Work of the Week – Jacques Offenbach: Les Contes d’Hoffmann
- By Christopher Peter
- 20 Jan 2025
Les Contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach premieres on January 20 in Strasbourg. Learn more about the work and the new production in our Work of the Week!
Les Contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach premieres on January 20 in Strasbourg. Learn more about the work and the new production in our Work of the Week!
Is there justice and retribution? This question is at the heart of Krzysztof Penderecki’s opera The Black Mask (original German title: 'Die schwarze Maske'). On November 22, 2024, David Pountney’s production premieres at Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, performed by the Polish National Opera’s choir and orchestra under the direction of Bassem Akiki.
A haunting look into the entanglements of the 1980s: Santa Fe Opera presents the world premiere of the opera The Righteous by Gregory Spears on 13 July 2024. The opera, based on an original libretto by Tracy K. Smith, with whom Spears regularly collaborates, is a full-length work spanning twelve years of American history (1979-1990).
The anti-anti-opera: Le Grand Macabre by György Ligeti will celebrate its premiere on 28 June 2024 at the Munich Opera Festival at the Bavarian State Opera. The piece thus marks the end of the 2023/2024 season, which began last year on the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth. Kent Nagano will conduct the production, which will be staged by Krzysztof Warlikowski.
Questions about the guilt and responsibility of a character who changed the course of the world: a new production of Werner Egk's Columbus will premiere at the Bonn Theatre on 16 June 2024. Hermes Helfricht conducts the production by Jakob Peters-Messer. The Bonn Theatre is thus continuing its FOKUS'33 series, which won the OPER! Award 2023 was honoured. The project is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
An impossible love in the midst of an eternal war: with Zaïde / Adama by Chaya Czernowin, Theater Aachen has added an opera to its programme that takes place against the backdrop of the resurgent conflict in the Middle East. The premiere will take place on 27 April 2024 under the direction of Chanmin Chung and Mathis Groß. The director is Ran Chai Bar-zvi.
Fake news lead to mass panic: Ludger Vollmer's new opera Zusammenstoß (“Collision”) is based on a true event from 1910. It can be seen for the first time on 20 April 2024. Heidelberg Theatre is presenting the world premiere in a production by Christian Brey, with Dietger Holm and Kens Lui as musical directors.
On 10 February 2024, the Staatstheater Hannover will present Aribert Reimann's Lear, one of the most significant operas of the 20th century. The production will be directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins, and the music will be conducted by Stephan Zilias.
A debut work at the age of almost 80: The new opera Valuska is the first of Peter Eötvös' 13 operas that the Hungarian composer wrote in his native language. Eötvös celebrates his 80th birthday on 02 January 2024. To mark this occasion, the new work will be premiered on 02 December 2023 at the Hungarian State Opera Budapest. It will be conducted by Kálmán Szennai and staged by Bence Varga.
On 22 October 2023, the newly renovated Theater St. Gallen opens with the world premiere of the world's first major opera about a person who is transgender. Lili Elbe is the latest work by Grammy Award winner Tobias Picker and his librettist Aryeh Lev Stollman, commissioned by Konzert und Theater St. Gallen. The opera features a production by Krystian Lada, with musical direction by Modestas Pitrenas. American transgender baritone Lucia Lucas will embody the title role of Lili Elbe.