanity and its forward-looking utopian character, are the high calibre artists: Julia Kleiter, Waltraud Meier, Andreas Schager and René Pape.