The ballet “Nureyev,” choreographed by Yuri Possokhov and composed by Ilya Demutsky, premiered in December 2017 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. This production, staged by Kirill Serebrennikov, combines ballet, opera, and drama to honor Rudolf Nureyev, a pivotal figure in 20th-century dance known for his artistic genius and defiance of social and political constraints. The narrative is set against the backdrop of a lavish auction of Nureyev’s possessions and explores significant moments in his life, including his career in the Soviet Union, his dramatic defection to the West, and his influence on Western ballet. The story also addresses Nureyev’s relationships and his open expression of homosexuality. Possokhov’s choreography features a rich blend of classical and contemporary styles, requiring exceptional skill from the dancers. Despite its acclaim, the ballet was recently removed from the Bolshoi’s repertoire due to Russia’s tightened LGBTQ laws. The Staatsballett Berlin’s staging offers a unique opportunity to celebrate the legacy of an artist who epitomized freedom and self-expression in the arts. “Absolutely sensational” (Die Zeit)
Götterdämmerung
Wagner’s immense imagination reveals itself in the composer’s 16-hour Ring cycle, being able to fully captivate worldwide audiences since its complete performance in 1876 in Bayreuth. Christian Thielemann’s conducting of “Velvety sound of unmatched beauty” (The Guardian) leads an extremely sophisticated production, with Tcherniakov’s stage that meets the highest technical standards, evolved in ever new, impressive spaces. “Götterdämmerung” is the concluding chapter of Wagner’s monumental four-part opus, which he conceived in the light of the revolution of 1848/49 and completed in 1874 after numerous attempts and a long interruption. In many ways, the thematic and musical threads are intertwined in a highly artistic and complex manner. “Tcherniakov, as usual, manages details on a level rarely seen in opera.” (The New York Times)
Siegfried
Thielemann/Tcherniakov Ring from Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin was a project of truly Wagnerian scale and ambition – one that captured the attention of the opera world and set new standards: “Musically, this ‘Ring’ blew away everything that had gone before – and we are talking about a performance history of more than one hundred years.” (Die Welt) In the third part of his Ring tetralogy, Wagner incorporates fairy-tale motifs into his epic mythological story. The well-known tale of “The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn Fear” is echoed in ”Siegfried” as well as episodes from the medieval “Nibelungenlied”. “One wishes for such a “Ring” all over the world.” (Kurier)
Die Walküre
Raising the curtain on a work of superlatives: the Staatsoper Unter den Linden represents the ultimate challenge for any opera house, Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen”. Christian Thielemann conducts the Ring tetralogy, and Dmitri Tcherniakov, highly praised for his psychologically sophisticated productions, led the playful all-star ensemble coherently through the panorama of characters, situations and events that unfolded like a universe and consistently interpreted the sheer vastness and the manifold twists and turns of the Ring cosmos. With the “Walküre” score, composed in the mid-1850s, Wagner reached new heights with his music, giving the orchestra remarkable communicative powers, layers of meaning were thus developed and incorporated into the work. “Enchanting magic of sound” (Die Zeit) / “A triumph for the Staatsoper” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)
Das Rheingold
“Michael Volle’s Wotan […] is an event, […] Rolando Villazón plays a fabulous Loge.” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) A myth, a heroic epic, a family saga – perhaps all of these together – make up Richard Wagner’s Ring tetralogy. This epic production of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden sees a remarkable collaboration between Christian Thielemann , one of the most distinguished Wagner conductors of our time, and Dmitri Tcherniakov, one of the great, internationally celebrated opera directors of our time. The result is “A glittering feast of voices, sounds, ideas and precise direction of characters. Wagner at his best.” (BR Klassik) The Rheingold gives the background to the events that drive the main dramas of the whole Ring cycle. “In this Rheingold, Thielemann mastered the art of nuance and varied interpretation like no other, and without having to bank on exaggeration.” (Bachtrack.com)
Don Giovanni
This new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin is the culminating completion of the Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy with Vincent Huguet as stage director. Huguet wants the Da Ponte trilogy to be understood as a legend of sexual liberation and its consequences, and the three operas of the cycle each tell of different phases of life. Don Giovanni about the escape of an ageing man in a world full of contradictions. Huguet sets the story of a seducer who ends up in hell for mocking his murder victim in the 1980s: Don Giovanni is a fashion photographer who uses his position of power to bed as many good-looking women as possible. The young ensemble of singers around Michael Volle as Don Giovanni, including Elsa Dreisig, Slávka Zámecníková, and David Oštrek, embrace this interpretation with immense enthusiasm. The Staatskapelle Berlin is conducted by Staatskapellmeister Thomas Guggeis. “An ensemble of young female voices who approached their roles with such freshness it was pure joy to listen to them.” (Bachtrack.com)
Così fan tutte
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
Tristan und Isolde
If there is one work that has been crucial to Barenboim’s conducting career, it has to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. From Bayreuth to Berlin through Milan and New-York, the Argentinian conductor has been working on piercing its secrets for more than 35 years, going as far as to author a book on the subject. In the pit of the newly renovated Staatsoper and at the head of the Staatskapelle Berlin, he once again makes magic happen. Dmitri Tcherniakov, no stranger to the work for having already staged it at the Mariinsky in 2005, delves into the psychological aspects of the drama and works to make the mythical lovers as relatable to as possible. He thus gives a new realistic depth to this opus, probably the most fascinating and odd among the wagnerian corpus. The Act III, which sees the tragic end of Tristan und Isolde’s doomed love affair, is striking by ist powerful simplicity, and the famous Liebestod, where Isolde bids farewell to her dead lover, reaches unparalleled levels of emotionality and intensity. Thanks to his demanding direction of the cast, but also to the precise light work by Gleb Filshtinsky, Tcherniakov once again manages to craft intense images which effectively resonate with the rapturous and voluptuous enchantments of the score. To complete this high-level artistic crew, the Staatsoper called upon some of the finest Wagner experts: Andreas Schager, already a superb Parsifal and a regular guest at the Bayreuth Festival, is Tristan, Anja Kampe is an unforgettable Isolde, and Ekaterina Gubanova thrills as Brangäne.
Der Freischütz
German conductor Ingo Metzmacher was appointed General Music Director of the Hamburg Opera in 1997, where he conducted a series of internationally acclaimed productions, many of them in collaboration with Stage Director Peter Konwitschny, over eight seasons. “Der Freischütz” was one of the highlights of their collaboration. The German opera magazine “Opernwelt” voted the Hamburg Opera House “Opera House of the year 2005”.