In 2017/18, the first season after returning to the reopened opera house, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden achieves an overall percentage of seats sold of 94%
The Staatsoper Berlin looks back on a very exciting and successful season – the first after returning to its traditional domicile Unter den Linden after seven years of re-building and refurbishment. The season ends this Sunday with a performance of Salvatore Sciarrino’s TI VEDO, TI SENTO, MI PERDO.
The reopening of the extensively restored opera house Unter den Linden took place in October 2017 and was initially celebrated with a PRÄLUDIUM. The opening premiere was »Zum Augenblicke sagen: Verweile doch!« with Robert Schumann’s SZENEN AUS GOETHES FAUST staged by Jürgen Flimm and conducted by Daniel Barenboim. This was followed by further opera performances and concerts with the Staatskapelle Berlin as well as the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic. After this prelude, the doors of the opera closed again for a few weeks due to final planned construction works. The season was resumed with the 275th anniversary of the opera house in December which was celebrated with a festive concert of the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim on the day of the anniversary (December 7) and with the premieres of Engelbert Humperdinck’s HÄNSEL UND GRETEL (Achim Freyer │ Sebastian Weigle) and Claudio Monteverdi’s L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA (Eva-Maria Höckmayr │ Diego Fasolis).
In the 2017/18 season, the Staatsoper hosted 272 performances, among them 14 musical theatre premieres in the main hall and in the Neue Werkstatt, as well as 13 opera works from the repertoire and 87 concerts. Overall, the percentage of seats sold was 94%. 196.000 visitors attended the performances of the Staatsoper and the Staatskapelle in Berlin, and another 15.000 visitors (excluding Buenos Aires) attended the guest performances of Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin in Dresden, Paris, Vienna and Salzburg. In this season STAATSOPER FÜR ALLE took place two times – with free admission thanks to BMW Berlin: For the beginning of the PRÄLUDIUM on September 30, 2017, more than 45,000 visitors heard the live concert of the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim on Bebelplatz. On the following days the opera performances and the concerts on the occasion of the reopening were also broadcast live. In June 2018, more than 60,000 visitors attended the 12th STAATSOPER FÜR ALLE weekend with a symphony concert of the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim and the live broadcast of Verdi’s MACBETH.
Currently Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin are on a tour to Buenos Aires until 22 July, featuring four performances of TRISTAN UND ISOLDE in the Teatro Colón, five symphony concerts in the Centro Cultural Kirchner as well as an open-air concert on the Plaza de Vaticano.
Amongst the acclaimed premieres of the 2017/18 season were Richard Wagner’s TRISTAN UND ISOLDE (staged by: Dmitri Tcherniakov), with Andreas Schager and Anja Kampe singing the title roles, as a continuation of the long Wagner tradition of the Staatsoper and Staatskapelle, as well as Giuseppe Verdi’s FALSTAFF (staged by: Mario Martone) as part of this year’s FESTTAGE featuring Michael Volle, and Verdi’s MACBETH (staged by: Harry Kupfer) with Plácido Domingo and Anna Netrebko. All three productions were conducted by Daniel Barenboim.
Just as successful was Hans Neuenfels’ staging of Richard Strauss’ SALOME, with Ausrine Stundyte singing the title role, and the German premiere of TI VEDO, TI SENTO, MI PERDO (staged by: Jürgen Flimm) which meant a continuation of the engagement with the musical theater of Salvatore Sciarrino.
Special revivals were among others two productions of Ruth Berghaus: Claude Debussy’s PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE was again performed after a ten-year break and for the first time conducted by Daniel Barenboim, whereas Gioachino Rossini’s IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, the oldest staging in the repertoire, was also performed several times in the year of its 50th jubilee. During this season many of the productions that premiered in the Schiller Theater were performed for the first time in the opera house Unter den Linden, among them Claus Guth’s stagings of DON GIOVANNI (2012) and THE TURN OF THE SCREW (2014), ARIADNE AUF NAXOS staged by Hans Neuenfels (2015), Sven-Eric Bechtolf’s and Julian Crouch’s interpretation of KING ARTHUR (2017) and LES PÊCHEURS DE PERLES, staged by Wim Wenders (2017).
In addition to eight symphony concerts (Abonnementkonzerte) by the Staatskapelle Berlin – featuring soloists such as Maurizio Pollini, Renaud Capuçon, Lisa Batiashvili, Nadine Sierra, Anna Prohaska, Marianne Crebassa and Michael Volle as well as guest conductors such as François-Xavier Roth, Christoph von Dohnányi and Sir Antonio Pappano – Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin again opened the Musikfest Berlin, this time by performing Anton Bruckner’s 8th symphony. On 7th October 2017, the Staatskapelle Berlin performed the first KONZERT FÜR BERLIN as a thank you to all Berliners free of charge in the opera house, conducted by Daniel Barenboim.
In this season, the concert program of the Staatskapelle Berlin focused on works by Claude Debussy, commemorating the 100th anniversary of his death in March 2018. His compositions were heard in four symphony concerts, two FESTTAGE concerts, the guest performance of Staatskapelle in the Wiener Musikverein, and in the STAATSOPER FÜR ALLE concert as well as in the KONZERT FÜR BERLIN.
During the FESTTAGE concerts, the Vienna Philharmonic were featured as guests, as were Martha Argerich, Anna Prohaska, Marianne Crebassa, Anna Lapkovskaja and Maria Furtwängler, who performed Debussy’s rare work »Le Martyre de Saint-Sébastien«.
On the occasion of his 75th birthday in November 2017, Daniel Barenboim performed a charity concert with the Staatskapelle Berlin, conducted by Zubin Mehta.
The 10th anniversary of the Internationales Opernstudio and the 20th anniversary of the Orchesterakademie of the Staatskapelle Berlin were also celebrated with concerts.
The 2017/18 season in the Neue Werkstatt featured among others the world premieres of Lucia Ronchetti’s RIVALE and Manos Tsangaris’ ABSTRACT PIECES as well as Franco Bridarolli’s and Davide Carnevali’s EIN PORTRÄT DES KÜNSTLERS ALS TOTER, and this year’s performance of the Kinderopernhaus Lichtenberg FANNY! – WER WILL MIR WEHREN ZU SINGEN?.
Since 1 April 2018, Matthias Schulz is the Intendant (Artistic Director) of Staatsoper Unter den Linden.
PREVIEW 2018/19 SEASON
In addition to the FESTTAGE, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden will host a second yearly festival from 2018/19 on: The BAROCKTAGE will take place every year as a ten-day festival in November. The first edition from 23 November to 2 December 2018 is dedicated to the beginning and the end of the Baroque era and features the premiere of Rameau’s HIPPOLYTE ET ARICIE, revivals of Monteverdi’s L’ORFEO and L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA, as well as 13 concerts and a world premiere by Saar Magal: A MONTEVERDI PROJECT (18 November 2018, Apollosaal).
PREMIERES IN THE MAIN HALL
Daniel Barenboim will conduct the season opening premiere of Luigi Cherubini’s MEDEA (MEDÉE), staged by Andrea Breth. Sonya Yoncheva gives her debut with the title role. The premiere, in the French original version, will take place on 7 October 2018 – on 3 October the Staatsoper will host the official ceremony on the occasion of the Day of German Unity.
HIPPOLYTE ET ARICIE is the BAROCKTAGE premiere on 25 November 2018. For the first time, Staatsoper Unter den Linden puts a work by Rameau on stage – conducted by Simon Rattle who makes his debut with the Freiburger Barockorchester. Ólafur Elíasson will be the stage and costume designer. Together with stage director and choreographer Aletta Collins he will develop a concept which rethinks light, costume and space.
The new work presented in the 2018/19 season is the world premiere of VIOLETTER SCHNEE by Beat Furrer, the winner of the Ernst von Siemens 2018 music award (13 January 2019). The work was commissioned by Staatsoper Unter den Linden. In his musical theatre works the relation of language and sound plays a major role. VIOLETTER SCHNEE reflects the existential experience of alienation and loss of speech in view of an impending catastrophe. The opera was created in close collaboration between the composer Beat Furrer, the stage director Claus Guth and the librettist Händl Klaus and is based on a draft by Vladimir Sorokin. Matthias Pintscher is the musical director. The cast features Anna Prohaska, Elsa Dreisig, Gyula Orendt, Georg Nigl and actress Martina Gedeck.
After a quarter of a century it was about time to take a new approach at Mozart’s DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE: The new production is staged by Yuval Sharon and is under the musical direction of Franz Welser-Möst (premiere: 17 February 2019). The »traditional« production with the stage setting based on Schinkel’s designs will remain part of the repertoire – in the future both productions will be performed.
On 9 March 2019, Daniel Barenboim will perform Jörg Widmann’s BABYLON, in a reworked new version, after its 2012 world premiere at the Bayerische Staatsoper. The production is staged by Andreas Kriegenburg, with Harald Thor as the stage designer and with Mojca Erdmann as part of the cast.
As the FESTTAGE premiere, Daniel Barenboim will together with Dmitri Tcherniakov present Sergei Prokofiev’s DIE VERLOBUNG IM KLOSTER (premiere: 13 April 2019).
With the new production of RIGOLETTO (premiere: 2 June 2019) Verdi’s complete »Trilogia popolare« will be presented in the 2018/19 season (IL TROVATORE and LA TRAVIATA are on the program in October / November 2018 and in March 2019). American stage director Bartlett Sher and conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada make their house debut at Staatsoper Unter den Linden with this premiere, a co-production with the Metropolitan Opera New York. Christopher Maltman sings the title role, Nadine Sierra will be performing as Gilda.
With the beginning of the 2018/19 season, BMW and UBS will be the main sponsors of Staatsoper Unter den Linden.