text:
Press Informations of the Bavarian State Opera
Press spokesperson: Christoph Koch
The press releases will remain here in the order of publication. Please note the release date.
Christian Gerhaher is Orfeo in a new production live on www.staatsoper.de/tv
The live audiovisual broadcast will start at 6 p.m. (CET) at www.staatsoper.de/tv. The service is free of charge to viewers.
Claudio Monteverdi
Sun., July 27, 2014, 6 p.m. (CET)
Kindly supported by the Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Münchner Opernfestspiele e.V.
Kindly supported by
Watch "La forza del destino" on ARTE!
Arte will be transmitting the show on July 28, with Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann in the leads. The Bayerisches Staatsorchester will be conducted by Asher Fisch.
Giuseppe Verdi
La forza del destino
Mon., July 28, 2014, 9.50 p.m. (CET)
Live stream on ARTE Concert
setting partner
Watch Michael Volle, Marina Rebeka and Bryan Hymel in a new production at www.staatsoper.de/tv
With this premiere, the young director Antú Romero Nunes is making his house début at the Bayerische Staatsoper and staging an opera for the first time. Michael Volle will be returning to the stage in the title role. The Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka will be playing the Habsburg Princess Mathilde. Her lover Arnold is played by Bryan Hymel who, like Michael Volle, will be singing the role for the first time. The part of his adversary Gesler is sung by the bass Günther Groissböck (role début). The Israel-born conductor Dan Ettinger will be the musical director.
The live audiovisual broadcast will start at 6 p.m. (CET) at www.staatsoper.de/tv. The service is free of charge to viewers.
In 2013/14, the Bayerische Staatsoper is presenting its second season of selected performances as live streams free of charge online with STAATSOPER.TV. Classical music fans from all over the world can thus follow seven evenings of opera and two of ballet live from Munich – and in full HD.
Up to 40 microphones in the orchestra pit and on stage provide first-class sound quality. From this season onward, the video images will be produced in high definition (Full HD). Another innovation is the provision of streams in HD resolution with increased bandwidth, offering even better picture quality. All the streams (without subtitles, German or English subtitles) are offered in three different transmission qualities (Low, High, HD). Viewers can choose freely between these three qualities and adapt the transmission to their own individual internet connection. Subtitles in German and English complete the services offered. Apart from a computer, laptop or tablet, users only need a broadband internet connection such as DSL and speakers connected to the device.
Closing the STAATSOPER.TV season 2013/14 will be the 20 July live-stream of a new production of Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo starring Christian Gerhaher in the title role with Ivor Bolton taking the baton of the Bayerische Staatsorchester.
Gioachino Rossini
Guillaume Tell
Sat., June 28, 2014
6.00 p.m. (CET)
12.00 p.m. (EDT)
10.00 a.m. (PST)
Photo download
Photo 1 (The Chorus of Bayerische Staatsoper)
Photo 2 (Evgenya Sotnikova, Michael Volle)
Photo 3 (Michael Volle, The Chorus of Bayerische Staatsoper)
© Wilfried Hösl
supported by
Partner der Opernfestspiele
Premiere: "Die Soldaten" under Kirill Petrenko
Since then, every opera house daring to stage the work has faced considerable logistical and aesthetic challenges, whether it be the large-scale and unorthodox orchestra requirements, complete with jazz band, the intentionally scored sound and noise recordings that need to be played through loudspeakers, or the scenes that take place simultaneously. Zimmermann himself demanded nothing less than a theatre that, "shouldn't be worse equipped than a spaceship." Nonetheless, as early as 1969 in only its third staging ever, the work was embraced by the Bayerische Staatsoper, directed by Václav Kaslik and choreographed by John Cranko. The musical director was Michael Gielen who had conducted the very first performance of the work and ranked the opera alongside Wozzeck, Lulu and Moses und Aaron: "Aside from these four I can't think of one other influential piece of music theatre with such power and impact."
More than forty years later, the Andreas Kriegenburg (Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wozzeck) production features Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan (house debut during the 2013 festival in Written on Skin) in her role debut as Marie. Michael Nagy (Stolzius) plays Marie's betrothed and Endrik Wottrich (Desportes) the aristocratic soldier who leads her astray.
Bernd Alois Zimmermann described himself as "the eldest of the young generation of composers". Born in the Eifel region of western Germany in 1918, he belonged to a generation whose opportunities for self-fulfilment were doubly inhibited, firstly by the narrow aesthetic view presented by the Nazi regime and secondly by the subsequent world war. To make a living he played dance music and jazz, arranged music for party bands and wrote out musical scores, as well as composing music for radio plays, theatre and film. Thanks to his phenomenal stylistic versatility and understanding of the effect that different sounds have, Zimmermann had the unique ability to create a piece of music theatre which corresponded to his ideal of this particular genre, namely "opera as Total Theatre".
His music contains references and allusions to many eras; a Gregorian melody, a Bach hymn, romantic jazz and electronic music, even a nod to the final trio of the Rosenkavalier – a collage technique he took to the absolute limit. The list of instruments alone covers an entire page of large-format piano score, including three percussion sections, referred to as "stage music", one "jazz combo", piano, harpsichord, celesta, two harps, two organs, guitar and of course huge string and brass sections. And as if this weren't sufficient, the soldiers use furniture and china tea sets as percussion instruments, their marching rhythm is actually scored and they continually switch between singing and speaking. Further actors and dancers add a richness to the cast, with other carefully blended voices and noises, as well as electronic sounds coming from ten sets of loudspeakers arranged around the auditorium.
All this sounds like a daunting prospect, but, according to Zimmermann, the greatest challenge lies elsewhere. "This work places enormous demands on the singers and ulti-mately on the conductor." Kirill Petrenko sums it up like this, "Zimmermann's Die Soldaten is a challenge that's going to test myself and the whole team, particularly on the technical side. It's probably one of the most complex scores of the 20th century in whose musical variety – the styles range from Bach to jazz – everything blends together into a plea for humanity and peace."
For press ticket requests, please contact email@example.com or +49 / (0)89 – 2185 1021.
Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Die Soldaten
Première on
Sunday, 25 May 2014, 7.00 p.m. *
Wednesday, 28 May 2014, 7.00 p.m.
Saturday, 31 May 2014, 7.00 p.m. **
Wednesday, 4 June 2014, 7.30 p.m.
Friday, 6 June 2014, 7.00 p.m.
* Live radio broadcast on BR-Klassik
** Live stream on STAATSOPER.TV
"Die Soldaten" in the media: BR-Klassik and STAATSOPER.TV
There will be a live radio broadcast of the premiere on Sunday, 25th May from 7.00 p.m. (C.E.T.) on BR-Klassik. 30 minutes before the start of the performance, Foyer will be broadcasting from the Staatsoper where there will be an introduction to the opera as well as discussion and reports about the new production.
The third performance in the premiere series will be broadcast live on 31st May 2014 on STAATSOPER.TV which you can access through the Bayerische Staatsoper's website. At www.staatsoper.de/tv music lovers from across the world can watch the entire opera online, including an introduction by General Manager Nikolaus Bachler and reports from backstage during the interval – as always completely free!
Die Soldaten
Sunday, 25 May 2014, 7.00 p.m. *
Live radio broadcast on BR-Klassik
Saturday, 31 May 2014
7 pm (C.E.T.)
Live stream on STAATSOPER.TV
April 30, 2014
The 2014/15 season at Bayerische Staatsoper
General Music Director Kirill Petrenko will be conducting two new productions: Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in the stage production of director Barbara Wysocka (with Diana Damrau and Pavol Breslik singing the main roles) as well as Alban Berg's Lulu with Marlis Petersen in the title role, staged by Dmitri Tcherniakov. With the resumption of Der Ring des Nibelungen, the General Music Director will also for the first time interpret a work by Richard Wagner at Bayerische Staatsoper.
The season opens with a fresh staging of Leoš Janáček's Věc Makropulos
conducted by Tomáš Hanus with Nadja Michael in the title role (directed by Árpád Schilling). Following that will be the premiere of Puccini's Manon Lescaut (directed by Hans Neuenfels), where Anna Netrebko will for the first time be heard in a new production at Bayerische Staatsoper. Singing by her side will be Jonas Kaufmann (Des Grieux) and Markus Eiche (Lescaut); the conductor will be Alain Altinoglu. The 2015 Munich Opera Festival will open in Prinzregententheater with the premiere of Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande; Christiane Pohle is the producer and Constantinos Carydis will be on the podium at Bayerisches Staatsorchester. Anja Harteros will take on the title role of Arabella in Strauss's opera of the same name. In this final premiere of the season, Philippe Jordan will be conducting and Andreas Dresen will be the director.
An additional 37 productions are on the musical programme such as Elektra, La forza del destino, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Guillaume Tell, Norma, Roberto Devereux, Die schweigsame Frau, Simon Boccanegra, Die Soldaten and Tristan und Isolde. A Schubert cycle with Christian Gerhaher, six Academy Concerts, Le Comte Ory by the Opera Studio as well as a children's opera premiere of Pinocchio will round out the programme.
More information about the Programme of Bayerische Staatsoper will be found in a detailed press release.
Press release, long (pdf download)
Press release, short (pdf download)
Photo download
Nikolaus Bachler and Kirill Petrenko
Foto: Joachim Baldauf
New productions
Leoš Janáček
Věc Makropulos
Conductor: Tomáš Hanus
Production: Árpád Schilling
Premiere: October 19, 2014, Nationaltheater
Giacomo Puccini
Manon Lescaut
Conductor: Alain Altinoglu
Production: Hans Neuenfels
Premiere: November 15, 2014, Nationaltheater
Gaetano Donizetti
Lucia di Lammermoor
Conductor: Kirill Petrenko
Production: Barbara Wysocka
Premiere: January 26, 2015, Nationaltheater
Alban Berg
Conductor: Kirill Petrenko
Production: Dmitri Tcherniakov
Premiere: May 25, 2015, Nationaltheater
Claude Debussy
Pelléas et Mélisande
Conductor: Constantinos Carydis
Production: Christiane Pohle
Premiere: June 28, 2015, Prinzregententheater
Richard Strauss
Conductor: Philippe Jordan
Production: Andreas Dresen
Premiere: July 6, 2015, Nationaltheater
March 6, 2014
"La clemenza di Tito" in the media: BR-Klassik and STAATSOPER.TV
Mozart's final opera was a contract commission on short notice for the coronation of Emperor Leopold II as King of Bohemia. The pressures of time in 1791 forced the free spirit Mozart to fall back on material of a faded hue: Metastasio's history, already brought to the opera stage a dozen times, about the Roman Emperor Titus has always served at one and the same time as homage to one of the mighty as well as an exhortation to the enlightened ruler in the name of reason. Mozart was able to derive his own profile from the outdated genre of the opera seria and once again drew a sketch of the complicated mechanics of human emotions.
Standing on the podium of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester will be Kirill Petrenko in his second premiere as the General Music Director of the Bayerische Staatsoper. With this production, Petrenko will for the first time after a pause of seven years be conducting a work of the Salzburg composer. The Latvian soprano Kristīne Opolais, who celebrated her international breakthrough by standing in as Rusalka in the first premiere of the 2010/11 season, portrays a power-minded and calculating Vitellia in her debut in this role. Toby Spence, most recently heard at the Bayerische Staatsoper as Tamino in Mozart's The Magic Flute, sings the title part. The remaining roles are sung by members of the ensemble: Tara Erraught takes on the part of Sesto, Angela Brower plays Annio and Hanna-Elisabeth Müller is Servilia.
Wolfgang A. Mozarts
La clemenza di Tito
Monday, Feb. 10, 2014, 7.00 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014, 7.30 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, 7.00 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014, 7.00 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014, 7.00 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 26. 2014, 7.00 p.m.
sponsored by
"La clemenza di Tito" in the media: BR-Klassik and STAATSOPER.TV
BR-Klassik will broadcast the premiere live on radio on 10 February at 7 p.m. The third performance of the premiere series, which sold out weeks ago, will be broadcast live on the homepage of the Bayerische Staatsoper on Saturday, 15 February, in association with STAATSOPER.TV. At www.staatsoper.de/tv music lovers from all over the world will be able to follow the entire opera including the introduction by Opera Manager Nikolaus Bachler and backstage reports during the intermission - as always for free.
La clemenza di Tito
Radio broadcast of the premiere on BR-Klassik
Monday 10 February 2014 at 7 p.m.
Live-stream on STAATSOPER.TV
Saturday 15 February 2014 at 7 p.m.
February 3, 2014
General Music Director Kirill Petrenko in March
February 3, 2014
Premiere of "La forza del destino" in the production by Martin Kuej
Like Verdi's operas Simon Boccanegra and Il trovatore, La forza del destino is based on an early 19th century Spanish drama which is characterised primarily by strong contrasts and a tableau-type structure. In his staging, Martin Kušej brings together contemporary images of religious zeal and its often bellicose consequences on a collision course. At the centre stands Leonora, who, traumatised and guilt-ridden after the sudden death of her father, seeks solitude in a hermitage. She experiences the choirs of monks, romanticising enthusiasm for war and her brother's desire for revenge as an ultimately inextricable entanglement woven by destiny.
The Austrian-born General Manager of the Munich Residence Theatre says of his approach to directing: "There is no force of destiny! Destiny is an ingenious invention of the Church which allows it to deal manipulatively with the inadequacies and emotions of humankind – and here, 'Church' basically means any religion that has been organised and perverted into a sort of power community." In his new interpretation, Kušej primarily examines the conflict between the Catholic Church and Islam.
It will be the third shared new production for two singers who have been particularly closely associated with the Bayerische Staatsoper for years: Back in 2009, Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann opened the Munich Opera Festival in Richard Jones's reinterpretation of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin. This was followed in June 2013 by Olivier Py's new production of Giuseppe Verdi's Il trovatore. In La forza del destino, they will be making their role débuts as the couple that is so badly shaken by fate: Donna Leonora and Don Alvaro. Other singers include Nadia Krasteva (Preziosilla), Vitalji Kowaljow (Il Marchese di Calatrava and Padre Guardiano) and Ludovic Tézier (Don Carlo di Vargas). The Bayeriche Staatsorchester will be conducted by Maestro Asher Fisch, appearing on the rostrum for his first premiere at the Bayerische Staatsoper.
The work is based on Ángel de Saavedra Duque de Rivas's drama Don Álvaro o La fuerza del sino (1835) and parts of Friedrich von Schiller's Wallensteins Lager (1798). An initial version was created for the Imperial Italian Theatre in St Petersburg, where the work was first performed in 1862. Verdi made extensive revisions for the performance at La Scala, Milan, in 1869. The crucial change: Alvaro remains alive at the end of the second version. Franz Werfel, in his now famous free adaptation of 1926 (Dresden; conductor: Fritz Busch), proposed a combination of both versions. The end is that of the Milan version. The large chorus scene with Preziosilla takes place in the middle of the third act, as in the St Petersburg version. Kušej and Fisch have followed the scene order of the Werfel version.
"La forza del destino" in the media: BR Klassik and STAATSOPER.TV
BR-Klassik will be broadcasting the premiere on 22 December live on radio from 7 p.m.. The third performance of the premiere series, which has been sold out for weeks, will be transmitted live on the Bayerische Staatsoper website on 28 December 2013 as part of STAATSOPER.TV. At www.staatsoper.de/tv music lovers from all over the world will be able to watch the entire opera, including an introduction by State General Manager Nikolaus Bachler and backstage reports in the interval – free of charge, as always.
Giuseppe Verdi
La forza del destino
Sun., Dec. 22, 2013, 6.00 P.M. *
Wed., Dec. 25, 2013, 6.00 P.M.
Sat., Dec. 28, 2013, 6.00 P.M. **
Thu., Jan. 02, 2014, 7.00 P.M.
Sun., Jan. 05, 2014, 6.00 P.M.
Wed., Jan. 08, 2014, 7.00 P.M.
Sat., Jan. 11, 2014, 7.00 P.M.
* Live Radio broadcast on BR-Klassik
** Live stream on STAATSOPER.TV
setting Partner
Dec. 12, 2013
First premiere of the season: Richard Strauss's "Die Frau ohne Schatten"
"The possibility of conducting Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten hit me like a bolt from the blue. This is an absolute godsend for me! Performing this opera in this venue and continuing such an impressive tradition is absolutely awe-inspiring", says Petrenko. For the first time in the history of the reception of the work at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Petrenko will be presenting the uncut version.
The new interpretation is in the hands of the Polish director Krzysztof Warlikowski, who staged Peter I. Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at the Bayerische Staatsoper back in 2007. Warlikowski was inspired by Alain Resnais's 1961 film Last Year at Marienbad, in which the entire European nobility meets during the post-War period in a fictional German spa. "[Die Frau ohne Schatten] … could be the story of a woman, a couple, living in a sanatorium where they are seeking an answer for themselves – this is the rich, decadent world, as it were. On the other side, another couple lives in the sanatorium, the down-to-earth dyers, who are responsible here for washing the laundry of the sanatorium guests. This also reminds us of Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain, of course", Warlikowski continues.
The Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka sings the part of the Empress. Deborah Polaski is returning to the stage of the Bayerische Staatsoper as the Nurse after her portrait of Koselnička in Leoš Janáček's Jenůfa in 2009. The South African tenor Johan Botha, singing the part of the Emperor, will be involved in a premiere at the Bayerische Staatsoper for the first time. Wolfgang Koch, most recently Alberich in Andreas Kriegenburg's Ring des Nibelungen, plays the Dyer Barak, partnered by the Russian soprano Elena Pankratova as the Dyer's Wife.
STAATSOPER.TV: Die Frau ohne Schatten
The performance of Die Frau ohne Schatten on 1 December 2013 will be the second performance of the current season to be broadcast live on the Bayerische Staatsoper website as part of STAATSOPER.TV. The entire opera, including an introduction by General Manager Nikolaus Bachler and backstage reports in the interval, can be viewed free of charge at STAATSOPER.TV.
The premiere of Die Frau ohne Schatten will be presented live via audio broadcast on BR Klassik on 21 November.
Richard Strauss
Die Frau ohne Schatten
Première on
Thursday, 21 November 2013, 5.00 p.m. *
Sunday, 24 November 2013, 4.00 p.m.
Thursday, 28 November 2013, 6.00 p.m.
Sunday, 1 December 2013, 6.00 p.m. **
Wednesday, 4 December 2013, 6.00 p.m.
Saturday, 7 December 2013, 5.00 p.m.
* Live radio broadcast on BR Klassik
** Live stream on STAATSOPER.TV and on Mezzo
Photo Download
Adrianne Pieczonka (The Empress)
Johan Botha (The Emperor)
Sebastian Holecek (The Messenger of Keikobad), Deborah Polaski (The Nurse), Adrianne Pieczonka (The Empress)
Elena Pankratova (The Dyer's Wife)
Photos: Wilfried Hösl
Nov. 18, 2013
2013/14 Season: 50 years since the reopening of the National Theatre
The 50th anniversary of the reopening of the Munich National Theatre, which was destroyed in the Second World War, is the focal point of the autumn programme at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Friedrich Nietzsche's quote "How one becomes what one is" defines the season and refers to the chequered history of the theatre, which opened its reconstructed doors in 1963, 20 years after the theatre was destroyed by a bombing attack in October 1943. At that time, the programme included Die Frau ohne Schatten, and Richard Strauss's opera is also the first premiere of the 2013/14 season, under the baton of the new General Music Director Kirill Petrenko. Before this, a celebratory event will mark the actual anniversary. A research project at Ludwig Maximilian University Munich and a series of themed concerts examine the history and development of the theatre. In addition, the new portrait gallery will be opened and the Staatsoper app goes online.
The new portrait gallery at the Bayerische Staatsoper
From 16 October 2013, there will be some new additions to the historic portrait gallery at the National Theatre: 21 selected illustrious singers from the last five decades who are or have been closely associated with the Bayerische Staatsoper have each been depicted by the same number of contemporary visual artists. The "ancestral portrait gallery" initially created in 1899 by Ernst von Possart, General Manager of the Residenztheater, has been looked after since 1963 by the Association of Friends of the National Theatre, which is also the partner and generous sponsor for the renewal of the gallery. There have only been a few new portraits since the 1960s; most recently, these were of Wolfgang Sawallisch and Sir Peter Jonas.
The visual artists were chosen for the new portrait gallery by the art historian Eva Karcher. Over the last two years, the artists have been working in various formats and a wide range of media, from classic drawing and painting through photography and video to embroidery and encaustic art. The project has also been made possible by a large number of patrons, who have become "portrait sponsors". The new works will be on display in the front building of the National Theatre from 16 October onwards, where they will form a fascinating dialogue with the historic portraits (including portraits by painters such as Franz von Lenbach and Franz von Stuck). 19 historic works will be stored in the Theatre Museum. The new portraits are not on loan; they will form part of the Bayerische Staatsoper's collection and will be on permanent display here.
Contemporary portraits will follow at irregular intervals from next year.
To take a look at the new portraits of Jonas Kaufmann, Anja Harteros, Edita Gruberova, Hildegard Behrens or René Kollo by artists such as Elizabeth Peyton, David LaChapelle, Vik Muniz or Stephan Balkenhol click here.
Photo download
Edita Gruberova (Portrait by Matthias Bitzer)
Anja Harteros (Portrait by Vik Muniz)
Jonas Kaufmann (Portrait by Elizabeth Peyton)
Photo Gallery
Research project: How one becomes what one is.
Reconstruction of a history from 1933-1963 of the Bayerische Staatsoper as an institution and of its productions
The 50th anniversary of the reopening of the National Theatre is an excellent reason for the Bayerische Staatsoper to examine the history of the theatre in the period 1933 to 1963. General Manager Nikolaus Bachler commissioned a research team at the Munich Institute of Theatre Studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University to examine personnel and aesthetic developments and discontinuities at the Bayerische Staatsoper, especially after the Second World War. The two-year project is being lead by Institute Director Professor Dr. Christopher Balme and theatre expert and musicologist Professor Dr. Jürgen Schläder. The research team also includes the Scientific Assistant at the Munich Institute of Theatre Studies Dr. Rasmus Cromme and doctoral student Dominik Frank.
The main points of the research project focus firstly, from the viewpoint of aesthetics and interpretation, on the musical theatre policy of those years, and secondly on the architectural, institutional and personnel regeneration of the National Theatre. Sources include both historic newspapers reports and conversations with contemporary witnesses, and also correspondence, work and personnel files (e.g. Richard Strauss, Rudolf Hartmann or Clemens Krauss and their probable correspondence with the Nazi leadership), which will be examined in various archives. These include the Bavarian Central State Archive in Munich and its field office in Eichstätt, the National and City Archive in Munich, the German Theatre Museum and the archive of the Friends of the National Theatre.
More information (in German)
Anniversary Celebration: 50 years since the reopening of the National Theatre
In autumn 2013, to mark the actual anniversary of the reopening, the history of the National Theatre will be examined in comprehensive detail. The curtain-raiser will be the Anniversary Celebration on 17 November. Kirill Petrenko, appearing for the first time in his function as General Music Director, will appear on the rostrum before the Bavarian State Orchestra and conduct music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. Two of today's most sought-after soloists will be appearing: Munich tenor Jonas Kaufmann will be interpreting Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond from Die Walküre, and Swedish soprano Nina Stemme will sing the Marschallin's monologue from Der Rosenkavalier. The Viennese classical preiod is represented by the overture to Don Giovanni. The principal speaker will be author and philosopher Péter Esterházy, and Prime Minister Horst Seehofer and General Manager Nikolaus Bachler will also be speaking. The tickets to this anniversary celebration will be given away free of charge. There were almost 7,000 applications; tickets will be allocated by lot. The event will be broadcast live on Bavarian Television.
Anniversary Celebration
Sunday, Nov. 17 2013, 11 a.m.
Premiere of "Die Frau ohne Schatten" (21 November)
Kirill Petrenko's first premiere as General Music Director opens the list of new productions. "The possibility of conducting Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten hit me like a thunderbolt. This is a gift from the heavens for me! It is truly awe-inspiring to be performing this opera in this venue and continuing such an impressive tradition", comments Petrenko. The work will be re-interpreted by the Polish director Krzysztof Warlikowski, who was responsible for the staging of Peter I. Tchaikovsky's Eugen Onegin at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 2007.
The Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka sings the Empress. Deborah Polaski returns to the stage of the Bayerische Staatsoper as the Nurse, after her portrait of Kostelnička in Leoš Janáček's Jenůfa in 2009. The South African tenor Johan Botha, singing the part of the Emperor, will be involved in a premiere at the Bayerische Staatsoper for the first time. Wolfgang Koch, most recently Alberich in Andreas Kriegenburg's Ring des Nibelungen, plays the Dyer Barak, partnered by the Russian soprano Elena Pankratova as the Dyer's Wife.
The performance on Dec. 1 will be broadcast live on STAATSOPER.TV.
For review tickets to Die Frau ohne Schatten or the Anniversary Celebration or further images please contact email@example.com
For further information: Download press text (pdf)
Watch Alexander Tsymbalyuk as Boris Godunov live and free of charge at www.staatsoper.de/tv
Calixto Bieito's production with the impressive set of Rebecca Ringst premiered in February 2013 and features the young Ukrainian bass Alexander Tsymbalyuk in the title role alongside Anatoli Kotscherga (Pimen), Gerhard Siegel (Schusjkij) and Sergey Skorokhodov (Grigorij Otrepjew). The Bayerisches Staatsorchester will be led by General Music Director Kent Nagano.
The live audiovisual broadcast will start at 8 p.m. (CET) at www.staatsoper.de/tv. The service is free of charge to viewers.
During the 2012/13 season, the Bayerische Staatsoper is the first international opera house to present a selection of eight opera productions and two ballet performances live online. The STAATSOPER.TV programme will go on transmitting opera and ballet free of charge during the upcoming 2013/14 season starting with Krzysztof Warlikowski's new production of Richard Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten on December 1.
Boris Godunov
Friday, July 26, 2013
8.00 p.m. (CET)
2.00 p.m. (EDT)
11.00 a.m. (PDT)
Photo download
The Chorus of Bayerische Staatsoper
Alexander Tsymbalyuk (Boris Godunov)
© Wilfried Hösl
Olivier Pys new production of "Il trovatore" live and free of charge at www.staatsoper.de/tv
The live audiovisual broadcast will start at 7 p.m. (MET) at www.staatsoper.de/tv. The service is free of charge to viewers.
During the 2012/13 season, the Bayerische Staatsoper is the first international opera house to present a selection of eight opera productions and two ballet performances live and free of charge online. Until the end of the season, the STAATSOPER.TV programme will feature one more live transmissions, Calixto Bieito's take on Modest Mussorgski's Boris Godunov (July 26).
Il trovatore
Friday, July 5, 2013
7.00 p.m. (MET)
1.00 p.m. (EDT)
10.00 a.m. (PST)
Photo download
Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann
Jonas Kaufmann
Jonas Kaufmann, Anja Harteros, Elena Manistina, Francesco Petrozzi, extras
Photos: Wilfried Hösl
Il trovatore supported by
Partner der Münchner Opernfestspiele
July 2, 2013
Kick Off to the 2013 Munich Opera Festival
Shortly after the first festival premiere, Munich's Max-Joseph-Platz will be transformed into an arena: The two musical giants Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner will be entering into a musical competition with each other. The spectacle has been conceived by the Catalan theatre group La Fura dels Baus under Carlus Padrissa, who has already directed Puccini's Turandot and Widmann's Babylon at the Bayerische Staatsoper, and Munich composer Moritz Eggert. Two giant puppets will represent the composers, supported by an armada of wind players, musicians from the Bavarian State Orchestra and the people of Munich. Admission is free of charge, everybody is invited to choose his or her favourite composer on www.staatsoper.de/wagnerverdi. All participants will receive am message with the secret meeting place to support one of the two during their procession through Munich city centre to the "arena" just in front of the Opera House. So far, hundreds of participants have already signed up. Surprising preliminary result: over two-thirds favour Verdi!
Photo Download
Verdi vs. Wagner 1
(Giuseppe Fiore as Verdi, Andrew Vanoni as Wagner)
Verdi vs. Wagner 2
(Giuseppe Fiore as Verdi, Andrew Vanoni as Wagner, Isabella Hechelmann and Elisabeth Metzner)
Copyright: Wilfried Hösl
Watch our "Wagner vs. Verdi" video trailer on YouTube!
Find the full schedule of the vox populi projects here.
Partner der Münchner Opernfestspiele
Partner of the vox populi projects
June 19, 2013
Festival premiere: "Il trovatore"
With the new staging of Il trovatore, the French director Olivier Py will be appearing before audiences at the Bayerische Staatsoper for the first time. The cast of the premiere includes two international audience favourites: Jonas Kaufmann will be making his role début as Manrico alongside Anja Harteros as Leonora. The two Russian-born soloists Elena Manistina and Alexey Markov are making their house débuts as Azucena and Count di Luna. The Bayerische Staatsorchester will be conducted by the Verdi expert Paolo Carignani (premiere: 27.6.).
Giuseppe Verdi
Il trovatore
Thursday, June 27, 2013, 7 P.M.
Monday, July 1, 2013, 7 P.M.
Friday, July 5, 2013, 7 P.M.
Monday, July 8, 2013, 7 P.M.
Il trovatore sponsored by
Partner der Münchner Opernfestspiele
June 19, 2013
STAATSOPER.TV: "Il trovatore" and "Boris Godunov" live and free
The streaming of Olivier Py's Il trovatore (July 5, with Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann) and Calixto Bieito's Boris Godunov (July 26, with Alexander Tsymbalyuk in the title role) will complete the STAATSOPER.TV 2012/13 season. For the 2013/14 season, a total of nine performances are planned to be presented online, live and free of charge.
Il trovatore
Friday, July 05, 2013, 7 P.M.
Boris Godunov
Friday, July 05, 2013, 7 P.M.
June 19, 2013
Peter Konwitschnys "The Flying Dutchman" live and free of charge at STAATSOPER.TV
After presenting his ideas on Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal, this production from the 2005/06 season was the third time Peter Konwitschny directed a Wagner piece for the Bayerische Staatsoper. The performance will feature dutch baritone Johan Reuter in the title role alongside Anja Kampe's Senta and Klaus Florian Vogt's Erik. Peter Rose will be singing Daland, the Bayerische Staatsorchester will be led by Maestro Asher Fisch.
The live audiovisual broadcast will start at 8 p.m. (MET) at www.staatsoper.de/tv. The service is free of charge to viewers.
During the 2012/13 season, the Bayerische Staatsoper is the first international opera house to present a selection of eight opera productions and two ballet performances live and free of charge online. Until the end of the season, the STAATSOPER.TV programme will feature live transmissions of Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and Giuseppe Verdis Il trovatore.
The Flying Dutchman
Sat, April 20, 2013,
8.00 p.m. (MET)
2.00 p.m. (EST)
11.00 a.m. (PST)
Photo download
Photo 1: Johan Reuter (Dutchman)
Photo 2: Anja Kampe (Senta), Johan Reuter (Dutchman)
Copyright: Wilfried Hösl
April 16, 2013
The 2013/14 Season
Alongside the November premiere of Die Frau ohne Schatten directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski and conducted by Kirill Petrenko, the programme also includes Giuseppe Verdi's La forza del destino (directed by Martin Kušej) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's late work La clemenza di Tito (directed by Jan Bosse). In spring 2014, Kirill Petrenko will be conducting a new interpretation of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten. The 2014 Munich Opera Festival will open with a new production of Gioachino Rossini's Guillaume Tell, and a baroque opera, Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, will be introduced into the repertoire of the Bayerische Staatsoper in July 2014.
In addition, the schedule also includes 35 further productions, such as Babylon, Boris Godunov, La Calisto, L'Enfant et les sortilèges / Der Zwerg, Eugene Onegin, Rusalka, Salome, Il turco in Italia and Wozzeck. A Celebratory Concert to mark the 150th birthday of Richard Strauss, the Anniversary Celebration commemorating 50 years since the reopening of the opera house and the Opera Studio production of The Rake's Progress in the Cuvilliés Theatre complete the programme.
Further information about the premieres is attached in a comprehensive press release.
Press information (long version)
Press information (short version)
Photo download
Nikolaus Bachler and Kirill Petrenko
Kirill Petrenko and Nikolaus Bachler
Copyright: Wilfried Hösl
The premières:
Richard Strauss
Die Frau ohne Schatten
Musical direction Kirill Petrenko
Stage direction Krzysztof Warlikowski
Premiere on Nov. 21, 2013 in the Nationaltheater
Giuseppe Verdi
La forza del destino
Musical direction Asher Fisch
Stage direction Martin Kušej
Premiere on Dec. 22, 2013 in the Nationaltheater
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
La clemenza di Tito
Musical direction Kirill Petrenko
Stage direction Jan Bosse
Premiere on Feb. 10, 2014 in the Nationaltheater
Igor Strawinsky
The Rake's Progress
Production by the Opera Studio
Premiere on Apr. 30, 2014 in the Cuvilliés-Theater
Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Die Soldaten
Musical direction Kirill Petrenko
Stage direction Andreas Kriegenburg
Premiere on May 25, 2014 in the Nationaltheater
Gioachino Rossini
Guillaume Tell
Musical direction Dan Ettinger
Stage direction Antú Romero Nunes
Festival premiere June 28, 2014 in the Nationaltheater
Claudio Monteverdi
Musical direction Ivor Bolton
Stage direction David Bösch
Festival premiere on July 20, 2014 in the Prinzregententheater
March 19, 2013
STAATSOPER.TV: Watch Karita Mattilas Jenůfa live from Munich
The programme this time will be Leoš Janáček's Jenůfa in a production which was premiered in 2009. The drama about the young and loving Jenůfa, whose life turns to a tragedy after she was left pregnant by her lover was staged by theatre director Barbara Frey. The Bavarian State Orchestra will be directed by Tomáš Hanus, who will also lead the premiere of a new Hansel and Gretel next month.
In the title role, Finnish soprano Karita Mattila will return to the stage of the Bavarian State Opera after opening the Munich Opera Festival 2010 as Tosca alongside Jonas Kaufmann. Gabriele Schnaut will be appearing as her stepmother, Stefan Margita and Pavel Cernoch will be singing the brothers Laca and Štewa. The live audiovisual broadcast will start at 7 p.m. (MET) at www.staatsoper.de/tv. The service is free of charge to viewers.
During the 2012/13 season, the Bavarian State Opera is the first international opera house to present a selection of seven opera productions and two ballet performances live and free of charge online. The aim is to make the artistic language of the House known beyond the borders of Europe and to offer opera lovers all over the world the opportunity to share in selected performances.
Before the live stream, General Manager Nikolaus Bachler will provide an introduction to the work, and the State Opera will also allow a glimpse behind the stage of the Opera House during the intervals. Subtitles in German and English complete the services offered. Apart from a computer, laptop or tablet PC, users will only require a broadband internet connection such as DSL and speakers connected to the device.
Sat., March 9, 2013
7.00 p.m. (MET)
1.00 p.m. (EST)
10.00 a.m. (PST)
Photo download
Photo 1 (Eva-Maria Westbroek as Jenůfa)
Photo 2 (Ensemble)
© Wilfried Hösl
February 20, 2013
"Turandot" live and free of charge on www.staatsoper.de/tv
The production, which opened in December 2011, was directed by Carlus Padrissa (La Fura dels Baus) and will feature Iréne Theorin as the cold-hearted Chinese princess. The role of Prince Calaf will be sung by Yonghoon Lee, Serena Farnocchia is the servant Liù. Marco Armiliato will lead the Bayerische Staatsorchester (Bavarian State Orchestra). The live transmisson will start at 6.55 pm (MET) and – as always is free of charge for anyone watching.
In 2012/13, the Bavarian State Opera will be the first international opera house to present, with STAATSOPER.TV, a season with live streams online free of charge.
Before the live stream, General Manager Nikolaus Bachler will provide an introduction to the work, and the State Opera will also allow a glimpse behind the stage of the opera house during the intermission. Subtitles in German and English complete the services offered. Apart from a computer, laptop or tablet PC, users will only require a broadband internet connection such as DSL and speakers connected to the device.
Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012
6.55 p.m. (GMT)
12.55 p.m. (EST)
09.55 a.m. (PST)
November 22, 2012
Première of "Babylon" - Live transmission on November 3rd
In this commissioned work, Widmann, together with the philosopher and librettist Peter Sloterdijk, recreates one of the most fascinating cities of the ancient Near East, with its diverse juxtaposition of cultures and languages. Carlus Padrissa from the Catalan Theatre Group La Fura dels Baus is responsible for the stage production. The performance on November 3rd will be streamed live and free of charge on STAATSOPER.TV.Babylon tells of the collision between the Jewish and Babylonian cultures in the ancient Near East and the different concepts of this world, the next world and divine order in the two societies.
Jörg Widmann, who was born in Munich, carried the idea of an opera about Babylon in him for a long time. His original fascination was aroused by the completely different concept of love, almost unimaginable for us, in Ancient Mesopotamia. And so a true love story unfurls in Babylon. The love between the central figures of Tammu and Inanna has its origins in one of the most legendary mythological couples of Babylonian Antiquity, who had already inspired Mozart's Magic Flute librettist Emanuel Schikaneder: the hero Tammuzi and Inanna, the goddess of love and war. Widmann also took inspiration from the Epic of Gilgamesh and from Biblical prophets and well-known psalms.
Jörg Widmann
World première
Sat., Oct. 27, 2012
Wed., Oct. 31, 2012
Sat., Nov. 03, 2012
Tue., Nov. 06, 2012
Sat., Nov. 10, 2012
Press information (pdf download)
Partner of the world premières of the Bavarian State Opera
October 18, 2012
STAATSOPER.TV: Watch opera live and online
In 2012/13, the Bavarian State Opera will be the first international opera house to present, with STAATSOPER.TV, a season with live streams online free of charge. Opera lovers from all over the world will be able to enjoy a total of seven opera performances and two ballet evenings in full and live online from Munich. The first of these will be the audiovisual transmission on 3 November 2012 of Jörg Widmann's new opera Babylon (musical director: K. Nagano, stage production: Carlus Padrissa - La Fura dels Baus; with C. McFadden, A. Prohaska, W. White, G. Schnaut).
This will be followed by streams of the following opera performances:
November 25, 2012
Giacomo Puccini
M. Armiliato/C. Padrissa - La Fura dels Baus
I. Theorin, Y. Lee, S. Farnocchia
December 30, 2012
Giuseppe Verdi
M. Armiliato/Á. Schilling
J. Calleja, F. Vassallo, P. Petibon
March 9, 2013
Leoš Janáček
T. Hanus/B. Frey
S. Margita, P. Cernoch, G. Schnaut, K. Mattila
April 20, 2013
Richard Wagner
Der fliegende Holländer
A. Fish/P. Konwitschny
R. Siwek, A. Kampe, K. F. Vogt, J. Reuter
May 11, 2013
Giuseppe Verdi
M. Zanetti/M. Kušej
. Lučić, N. Michael, W. Kim
July 2013
Stream from the Munich Opera Festival
To be announced
In addition to these opera performances, the Bavarian State Ballet will also be featured in live streams: Apart from John Neumeier's classic Nutcracker (December 13, 2012), it will be possible to Terence Kohler's Helden (1 June 2013), a new work opening the 2013 Ballet Festival.
"I think that live streaming, as a one-off event, provides a contemporary way of opening the doors of the Opera House to the world. STAATSOPER.TV is live, like the theatre, and disappears when the curtain falls – and this is what gives it its very special appeal. The Bavarian State Opera is thus able to present itself to an even wider audience as a unique forum where innovative music theatre meets the world's best artists", says General Manager Nikolaus Bachler.
Four to six cameras in the auditorium of the National Theatre will broadcast the performances to the whole world via www.staatsoper.de/tv. Up to 40 microphones in the orchestra pit and on the stage will provide first-class sound quality. The streams will be offered in three different transmission qualities which will adjust automatically to the viewer's computer power or internet connection. Before each live stream, General Manager Nikolaus Bachler will provide an introduction to the work, and the State Opera will also allow a glimpse behind the stage of the Opera House during the intervals. Subtitles in German and English complete the services offered. Apart from a computer, laptop or tablet PC, users will only require a broadband internet connection such as DSL and speakers connected to the device.
As a sponsor for STAATSOPER.TV, it has been possible to attract, with The Linde Group, an international corporation which has been involved with the Bavarian State Opera for many years. Linde is exclusive Season Partner since the 2008/09 season and will now also be the International Streaming Partner for the next four seasons.
International Streaming Partner
Oct. 2, 2012
staatsoper.tv: The Bavarian State Opera presents its first live-stream season
In its upcoming 2012/13 season, the Bavarian State Opera will be the first international opera house to present, with staatsoper.tv, a season of free live streams online. The new offer from the State Opera, which has been tested several times in recent months, will allow opera lovers from all over the world to follow selected performances from Munich live and in full online. The season starts on 3 November 2012 with the stream of Jörg Widmann's new opera Babylon. Another six performances will be streamed throughout the season. Both selected new productions and repertoire pieces will be presented.
"staatsoper.tv aims to open up opera, to provide as many spectators from all over the world with the opportunity to see first-class opera performances from Munich. This cannot replace an evening in the opera house, of course, nor is it intended to. But for all those who cannot be here, staatsoper.tv is the best way of experiencing exciting musical theatre", comments General Manager Nikolaus Bachler.
Four to six cameras in the auditorium of the National Theatre will broadcast the performances to the whole world via www.staatsoper.de. Up to 40 microphones in the orchestra pit and on the stage will provide first-class sound quality. The streams will be offered in three different transmission qualities which will adjust automatically to the viewer's computer power or internet connection. Before each live stream, General Manager Nikolaus Bachler will provide an introduction to the work, and the State Opera will also allow a glimpse behind the stage of the Opera House during the intervals. Subtitles in German and English complete the services offered. Apart from a computer, laptop or tablet PC, users will only require a broadband internet connection such as DSL and speakers connected to the device.
As a sponsor for staatsoper.tv, it has been possible to attract, with The Linde Group, an international corporation which has been involved with the Bavarian State Opera for many years. Linde is exclusive Season Partner since the 2008/09 season and will now also be the International Streaming Partner for the next four seasons.
"Götterdämmerung" on www.staatsoper.de
On July 15, the Bavarian State Opera will present another full opera performance live and free on the website www.staatsoper.de with the transmission of Götterdämmerung, the fourth installment of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. For the sixth time (after live-streams of Fidelio, L'elisir d'amore, Don Carlo, Eugen Onegin and I Capuleti e i Montecchi) opera lovers can enjoy another outstanding production from the Bavarian State Opera in Munich free and in full length.
The premiere of Götterdämmerung opened the Munich Opera Festival last weekend and is the conclusion of the new production of the Ring, which is being staged from February to June by Andreas Kriegenburg under the musical direction of Kent Nagano leading the Bavarian State Orchestra.
In Götterdämmerung the American tenor Stephen Gould as Siegfried, Wolfgang Koch as Alberich, Iain Paterson as Gunther and Nina Stemme as Brünnhilde will be appearing, amongst others, on the stage of the Bavarian State Opera.
The live transmission of Götterdämmerung is part of a pilot project by General Manager Nikolaus Bachler in presenting opera online. The only requirement is a broadband internet connection such as DSL, the newest version of the flash player and speakers. There is no charge to the viewer for using the live stream.
Richard Wagner
Photo Download
Götterdämmerung 1
Götterdämmerung 2
© Wilfried Hösl
Opera for all thanks to
July 02, 2012
Spencer Tunick presents his newest installation "The Ring" to open the 2012 Munich Opera Festival
The Bavarian State Opera opened the Munich Opera Festival 2012 this Saturday morning with an installation by famed artist Spencer Tunick. Tunick's new work is entitled The Ring and in it about 1,700 of art lovers posed nude for the visiting New Yorker at several venues in downtown Munich. Tunick's artistic installation is inspired by Richard Wagner's great opus The Ring of the Nibelung and its new production by the producer Andreas Kriegenburg, which reaches its culmination on 30 June with the premiere of Götterdämmerung. Tunick used cosmetic body paint for the first time ever in an urban setting.
"This project with Spencer Tunick was even more exciting and intense than we all expected. A very urban project by the Bavarian State Opera, which once again opened its gates and carried Wagner's Ring out to the streets, plazas and the heart of the city and its inhabitants", says General Manager Nikolaus Bachler.
The participants met around 3 a.m. in the Munich city center to get naked for Tunick and paint their bodies with either gold or red body make-up. Right before sunrise at 5.15 a.m., Tunick had everybody in place for the first set-up on Ludwigstraße, one of Munich's big avenues.
"With the images of Andreas Kriegenburg's stage production in mind, for this very special installation I intend to adapt motifs from The Ring", Spencer Tunick explained. Hundreds of bodies painted red evoked the underworld of Nibelheim or the breath of the dragon from Siegfried. Right in front of the Opera house, Tunick had the participants representing the ring itself, this time painted with gold.
"Andreas Kriegenburg primarily tells his version of The Ring of the Nibelung by means of the performers' stage and gesticulation movements in addition to their singing. This produces an interesting equivalence to Spencer Tunick's human body installations. That is why it was an obvious choice to show these two projects for the Munich Opera Festival", says Nikolaus Bachler.
Spencer Tunick was born in Middletown (New York) and lives in the Hudson Valley in New York. Since 1992 he has been engaged in outdoor installations whose main motif has been the human body in the nude. For this purpose, he normally gets hundreds of people together. Tunick has done his work throughout the world, including in Belgium, Canada, the United States and Brazil. His temporary installations, which are always captured in photos and video, deal primarily with society's preconceived and often negative connotations of nudity: "I am fascinated by the beauty that is inherent in every human being", says Tunick. Tunick's works were done for SITE Santa Fe in New Mexico (2001), the XVI Bienal de Sāo Paulo in Brazil (2002), the Biennale de Lyon (2005) and the Viennese Kunsthalle (2008).
Photo Download
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
© Wilfried Hösl
Partner der Opernfestspiele
June 23, 2012
Festival premiere / "Der Ring des Nibelungen"
Like the entire 11/12 season, the Opera Festival itself is dominated by Richard Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen. The curtain-raiser is the Festival premiere of Götterdämmerung on 30 June. This, the fourth part of the tetralogy, also marks the conclusion of the new production of the Ring, which is being staged from February to June by Andreas Kriegenburg under the musical direction of Kent Nagano. During the Festival, two complete Ring cycles will be performed (from 3 to 8 July & 10 to 15 July), also under the baton of Kent Nagano.
In the Festival premiere of Götterdämmerung (premiere 30.6., 8.7. & 15.7.), the American Stephen Gould as Siegfried, Wolfgang Koch as Alberich and Nina Stemme as Brünnhilde will be appearing, amongst others, on the stage of the Bavarian State Opera. The other Ring performances feature a host of top-ranking artists, including Johan Reuter (Wotan), Sophie Koch (Fricka), Anja Kampe (Sieglinde), Klaus Florian Vogt (Siegfried), Katarina Dalayman (Brünnhilde in Walküre), Lance Ryan (Siegfried) and Catherine Nagelstad (Brünnhilde in Siegfried).
Der Ring des Nibelungen
21 June 2012
World premiere: "Hacking Wagner"
Many Israelis even today consider Richard Wagner's works as unacceptable in polite society. His anti-Semitic ideas and the use to which Wagner's music was put during the Nazi period have led to the composer and his works being subjected to a social ban. Consequently, Wagner's art is something Israel does not deal with. Precisely this fact is what the Israeli choreographer Saar Magal, a grandchild of Holocaust survivors, has now tackled. In her performance project Hacking Wagner that is being premiered at the 2012 Munich Opera Festival, she has brought this debate to the stage. Without falling back on preconceived notions or traditional interpretation patterns, she approaches Richard Wagner and his Ring des Nibelungen practically from scratch.
Hacking Wagner is part of the Ring Theme Programme at the Munich Opera Festival which in 2012 is devoted to Richard Wagner and, besides presenting Wagner's entire Ring tetralogy will be holding numerous accompanying events on the composer's life and work.
Hacking Wagner
Fri., 27 July 2012, 8.00 p.m.
Sat., 28 July 2012, 8.00 p.m.
Sun., 29 July 2012, 8.00 p.m.
Haus der Kunst, West Wing
Partner des Rund-um-den-Ring-Programms
21 June 2012
Gwyneth Jones in "Wagnerin - Ein Haus der Kunstmusik"
An evening without gods or heroes, for Cosima, Winifred, Gudrun and Katharina Wagner, many blue-clad maidens, a male choir and the festival orchestra's left-over trombones
Haus der Kunst is an important performance venue for the Bavarian State Opera and its accompanying Ring Themes programme during the 2012 Munich Opera Festival. The first climax of this event series dealing with Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen will be the musical theatre happening Wagnerin. Ein Haus der Kunstmusik with Dame Gwyneth Jones in Sven Holm's production. The premiere is on 24 June 2012. In this production, Holm puts forward the fates of female characters in the Ring as a contrast to female succession strategies in the Wagner dynasty and in a surreal manner gathers Cosima, Winifred, Gudrun and Katharina Wagner in a future Wahnfried threatened with destruction.
"Since Wagner's work also always reflects current events and the family's own history, this attempt to shed light on the role and actions of women in the Wagner dynasty is particularly interesting. The myth is updated into the present and the parallels of power, fate and mutual dependence come to light in this project. It is, of course, precisely in Bayreuth's present circumstances that this theme has a particular charm", according to Nikolaus Bachler, general manager of the Bavarian State Opera.
Producer Sven Holm explains his approach as follows: "It has always been the strong women who reigned in Bayreuth and who to some extent battled each other to inherit the Bayreuth Festival. Our project deals with the absurdity that Wagner basically anticipated the conflicts of his own descendants in the Ring, but only did so in the male world of the struggle for gold. For that reason, we want to gather several generations of Wagner women together in Munich, subject them to an analysis and free them from their curse."
Wagnerin revolves around the world of the Ring. Götterdämmerung, which ends on 30 June with Andreas Kriegenburg's new production of Wagner's drama of the worlds plays a central role with its apocalyptic scenario: "We are acting out as fiction an impending demise of the Bayreuth Festival in the near future. The orchestra and the heroes have departed and only the trumpets remain. In the house at Wahnfried, four Wagner women are sitting and trying to save the Wagnerian idea ... The entire house is one surreal scene where Katharina Wagner pulls the female role-players out of their graves and tries to make the myth interesting once again: the stories of the female figures in the Wagner family as well as the female figures in the Ring. Crucial at all times is the dialectic between a Cosima and a Brünnhilde or a Katharina and a Sieglinde. The deeply lonely feeling of growing up in this self-centred atmosphere of the Wagner family and not being able to escape it", according to Holm.
One of the most important performers to play Brünnhilde in recent decades, Dame Gwyneth Jones, will in the role of Cosima Wagner sing, among other things, fragments from the Ring. Also on stage will be the singers Hanna Dóra Sturludottir (Katharina Wagner) and Ceri Williams (Gudrun Wagner) together with the actress Renate Jett (Winifred Wagner) and members of the Bavarian State Opera ensemble. The music has been taken from the jazz ensemble Vertigo Trombone Quartet that will improvise the Wagnerian motif system further and whose frontman Nils Wogram was the 2011 winner of the BMW Jazz Award.
Wagnerin. Ein Haus der Kunstmusik
An evening without gods or heroes, for Cosima, Winifred, Gudrun and Katharina Wagner, many blue-clad maidens, a male choir and the festival orchestra's left-over trombones
Sun., 24 June, 2012, 8 P.M.
Mon., 25 June, 2012, 8 P.M.
Haus der Kunst, Westflügel
Partner des Rund-um-den-Ring-Programms
June 12, 2012
"Paint the town red For art"
2012 Munich Opera Festival: Spencer Tunick presents his installation "The Ring" in colour - www.staatsoper.de/Tunick
The American artist Spencer Tunick, famous for his installations comprising hundreds of naked bodies in public spaces, will be using body paint for the first time in an urban environment for his latest installation, "The Ring". The participants in the installation, which was inspired by Andreas Kriegenburg's new production of the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen, will position themselves in front of Tunick's camera in either red or gold and create motifs from Wagner's world drama with their bodies. Participants can register until 22 June at www.staatsoper.de/tunick and will receive a limited edition photograph.
"This is a wonderful opportunity for anyone interested in art who is too shy to pose completely naked. I am convinced that the body paint will help many participants to be less embarrassed – after all, they will still be covered in a way", says the New York artist.
"The Ring" will be taking place in several locations in Munich city centre (including Max-Joseph-Platz), offering hundreds of participants the opportunity to become part of an art work. The artist will be using specially formulated cosmetic body make-up, that is safe and easily removed with soap and water when the participants return home, although Tunick assumes most will want to leave it on.
Tunick is particularly fascinated by Munich as a setting: "I'm very interested in the history of the city, the close links with Richard Wagner's work, but also the dark chapters of the city's history and the building structures from the Nazi era. All this will certainly be a theme in my installation."
Tunick's commissioned work for the Bavarian State Opera was inspired by Richard Wagner's magnum opus Der Ring des Nibelungen and the new production by director Andreas Kriegenburg, which culminates in the première of Götterdämmerung on 30 June. In both Kriegenburg's interpretation and Tunick's works, the focus is on powerful, poetic images of human bodies.
Anyone who is interested and prepared to pose naked for Tunick in a public space is invited to register on the Bavarian State Opera web site: www.staatsoper.de/Tunick (by 22 June, 10 p.m. at the latest).
All press representatives who are interested in a media report should complete the attached form and return it to the Bavarian State Opera press office (email@example.com or fax: +49 (0)89 – 2185 1023). Please note that capacities at the edges of the installations are limited and that the Bavarian State Opera reserves the right to make a selection.
Participation is open to people aged 18 and over. On the day of the installation, only participants will be allowed in the locations.
Register now!
June 6, 2012
"The Ring" with Spencer Tunick at the 2012 Munich Opera Festival: www.staatsoper.de/Tunick
The Bavarian State Opera will open the 2012 Munich Opera Festival on the weekend of 23-24 June with, among other things, an installation by the renowned artist Spencer Tunick. Tunick's new work will be entitled The Ring and in it thousands of art lovers will pose nude for the visiting New Yorker at several venues in downtown Munich and in that way have the opportunity to become part of a work of art. Tunick's artistic installation is inspired by Richard Wagner's great opus The Ring of the Nibelung and its new production by the producer Andreas Kriegenburg which reaches its culmination on 30 June with the premiere of Götterdämmerung. Those interested and willing to pose naked for Tunick in public are invited to register with the Bavarian State Opera's website: www.staatsoper.de/Tunick.
The artist is known for his temporary installations of hundreds and sometimes even thousands of naked human bodies against impressive backdrops in public. For the 2012 Munich Opera Festival, Tunick is designing his first large scale action in Germany. Several places in downtown Munich will provide the background for his latest art installation: "Andreas Kriegenburg primarily tells his version of The Ring of the Nibelung by means of the performers' stage and gesticulation movements in addition to their singing. This produces an interesting equivalence to Spencer Tunick's human body installations. That is why it was an obvious choice to show these two projects for the Opera Festival", says Nikolaus Bachler, Manager of the Bavarian State Opera.
Tunick's works were done for SITE Santa Fe in New Mexico (2001), the XVI Bienal de Sāo Paulo in Brazil (2002), the Biennale de Lyon (2005) and the Viennese Kunsthalle (2008). Volunteer participants meet at an appointed time and take their clothes off. With the support of his team, Tunick organises and directs the participants according to his ideas and wishes and forms them into a group and captures the moment in photos and video. "I am very happy to have been invited by the Bavarian State Opera to Munich. Wagner's claim to being a total art creator has long fascinated me. With the images of Andreas Kriegenburg's stage production in mind, for this very special installation I intend to adapt motifs from The Ring like dragons, flames and even the ring itself", as Spencer Tunick explained.
All participants can register by 22 June 2012, 11:30 p.m. at the latest on the Bavarian State Opera's website, www.staatsoper.de/Tunick. The participants will be informed a week in advance of the installation by email about details such as the meeting point and the time. All of those contributing will receive a limited edition photo. Participation is open to anyone 18 years or older. On the day of the installation, only participants will be admitted to the venues.
Spencer Tunick was born in Middletown (New York) and lives in the Hudson Valley in New York. Since 1992 he has been engaged in outdoor installations whose main motif has been the human body in the nude. For this purpose, he normally gets thousands of people together. Tunick has done his work throughout the world, including in Belgium, Canada, the United States and Brazil. His temporary installations, which are always captured in photos and video, deal primarily with society's preconceived and often negative connotations of nudity: "I am fascinated by the beauty that is inherent in every human being", says Tunick.
Photos of Spencer Tunick's previous installations are available upon request.
Photo download
Portrait Spencer Tunick (© Wilfried Hösl)
Partner of the Munich Opera Festival
May 8, 2012
Watch Anna Netrebko live and free on May 19: "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" on www.staatsoper.de
On May 19, the Bavarian State Opera will present another full opera performance live and free on the website www.staatsoper.de with the transmission of Vincenzo Bellinis I Capuleti e i Montecchi. For the fifth time (after live-streams of FidelioFidelio, L'elisir d'amore, Don Carlo and Eugene Onegin) opera lovers can enjoy another outstanding production from the Bavarian State Opera in Munich free and in full length.
This new production of Bellini's opera by Vincent Boussard had its première in Munich in 2011. The performance on May 19 will feature Russian soprano Anna Netrebko in her return to Munich singing Giulietta alongside Vesselina Kasarova as Romeo. The cast will be wearing costumes by French couturier Christian Lacroix. The Bavarian State Orchestra will be led by Yves Abel.
The live transmission of I Capuleti e i Montecchi is part of a pilot project by General Manager Nikolaus Bachler in presenting opera online. The only requirement is a broadband internet connection such as DSL, the newest version of the flash player and speakers. There is no charge to the viewer for using the live stream.
Live streaming
I Capuleti e i Montecchi
Photo Download
Vesselina Kasarova and ensemble
The Chorus of the Bavarian State Opera with Eri Nakamura
Anna Netrebko in "L'elisir d'amore"
Copyright: Wilfried Hösl
sponsored by
Coproduction with the San Francisco Opera
"Eugene Onegin" live from Munich on March 24
Tchaikovsky's opera is staged by Krzysztof Warlikowski, whose interpretation portrays Onegin as a prisoner of his own homosexuality. Simon Keenlyside will sing the title role alongside Pavol Breslik's Lenski. Russian soprano Ekaterina Scherbachenko takes over the role of Tatyana. The Bavarian State orchestra will be led by young Finish conductor Pietari Inkinen.
The only requirement is a broadband internet connection such as DSL, the newest version of the flash player and speakers. There is no charge to the viewer for the live stream.
Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky
Eugene Onegin
Photo Download
Photo 1: Simon Keenlyside, Ain Anger, Pavol Breslik
Photo 2: Simon Keenlyside, Ekaterina Scherbachenko
© Wilfried Hösl
Macrh 19, 2012
Live streaming at the Bavarian State Opera
In January, two selected Bavarian State Opera productions will be broadcast to the worldwide web in real time: The project starts on 7 January with Gaetano Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore with Pavol Breslik as Nemorino and Adriana Kucerová as Adina. Director David Bösch uses wonderfully imaginative pictures to tell the story of the love-sick Nemorino, who woos the beautiful Adina with the help of a wonderful elixir of love. The musical director is Dan Ettinger.
This is then followed on 22 January by the broadcast of the eagerly awaited revival of Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlo. The history of the Spanish Crown Prince Don Carlos, who is fighting for the freedom and independence of Flanders from Spain, is staged by Jürgen Rose. The production has a first-class cast, with René Pape as King Philip II, Jonas Kaufmann as the Infante of Spain and Anja Harteros in the role of Elisabeth de Valois. The conductor is Asher Fisch.
Opera lovers can thus enjoy two outstanding productions from the Bavarian State Opera online in their full length. The only requirement is a broadband internet connection such as DSL. The video is offered in two transmission qualities, at 600 and 1000 kbps, which adjust automatically to the internet user's individual data connection. There is no charge to the viewer for using the live stream.
Live streaming
L'elisir d'amore
Sat., Jan. 07, 2012
Live streaming
Don Carlo
Sun., Jan. 22, 2012
Dec. 15, 2011
Première "Turandot" on December 3
On December 3, after almost a decade's absence, Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot will be returning to the stage of the Bavarian State Opera.
The tale of Princess Turandot and the Unknown Prince will be staged by Carlus Padrissa. The founding member of the Catalonian artists' troupe La Fura dels Baus tells the story of the unscrupulous heiress to the Chinese throne with an impressive combination of music, theatre, dance, acrobatics and video art.
One of the most sought-after conductors our time, Zubin Mehta, will assume the musical direction of this new production; "I've always very much regretted that in my eight years as General Music Director I was never able to conduct a performance of Turandot for logistical reasons. That's why I'm looking all the more forward to returning to the orchestra pit of the Nationaltheater five years later," said the former General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera.
American soprano Jennifer Wilson will be making her debut at the house in the role of Princess Turandot. Russian artist Ekaterina Scherbachenko will likewise be heard for the first time at the Bavarian State Opera as Liù. The role of the Unknown Prince will be portrayed by Marco Berti. As the Tartar King Timur Ukrainian basso Alexander Tsymbalyuk will also be introducing himself to Munich audiences.
Live transmission from Munich's Nationaltheater on BR-Klassik. 30 minutes before the performance, live from the lobby of the Nationaltheater: The opening night broadcast with on-the-scene interviews and reports.
Sat., Dec. 03, 2011, 7.00 P.M. CET – 1.00 P.M. EST - 10.00 A.M. PST
Photo Download
Photo 1 Jennifer Wilson (Turandot)
Photo 2 Marco Berti (Calaf), Jennifer Wilson (Turandot), Ulrich Reß (L'imperatore Altoum)
Photo 3 Ekaterina Scherbachenko (Liù), Alexander Tsymbalyuk (Timur, Re tartaro spodestato)
Giacomo Puccini
Sat., Dec. 03, 2011, 7.00 P.M.
Wed., Dec. 07, 2011, 7.00 P.M.
Sat., Dec. 10, 2011, 7.00 P.M.
Wed., Dec. 14, 2011, 7.00 P.M.
Sat., Dec. 17, 2011, 7.00 P.M.
Tue., Dec. 20, 2011, 7.00 P.M.
Sponsored by
Live transmission of the première on
December 1, 2011
200th Anniversary of the Musical Academy of the Bavarian State Orchestra
At the beginning of December, the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Bavarian State Orchestra's Musical Academy will reach its thrilling climax.
In the second Founding Concert of the Chamber Orchestra of the Bavarian State Orchestra on December 6 under the musical direction of Zubin Mehta, the program will feature works by Anton Webern and Arnold Schönberg.
The high point of the Festival Concert on December 9 and 11 in the Nationaltheater commemorating the Musical Academy's round birthday will be performances of works that were heard at the inaugural concert on December 9, 1811, among them Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 in D major, Carl Cannabich's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra and works by Peter von Winder and Ferndinando Paër. The world première of a composition by Jörg Widmann entitled: "bayerisch-babylonischer Marsch" ("Bavarian Babylonian March") will complete the commemorative program. The march is dedicated to the Bavarian State Orchestra as a reminiscence of the Bavarian Court Orchestra's past. The concert will be conducted by Kent Nagano, and actor Michael Quast will host the evening. Featured vocal soloists are Marlis Petersen and Pavol Breslik.
The grand finale of the anniversary celebration will take place at the 2nd Academy Concert, likewise under the baton of Zubin Mehta. On December 12 and 13, the musicians will perform Paul Hindemith's concert overture to Neues vom Tage (News of the Day), the Romantic Symphony by Anton Bruckner and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 3 in G major, K. 216. The guest soloist will be Pinchas Zukerman.
Founding Concert of the Chamber Orchestra
Tue., Dec. 06, 2011, 8.00 P.M.
Festival Concert "200th Anniversary of the Musical Academy"
Fri., Dec. 09, 2011, 7.00 P.M.
Sun., Dec. 11, 2011, 11.00 A.M. *
* Closed event for the Friends of the Nationaltheater
2nd Academy Concert
Mon., Dec. 12, 2011, 8.00 P.M.
Tue., Dec. 13, 2011, 8.00 P.M.
December 1, 2011
Start of the 2011/12 Season at the Bavarian State Opera
With Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Jacques Offenbach's opéra fantastique is returning to the stage of the National Theatre on 31 October after 23 years. The production by Richard Jones, who is known to Munich audiences partly from his interpretation of Wagner's Lohengrin, focuses on the role of the artist in society and his often problematic creative process. The opera will be conducted by Constantinos Carydis, one of the younger generation of conductors today. The part of Hoffmann will be played by the Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón. Diana Damrau will be back on the stage of the National Theatre again after her break to have a baby, representing all Hoffmann's lovers in the form of Olympia, Giulietta, Antonia and Stella. Ensemble member Angela Brower will be singing the part of the Muse/Niklausse, and John Relyea will play the four villains.
The Spanish theatre group La Fura dels Baus is appearing before Munich audiences on 3 December with its interpretation of Giacomo Puccini's Turandot. The fairytale of the ice-cold, beautiful princess and the brave Prince Calaf will be returning to the stage of the National Theatre after a break of some 10 years. Zubin Mehta, one of the most important conductors of our time, will be conducting the new production. Jennifer Wilson is making her debut at the Bavarian State Opera as the unscrupulous Asian Princess Turandot. The young Russian singer, Ekaterina Scherbachenko, is also appearing for the first time in the National Theatre as Liù. Marco Berti is taking on the role of Calaf, and the Ukrainian Alexander Tsymbalyuk will be appearing as Timur, King of Tartary.
Concert – 200 Years of the Musical Academy
After its tour of Japan (23 September to 10 October), the Bavarian State Orchestra will be starting its 2011/2012 season with the OktoberMusikFest. For ten days, the musicians will be tackling the subject of Life – Creation – Energy. In cooperation with the Max Planck Society, each of the concerts, the programmes for which are based on the concept of energy, will be accompanied by a lecture by famous scientists. The focus will be on aspects of the world of energy and energy research. The curtain-raiser to the OktoberMusikFest will be the 1st Academy Concert in the National Theatre on 10 October. The programme will include works by Joseph Haydn, Antonín Dvořák, Johann Sebastian Bach, Edward Elgar and Maurice Ravel. David Schultheiss, the first concert master of the Bavarian State Orchestra, will conduct the orchestra in the National Theatre.
The Bavarian State Orchestra will be starting the festivities for the 200th anniversary of the Musical Academy with two Founding Concerts. Two concerts, on 6 November and 6 December, will also mark the birth of the Chamber Orchestra of the Bavarian State Orchestra.
The two Anniversary Concerts on 9 and 11 December will feature the works of the first Musical Academy concert on 9 December 1811. Under the baton of Kent Nagano, works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Carl Maria von Weber, Luigi Cherubini and a specially commissioned work by Jörg Widmann will be performed.
From 9 October, the popular repertoire classic Carmen will be back on the programme, with mezzo-soprano Vesselina Kasarova playing the title role for the first time in Munich. November brings a reunion with Beethoven's Fidelio, in which Peter Seiffert takes on the role of Florestan in Calixto Bieito's production. Leonore will be sung by Anja Kampe, and the opera will be conducted by Zubin Mehta. The programme in November will also include three family performances of Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortilèges. As at the premiere, General Musical Director Kent Nagano will be conducting the Bavarian State Orchestra. In December, there will be two more debuts in The Magic Flute: baritone Christian Gerhaher will be playing Papageno for the first time in the National Theatre, and Julia Kleiter will be making her house debut as Pamina.
As is traditional, the Bavarian State Ballet will be appearing at the start of the season in the Prince Regent Theatre. The season will open with the Petipa classic Don Quixote and Mats Ek's version of Giselle. The first premiere will follow on 22 December: in line with the season's motto Very British!?, the National Theatre programme will include choreographies by Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan.
August 03,2011
This was the 2011 Munich Opera Festival
On July 31, the 2011 Munich Opera Festival came to the end with a performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. It concluded with record attendance figures of 99.60% of capacity at over 40 opera evenings in this third season under the leadership of Nikolaus Bachler. This represents an increase of 2.50% as compared to the previous year.
A grand total of over 96,000 people were welcomed to the opera festival. Besides the operatic performances in the Nationaltheater and the Prinzregententheater, the Bavarian State Opera again invited audiences to this year's events at the Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space, the Munich Opera Festival's alternative performance venue on Marstall Square. At the Opera for All evenings an attendance figure of some 14,000 people was registered.
This year's two high points were again the Festival premières of two highly diverse works: at the beginning of the Festival Olivier Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise was given in a production directed by Hermann Nitsch under the musical direction of General Music Director Kent Nagano. On July 21, the more intimate surroundings of the Prinzregententheater were the venue for David Bösch's production of Mozart's early opera Mitridate, rè di Ponto. The musical direction was in the hands of Ivor Bolton, who, along with the vocal ensemble, was enthusiastically cheered by the audience.
We would like to thank all the spectators and friends who joined us for the 2010/2011 season, and we all look eagerly forward to the many interesting encounters in the coming season.
Photo Gallery: 2011 Munich Opera Festival
Concert for Japan
The Bavarian State Opera will present a Solidarity Concert for the Japanese People on April 3, 2011. "The Bavarian State Opera family has over the years made a number of guest appearances, which have initiated long standing cultural and personal relations with Japan. This is why we would like to express our concern, our sorrow and our compassion in musical terms," said General Manager Nikolaus Bachler.
The Bavarian State Orchestra will play Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) by Johannes Brahms on April 3 at 3:30 p.m. in Munich's Cathedral of Our Lady (Frauenkirche). General Music Director Kent Nagano will be on the podium, with Soile Isokoski and Christian Gerhaher singing the solo parts. In addition, the Windsbach Boys' Choir and members of the Munich Cathedral Choir will also take part. All the artists have offered their services as contributions toward aid for the victims of the disaster in Japan.
Admission is free. Tickets can be ordered from the Bavarian State Opera. There will be an opportunity to make a contribution when ordering the tickets.
Concert for Japan
April 3, 2011, 3:30 p.m.
Cathedral of Our Lady (Frauenkirche), Munich
Johannes Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem), op. 45
Musical direction Kent Nagano
Soprano Soile Isokoski
Baritone Christian Gerhaher
Windsbach Boys' Choir
Members of the Munich Cathedral Choir
Bavarian State Orchestra
e-mail: email@example.com
March 18, 2011
Première I Capuleti e i Montecchi
It will also mark French stage director Vincent Boussard's first production at the Nationaltheater, with costumes by couturier Christian Lacroix. The musical direction has also been entrusted to a conductor of French origin, Canadian maestro Yves Abel. Vesselina Kasarova, one of the great mezzo sopranos of our time, will be returning to the Bavarian State Opera in the trouser role of Romeo, alongside Eri Nakamura as Giulietta.
A week before the première, on March 20, General Manager Nikolaus Bachler has invited the participating artists to an Introductory Matinee at the Nationaltheater. Besides Vincent Boussard, Yves Abel and production dramaturgist Rainer Karlitschek, the two stars of the production, Eri Nakamura and Vesselina Kasarova, have also confirmed their presence at this event to tell the audience about the concept of the new production.
But even now, you can see some photos of rehearsals on the Bavarian State Opera's blog. Our house photographer, Wilfried Hösl, accompanied the stage director, the soloists and the chorus at stage rehearsals in the Nationaltheater, and, even before the opening night curtain, will give you a chance to get an impression of the production.
Introductory Matinee: I Capuleti e i Montecchi
Sun, March 20, 2011, 11 a.m. t-i-c-k-e-t-s
Vincenzo Bellini
I Capuleti e i Montecchi
Sun, March 27, 2011, 7 p.m. t-i-c-k-e-t-s
Wed, March 30, 2011, 7 p.m. t-i-c-k-e-t-s
Sun, April 03, 2011, 6 p.m. t-i-c-k-e-t-s
Wed, April 06, 2011, 7 p.m. t-i-c-k-e-t-s
Sat, April 09, 2011, 7 p.m. t-i-c-k-e-t-s
Tue, April 12, 2011, 7 p.m. t-i-c-k-e-t-s
Munich Opera Festival
Sun, July 24, 2011, 7.30 p.m. t-i-c-k-e-t-s
Fri, July 29, 2011, 7 p.m. t-i-c-k-e-t-s
sponsored by
Coproduction with the San Francisco Opera
Kirill Petrenko Will be the new General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera
Kirill Petrenko will be the new General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera. He will assume the position on September 1, 2013 for an initial period of five years as successor to Kent Nagano, who will not be extending his contract beyond 2013.
Arts Minister Wolfgang Heubisch: "With the engagement of Kirill Petrenko we have acquired the services of one of the most popular conductors, world-wide. Only a very few orchestral conductors can measure up to the requirement profile of a General Music Director at the Bavarian State Opera. Petrenko provides all the prerequisites. He is a creative and yet highly precise maestro with a wide ranging repertoire and a wealth of international experience. I am certain that he, as musical director, will successfully continue the outstanding tradition of the Bavarian State Orchestra while concurrently providing new artistic approaches."
Opera Director Nikolaus Bachler: "With the appointment of Krill Petronko to the post of General Music Director, the Bavarian State Opera sets a sign toward the future. With him, we have placed a still young, yet already experienced and renowned conductor at the top musical position in our house. With his creativity and personality he will add new impulses. His previous work at the Bavarian State Opera and his activities as General Music Director elsewhere make him the ideal man for this house."
Born in 1972 in the Russuan city of Omsk, Petrenko served from 1999 to 2002 as Germany's youngest general music director in Meiningen and thereafter worked for five years as General Music Director at the Komische Oper in Berlin. Since July of 2007 Petrenko has been working as a free-lance conductor and has led productions, among other places, at New York's Metropolitan Opera, London's Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Vienna's Theater an der Wien.
Minister Heubisch has presented the new General Music Director on October 6 along with General Director Nikolaus Bachler at Munich's Nationaltheater.
October 6, 2010
The New Productions in the 2010/2011 Season
The Bavarian State Opera will be presenting six premières during the 2010/2011 season in addition to a repertoire featuring a selection of some 30 works drawn from the full scope of music history. Two elemental antitheses will span an arc throughout the coming season: between the dichotomies "unfree" and "free": there will be plenty of association space on these two fundamental conditions of human existence. These fundamental existence forms will be traceable in all six of the operatic premières planned for next season.
Antonín Dvořák
October 23, 2010
For the opening première on October 23, stage director Martin Kušej will be following up his Macbeth production by creating a scenic interpretation of Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka, an opera from the Slavic repertoire. The fascinating musical worlds, their lyrical and highly dramatic moments have made this work into one of the most successful Czech operas ever written. Rusalka feels trapped in her world, from which there is no escape. She is ready to give up her immortality in return for a human soul so she can win the love of the prince. Struck mute and liberated from her dark world, she must watch as the prince rejects her in favor of a foreign princess – dooming them both. She cannot live, she cannot die, and at the end she helps the prince find death with a "rescuing" kiss. Czech conductor Tomáš Hanus, who made a successful début at the Bavarian State Opera during the previous season with Janáček's Jenůfa, will be assuning the musical direction, and Nina Stemme will sing the title role with Klaus Florian Vogt as the prince.
Ludwig van Beethoven
December 21, 2010
On December 21, 2010, the curtain at the Nationaltheater will rise on the new production of Beethoven's only completed opera Fidelio – a musical cross over between a light opera and a grand theatrical symphony. In this work, the spectator will witness the glow of a Utopia in the form of a final chorus, which not only pleads for liberty and justice, but also concurrently condemns the anxieties and restrictions of human existence, forming the pinnacle of Leonore's quest for her husband Florestan, who has been held in a high-security tract by the prison governor Don Pizarro. A dramatic plot based on a real event will be given dramatic life by Catalonian stage director Calixto Bieito, whose work has perhaps provided more food for discussion than that of any other producer, and who will be making his first guest appearance at the Bavarian State Opera with this opera. A blue ribbon cast will be appearing under the musical direction of Daniele Gatti. Following his triumphal Lohengrin debit Jonas Kaufmann will sing Florestan, a role in a further Bavarian State Opera production. Likewise Anja Kampe, who was enthusiastically received by press and public for her vocal and dramatic intensity as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer will return here in the title role.
L'Enfant et les sortilèges / Der Zwerg
Maurice Ravel / Alexander Zemlinsky
February 27, 2011
The third première evening in the 2010/11 season on February 27 features a double bill contrasting two different treatments of story book tales, both set to music at the dawn of the 20th century, which however differ totally in their musical language. Maurice Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortilèges (The Child and the Magic Spells) uses jazz riffs, operetta melodies, bel canto acrobatics and some exotic flavors to conjure up a magical fantasy world for a story by Sidonie Gabrielle Colette. A child, furious at the grown-up world, trashes his room, then suddenly watches his possessions come to life, inimically disposed toward him for his hostility. Only after a loving gesture by the child do his possessions decide to make peace with him.
For the "tragic tale with music", Der Zwerg (The Dwarf) by Viennese ciomposer Alexander Zemlinsky, who was closely connected, both personally and artistically with Gustav Mahler, a tale by Oscar Wilde supplied the basic idea. The dwarf is delighted he will be allowed to extend his good wishes on the princess's birthday personally, not suspecting that his ugliness is simply being put on display for the amusement of the party guests. He has never seen himself in the mirror. As he realizes what a filthy trick has been played on him, he falls over dead. The Polish stage director and head of the TR Warszawa, Grzegorz Jarzyna, who has sparked attention Europe-wide with his theatrical productions, will be bowing for the first time at the Bavarian State Opera with this double bill. The musical interpretation of both works will be assumed by General Music Director Kent Nagano, who recently scored a major success with a 20th century opera at the Bavarian State Opera conducting the new production of Dialogues des Carmélites.
I Capuleti e i Montecchi
Vincenzo Bellini
March 27, 2011
What Vincenzo Bellini and his librettist Felice Romani have created in I Capuleti e i Montecchi is a typically romantic heroic epic that has precious little to do with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Here the focus is on the broken hero, who takes arms against restrictive social structures and remains true to his ideals as an outsider and a rebel. Just such a hero is Romeo. He wants to go his own way, following his emotions – straight to his tragic death beside his beloved Giulietta. In Bellini's work, a mezzo-soprano portrays the character of Romeo.
Vesselina Kasarova will be interpreting the role in Munich's new production, which will be premièred on March 27. Two artists from France will provide the musical and theatrical interpretation, thus both making their débuts at the Bavarian State Opera. On the podium of the Bavarian State Orchestra will be Yves Abel, who, besides his world-wide engagements, has made a special name for himself as the founder of the Opéra Français de New York. The production will be staged by Vincent Boussard, who most recently attracted a great deal of attention with his production of Händel's Agrippina at the Berlin State Opera. The costumes will also be designed by a French artist: Christian Lacroix, one of the top fashion designers of Paris's haute couture scene.
Saint François d'Assise
Olivier Messiaen
July 1, 2011
With his second new production in the 2010/2011 season, Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise on July 1, Kent Nagano will be conducting a composition with which he is extraordinarily well-connected. For the world première of his first and only stage work in 1984, Messiaen appointed Nagano the assistant to Seiji Ozawa. Thus it has primarily been his interpretations of this composer's works with which Kent Nagano made a name for himself as one of the most significant conductors of 20th century French music in the present day. The deeply religious composer, who, with his entire œuvre, invites his listeners to experience the mystery of faith, has written an opera lasting over five hours about the founder of an order and 13th century saint, Francis of Assissi. The story of the saint, structured as in a mediæval mystery play or a church window in eight stations, is first and foremost a point of departure for Messiaen to unfold a large-scale musical meditation on the spirituality of modern man, his pathway through fear and inner darkness to a state of perfect grace.
The task of creating a scenic frame of reference in which this can come into being has been entrusted to Austrian action artist Hermann Nitsch. With his orgy-mystery-theatre, consistently developed over decades, he also pursues the goal, albeit with totally different and æsthetics means, of approaching spiritual and religious experiences far beyond the realm of sanctimony. Like Messiaen, Nitsch also places great significance on the total experience, the joint sharing in the artistic actions.
The title role in this new production will be sung by the French bass baritone Paul Gay, with Christine Schäfer in the role of the angel. After a ten-year absence, she will be back on the stage of the Bavarian State Opera, where she was last heard in the role of Zerbinetta.
Mitridate, rè di Ponto
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
July 28, 2011
The 2010/2011 season will begin with Mozart Weeks, and also at the conclusion this composer, a man with great significance for Munich, will again be celebrated: with a new production of his opera Mitridate, rè di Ponto on July 21st at the Prinzregententheater.
The first large-scale commissioned composition by the then 14-year-old composer for the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan was a great success. The adolescent's enormous talent came especially to the fore in the musical characterization of the characters in all their needs and hopes. It is thrilling to note the way the plot concerning the historical King of Pontus exhibits a remarkable parallel to the composer's own subsequent biography: the drama portrays the conflict laden emancipation of Mitridate's sons, Sifare and Farnaca, with their domineering father, which only experiences a reconciliation with the death of Mitridate – in line with the conventions of the times.
After his poetic and warm-hearted staging of L'elisir d'amore, who celebrated a major triumph at the Bavarian State Opera during the previous season, David Bösch will now be presenting his second production concept for an opera. In the orchestra pit, the young stage director will be paired with a conductor renowned as a proven Mozart expert, who has led a long series of new productions in Munich: Ivor Bolton.
April 19,2010
Débuts and Role Débuts in the 2010/2011 Season
A sizable number of débuts and role débuts along with the usual mixture of internationally renowned stars and promising up-and-coming young singers will set the tone once again next season for the cast lists of the individual operatic productions, which include almost 40 débuts and more than double that number of role débuts at next year's performances.
Among the most eagerly anticipated ones are certainly Anna Netrebko's appearance as Adina in L'elisir d'amore (May 11), Angela Denoke's portrayals of Jenůfa (October 29) and Kundry (Parsifal, April 17) as well as Christopher Maltman's Don Giovanni (November 14). Anja Harteros will also be appearing in a new role at the Bavarian State Opera: singing the Feldmarschallin for the first time here (Der Rosenkavalier, June 2).
Nina Stemme, who made her début at the Bavarian State Opera only last season as Senta, will be returning to the stage of the Nationaltheater in 2010/2011 not only in the new production of Rusalka, but also in the female title role in Tristan und Isolde (July 27), beside Ben Heppner, in his role début as Tristan, back on the stage of the Nationaltheater following his impressive performance as Lohengrin six years ago. He will be re-appearing in this opera as well next season, this time in the production by Richard Jones. This production will also have some promising new cast members to offer next season: in the Festival performances, Peter Seiffert will be singing the title role beside Adrianne Pieczonka, making her role début here as Elsa, as will Waltraud Meier as Ortrud (July 2).
On the podium of the Bavarian State Orchestra, a couple of conducting débuts will be providing new impressions and with them a fresh view of operas already in the repertoire. Kirill Petrenko, who impressed audiences last season with a wonderfully colorful and powerfully expressive reading in the new production of Jenůfa will now be returning to Munich for a revival of Tosca (May 5). The musical direction of this year's Festival production will be in the hands of Fabio Luisi. He will then conduct his first Così fan tutte (September 20) next season at the Bavarian State Opera.
April 19, 2010
The Concert Program of the Bavarian State Orchestra for the 2010/2011 Season
Even before the new season at the Nationaltheater opens, the Bavarian State Orchestra under the direction of General Music Director Kent Nagano will be making guest appearances on tour in September of 2010 in the concert halls of 13 European and Russian cities. They'll be bringing along a program including works by such composers as Bruckner, Beethoven and Strauss in their luggage, performing it in Grafenegg, Essen, Bonn, Berlin, Baden Baden, Besançon, Verona, Merano, Rimini, Ghent, Hamburg, St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Returning to Munich the Bavarian State Orchestra will begin offering a selection of Academy, Chamber Music and Special Concerts, the richness of which it will be on display during the OktoberMusikFest, which, as it did last year, will take place in cooperation with the Max-Planck Gesellschaft. A series of events has been conceived with concerts under the title "Sun, Moon and Stars – Appearances in the Sky – The World in Sound". At the concluding concert on the 10th of November Kent Nagano will conduct. Schönberg's "Pierrot Lunaire" and Mozart's "Jupiter" symphony.
Beyond this, Kent Nagano will assume the musical direction for four further concerts: besides the "Opera for All" Festival concert, he will mount the podium of the Bavarian State Orchestra at three Academy Concerts. After beginning to focus on performances of symphonies by Anton Bruckner in their original versions over the past seasons, 2010/11 will offer two great works by Johannes Brahms: the Symphony No. 4 in E minor as well as "Ein deutsches Requiem" with Soile Isokoski (soprano) and Christian Gerhaher(baritone) along with the Windsbach Boys' Choir.
Apart from this, the coming season will also feature Academy Concerts with Marc Albrecht (October 31) and Fabio Luisi (January 10), among others, as guest conductors on the Bavarian State Orchestra's concert platform. The soloists in the concerts they will be conducting are Baiba Skride with Sofia Gubaidulina's Violin Concerto No 1, the "Offertorium", as well as Arabella Steinbacher with Paul Hindemith's Violin Concerto.
April 19, 2010
Program Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space
With the publication of the 2010 Munich Opera Festival preview, the Bavarian State Opera presents the main program for the Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space. The new temporary performance venue will be opened on June 24 with Christoph Schlingensief's first project from the Opera Village in Burkina Faso. A vast array of further international artists from various artistic areas will explore new music theatre forms in the Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space and invite the spectators on a voyage of discovery taking them to surprising sensory impressions. Further complementary events at the Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space, jointly developed by the Bavarian State Opera and MINI, will make sure that Marstallplatz becomes a vibrant meeting place for Munich. The logo for the Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space, now being presented for the first time, was developed by the Bureau Mirko Borsche.
Based on a model created by the Viennese architectural firm COOP HIMMELB(L)AU; the Bavarian State Opera, in cooperation with MINI, presents a new, temporary venue on Marstallplatz. The recently released preview of the 2010 Munich Opera Festival, in conjunction with which the opening will take place, presents the most important pillars of the program in which the Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space will appear in ever changing form and design, creating space for a creative use of various artistic expressive means, and inviting the spectator to experience music theatre in combination with other art forms.
presented by
Nachmann Rechtsanwälte
Opening event with Christoph Schlingensief
Christoph Schlingensief, an artist who derives his creativity from the widest variety of artistic areas and forms, has been invited to stage the première event. For the opening of the Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space he builds a bridge to a further theatrical venue currently coming into existence: the Pavillon will become the stage for the first project from the organically growing Opera Village in Burkina Faso, where construction is scheduled to begin in 2010. The evening is also named after this place: Remdoogo – Zero Hour. "The children and adolescents who go to school in Remdoogo and attend music and film classes there learn from themselves, from their own culture, and not from all the things we may want to explain and impose on them," says Schlingensief, describing his understanding of his work in Africa. Nothing will be imported to Remdoogo from Europe. Quite the contrary: Europe is being encouraged to "rob" from Africa! Remdoogo – Zero Hour is a first portion of the booty.
Besides Christoph Schlingensief, a large number of other artists from the fields of film, video art, performance art and the visual arts will appear at the Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space and take the spectators on a voyage of discovery far beyond their usual reception habits to surprising sensory impressions. Further, supplementary events in the Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space, jointly developed by the Bavarian State Opera and MINI, will see to it that Marstallplatz becomes a vibrant meeting place for Munich.
The realization of the Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space and the implementation of its program is being made possible by private partners. The Bavarian State Opera thanks MINI for its support of this project, as well as the co sponsors EADS Defence & Security and the UniCredit Group, along with board member Nachmann Attorneys at Law.
December 15, 2009
Première Lelisir damore
The performance of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore on December 1 marks the Bavarian State Opera's second première of the 2009/2010 season. With the aid of an alleged love potion, the diffident young Nemorino transforms his woebegone surroundings into a gleeful world full of poetry. The pure belief on its effectiveness moves mountains and provides Nemorino with completely new self confidence and charm, with which he conquers his adored Adina. Only shortly before this, she had thrown him over in favor of a heroic soldier…
The young stage director David Bösch, who ranks among many theatre goers as one of the most insightful and sensual directors of his generation, and his team have placed a tender poetry of humble circumstances on the stage, in which true feelings and emotionality can prevail over frustration and cynicism. In this atmosphere, they have developed a state of uncertainty, in which, besides hopelessness and sadness there are always lighter moments. And the spectators, torn back and forth between laughter and sentimentality, still retain the hope that music with all its magic might also transform them.
A first-class cast, imbued with the joy of performing, will be featured in this new production with Giuseppe Filianoti and Nino Machaidze in the principal roles. Slovakian conductor Juraj Valcuha will be on the podium, presenting himself for the first time at the Bavarian State Opera as the music director of a new production.
Gaetano Donizetti
L'elisir d'amore
Tue Dec. 1 Tickets
Fri Dec. 4 Tickets
Mon Dec. 7 Tickets
Fri Dec. 11 Tickets
Mon Dec. 14 Tickets
Fri Dec. 18 Tickets
sposored by
November 27, 2009
Pavillon 21
MINI Opera Space
With the opening of the "Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space" at the 2010 Munich Opera Festival, the Bavarian State Opera will inaugurate a new temporary performance venue on Marstallplatz. The architects at COOP HIMMELB(L)AU have designed a mobile and flexible playing area for this venture. International artists have been invited to use a variety of expressive means to test and reflect on unfamiliar music theatre forms.
An idea that was born last year and cast its shadow toward the future under the title "under construction" will now present itself in its final palpable form at the 2010 Munich Opera Festival.
With the "Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space", the Bavarian State Opera in collaboration with the Austrian architectural firm of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU and MINI have created a mobile venue for the area between Olafur Eliasson's façade of the Bavarian State Opera rehearsal building, the historical Marstall and the Max Planck Society. The designs by Wolf D. Prix, Design Principal and CEO of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU have left a definitive imprint on the image and lifestyle of any number of cities. In the combination of architecture with theatre, the "Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space" will open up further dimensions in our relationship to spaces, drawing its radiant power from this relationship for both cultural and urban life.
The opening of this new performance venue is a première for the Bavarian State Opera. The considerations on which the construction of a space like this for musical theatre are based, however, have a long history in Munich. For his tetralogy, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner contemplated a space for performances "free of the confines of the repertoire routine in our existing theatres." He likewise thought of a place with conditions that would not stipulate the parameters of a performance.
The "Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space" places no limits on artistic forms. Its openness and flexibility provide the necessary room for the imagination and the joy of experimentation and invite the visitor to tread new paths of perception and artistic reflection.
This way the "Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space" mirrors the whole substance of the theatrical art. Like a performance that leaves its traces behind, yet irrevocably ends with the fall of the curtain, this space is also only a temporary guest on Marstallplatz. This concentration of artistic encounters brings about a special excitement seducing the audience to rediscover musical theatre.
International artists from the fields of performance art, the visual arts and literature as well as composers, VJ's, stage directors and musicians have been invited to cross borderlines into other art forms and enliven the area with unusual, surprising performance forms.
This challenge was also accepted by Christoph Schlingensief, who will open the new performance venue with a production especially conceived for this area. Further features on the program will make the "Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space" the target point for processions through the city, which will be newly created by a curator for each event, or serve as a stage for the visions and dreams of young people, who will join together in a MusicTheatre project to transform their stories into musical and theatrical form.
Further information on the program will be released in a special publication to be released in the spring of 2010.
The realization of a project like this would be unthinkable without idealistic and financial support. The Bavarian State Opera is especially happy that MINI will be joining us in such a partnership. Beyond this, the "Pavillon 21 MINI Opera Space" is further backed by the co-sponsors EADS Defence and Security and the Unicredit Group as well as board member Nachmann, Attorneys at Law.
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Model 01
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© Markus Pillhofer
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© ISOCHROM.com, Vienna
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Portrait Wolf D. Prix
© Elfie Semotan
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presented by
Nachmann Rechtsanwälte
November 17, 2009
New on DVD: Lucrezia Borgia
This acclaimed production of Gaetano Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia from the Bavarian State Opera is supplemented by a fascinating portrait of the soprano Edita Gruberova, the prima donna assoluta of bel canto. In addition to rehearsal footage from Lucrezia Borgia, the film shows Gruberova in the title role of Norma and as Elisabetta in Roberto Devereux as well as in other archival recordings of great historical interest.
Edita Gruberova, Pavol Breslik, Franco Vassallo, Alice Coote a.o.
The Chorus of the Bavarian State Oper
The Bavarian State Orchestra
Musical Direction Bertrand de Billy
Stage Direction Christof Loy
Video Direction Brian Large
Including the documentary "The Art of Bel Canto - Edita Gruberova"!
Gaetano Donizetti
Lucrezia Borgia
2 DVDs
133 mins (Performance)
54 mins (Documentary)
Medici Arts/Unitel Classica
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