Latest Updates from the Staatsoper Unter den Linden
The Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim visited Hamburg and Cologne with three concerts, including all of Schumann's symphonies:
Following a successful European tour in Autumn 2021, the Staatskapelle Berlin performed three concerts in Hamburg and Cologne under the direction of Daniel Barenboim. The program for the two evenings in the Elbphilharmonie (January 15 and 16) included Robert Schumann's Symphonies Nos. 1 to 4, and on January 20, Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 (»Eroica«) and Schubert's Symphony No 8.
At the Staatsoper Unter den Linden the premiere of DIE SACHE MAKROPULOS is imminent. This new production is staged by Claus Guth and conducted by Simon Rattle, who is continuing his Janáček focus at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.
Claus Guth, also a regular guest at the Staatsoper, returns after the success of the premiere of Beat Furrer's VIOLETTER SCHNEE in early 2019 with his team: Étienne Pluss, who was awarded the FAUST Prize for his stage design for VIOLETTER SCHNEE & costume designer Ursula Kudrna.
What does eternal life mean and at what price is this dream worth striving for? What is the significance of the moment and of transience? How do you look at life and human existence from a distance?
While DIE SACHE MAKROPULOS is superficially a detective play about a complex inheritance dispute, the opera raises existential questions beneath the surface. The focus is on opera diva Emilia Marty, who as a child drank an elixir that gave her 300 years to live. Now, almost at the end of this time, she is looking for the recipe to extend her life once more.
OPUS KLASSIK award winner Marlis Petersen makes her role debut as Emilia Marty. The other ensemble includes Ludovit Ludha (Albert Gregor), Peter Hoare (Vítek), Natalia Skrycka (Krista), Bo Skovhus (Jaroslav Prus), Spencer Britten (Janek), Jan Martiník (Dr. Kolenatý), Žilvinas Miškinis (machinist), Adriane Queiroz (cleaning lady), Graham Clark (Hauk-Šendorf), and Anna Kissjudit (maid). The Staatskapelle Berlin is playing.
DIE SACHE MAKROPULOS had a German premiere planned in the late 1920s that never materialized. Now, almost a century after the premiere in Brno in 1926, the opera can be experienced for the first time in Unter den Linden.