Deutsche Oper Berlin-2018-19 Season Press Release
In the 2018/2019 season, the Deutsche Oper Berlin offers 177 performances on the big stage (not including the ballet performances) and shows 36 different works in scenic productions – this is a diversity of repertoire that only few theatres worldwide offer. This constant presence of the core repertoire from Mozart to Strauss forms, so to speak, the echo chamber for the season’s premieres. This repertoire is the artistic basis, and just as composers have always referred – be it in demarcation or succession – to what was before them, so we too draw on this tradition when it comes to developing the special features of a work in a new production. The presence of the classics in our repertoire also enables us to focus on other repertoire areas for our premieres, and the programmatic guidelines for this season also follow on from the current season:
The German Opera of the Twenties was already present this season with Korngold’s WONDER DER HELIANE. In the coming season we will dedicate ourselves to this stylistically fascinating and versatile epoch with two pieces: Alban Berg’s WOZZECK (5.10.2018) and Alexander Zemlinsky’s DER ZWERG (24.3.2019), whose musical direction is in the hands of General Music Director Donald Runnicles.
In recent years we have followed the French opera of the 19th century continuously from Berlioz to Gounod to Meyerbeer. Now we continue this preoccupation with the Meyerbeer era, with three works at once: Jacques Offenbach’s LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN (1.12.2018), Jules Massenet’s DON QUICHOTTE (30.5.2019) and concertante Ambroise Thomas’ HAMLET. Enrique Mazzola, who is highly regarded in the Haus an der Bismarckstraße for his interpretations of Meyerbeer, takes over the musical direction of CONTES D’HOFFMANN; from the 18/19 season he is the first permanent guest conductor.
After Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini’s EDWARD II and Aribert Reimann’s L’INVISIBLE, the series of our world premieres will continue with OCEANE, the new opera by Detlev Glanert (28.4.2019). Donald Runnicles is also on the podium for this world premiere, directed by Robert Carsen.
And – last but not least – we decided to realize our long-cherished wish to bring another Belcanto opera to the stage by inviting Jossi Wieler to rehearse his outstanding Stuttgart production of Vincenzo Bellini’s LA SONNAMBULA (January 26, 2019) here himself. With this we start a cooperation with the director, which will be continued in the future. The special thing about this production is that it takes this piece really seriously and tells a touching story. But of course Bellini is also pure belcanto, for two line-ups, with Verena Gimadieva and René Barbera respectively Pretty Yende and Lawrence Brownlee (in May).
Now we have talked about what is happening on our big stage, the draughtsman Christoph Niemann, who designed the motifs for our seasonal campaign, says of his work that it stops exactly where the curtain opens. Instead, he was inspired by this house, its façade, its foyers, its back rooms and adjoining rooms, and the photographs with fast, powerful strokes. You can already see his picture ideas in the season brochure and from summer on the poster walls of the city.
The carpentry invites composers and directors to engage musically with older works, to confront and overwrite them with a contemporary musical language. In the 2018/19 season DELIRIO follows: The Lebanese composer and visual artist Zad Moultaka and the young director Wolfgang Nägele discuss Georg Friedrich Händel’s IL DELIRIO AMOROSO.
For the fourth time, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin have announced an international composition competition, the winners of which have been commissioned to compose a music theatre work lasting 30 minutes. Participants are vocal and instrumental students of the university, students of the directing class stage it. The premiere of NEUE SZENEN IV will take place in the spring of 2019 at the Tischlerei. With the world premiere of NACHT BIS ACHT we continue the series of world premieres for children, in this case developed by librettist, composer and stage designer François Sarhan (6.10.2018).
The complete premiere overview as well as more detailed information on the individual productions and the extensive children and youth program can be found in the attached texts.
Thank you for your interest!