Matthias Schulz and Daniel Barenboim announce the program for the 2018/19 season at Staatsoper Unter den Linden
Matthias Schulz – Intendant of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden as of 1 April 2018 – and Musical Director Daniel Barenboim presented the program for the 2018/2019 season, which is associated with the term Furchtlos (fearless).
In addition to seven new productions, among them two world premieres, the new formats LINDEN 21 (featuring three world premieres and two further premieres), the Baroque festival BAROCKTAGE (23 November to 2 December 2018), a Prokofiev focus and an extension of the children’s and youth program set new tones in the 2018/19 season. In addition, the program presents the 24th edition of the FESTTAGE festival (12 to 22 April 2019), 20 revivals of opera works, one children’s opera premiere and more than 85 concerts. You can look forward to more than 300 performances plus a large number of projects undertaken by the Junge Staatsoper. In 2018/19, the concert tours will lead the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim to Hamburg, Paris, Beijing and Sydney.
PREMIERES: In 2018/19, 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. 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).
In 2018/19, there will be a focus on Prokofiev which is also found in the symphonic program, the concert by the Opernkinderorchester (opera children’s orchestra) and in the chamber concerts. Furthermore, Daniel Barenboim will conduct the revivals of Strauss’ ELEKTRA (with, among others, Evelyn Herlitzius and Waltraud Meier, January / February 2019), Verdi’s FALSTAFF (in the premiere cast, December 2018 / January 2019) and MACBETH (with Plácido Domingo, May 2019) as well as Wagner’s DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG (among others, with Wolfgang Koch, Burkhard Fritz and Julia Kleiter, FESTTAGE, April 2019) and TRISTAN UND ISOLDE (with Andreas Schager and Anja Kampe, June 2019).
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 Tómas Tómasson and actress Martina Gedeck.
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.
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.
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.
BAROCKTAGE: The BAROCKTAGE will be held yearly 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: Monteverdi’s L’ORFEO and L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA are contrasted to Rameau’s HIPPOLYTE ET ARICIE. The program further comprises a round table discussion, 13 concerts and a world premiere by Saar Magal, which is programmatically also connected to LINDEN 21: in A MONTEVERDI PROJECT (1 November 2018, Apollosaal, BAROCKTAGE and LINDEN 21) the Israeli stage director and choreographer deals with changes in interpersonal relationships and in love and sexuality under the impression of technological developments.
LINDEN 21 covers all productions and projects in the repertoire which are in search of new forms of performance and perception in contemporary musical theatre. The program features chamber operas as well as staged concerts or performance developments. The productions will take place in different locations in the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and will be incorporated into the program throughout the season.
CONCERT PROGRAM: The Staatskapelle Berlin will perform 16 symphony concerts (Abonnementkonzerte) featuring eight different programs – in the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and in the Philharmonie. Five double performances will be conducted by Daniel Barenboim. The conductors of the other orchestra concerts are Simon Rattle, Paavo Järvi and Zubin Mehta. You can look forward to soloists Kian Soltani (violoncello) and Martha Argerich (piano) and singers Waltraud Meier, Anita Rachvelishvili (mezzo-soprano), Krassimira Stoyanova, Genia Kühmeier (soprano), Anna Lapkovskaja (alto), Simon O‘Neill (tenor), and Alexander Tsymbalyuk (bass).
The concert program of the FESTTAGE 2019 opens on 12 April with the Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Daniel Barenboim and playing works by Prokofiev and Mahler. On 19 and 20 April the concert of the Staatskapelle Berlin features Verdi’s Quattro pezzi sacri and opera arias for soprano and orchestra with Anna Netrebko as the solo singer. On 20 April (11 am) the Opernkinderorchester (children’s opera orchestra) performs for the first time, presenting among other works Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf.
Monteverdi’s Italy is the focus of the BAROCKTAGE concerts (23 November to 2 December 2018) performed by the Akademie für Alte Musik and in a program with Dorothee Oberlinger and Dmitry Sinkovsky. Furthermore, the program features Rameau recitals on a modern piano and a historic cembalo by Alexandre Tharaud and Christophe Rousset, concerts by Marc Minkowski with Les Musiciens du Louvre, Les Talens Lyriques with Christophe Rousset, Voces Suaves, Le Concert des Nations and Jordi Savall as well as a concert for children aged 3 to 5. The locations for the concert program are the Apollosaal, the Großer Saal, the Alter Orchesterprobensaal and the Pierre Boulez Saal.
A special start to the concert season is the opening concert of the Musikfest Berlin on 1 September 2018 in the Philharmonie. With Daniel Barenboim as the conductor, the Staatskapelle Berlin performs Boulez’ Rituel and Stravinsky’s Le sacre du printemps.
The New Year’s Eve concerts on 30 and 31 December 2018 bring you a joint program with trumpet player Till Brönner, Lahav Shani – in a double role as a conductor and pianist – the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Till Brönner Orchestra. In addition to works by George Gershwin and Kurt Weill, Peter Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite will be performed in the original version for symphony orchestra and in a version for big band, arranged by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.
The programs of the ten chamber concerts with members of Staatskapelle Berlin comprise the complete chamber music work by Prokofiev. Lied recitals, children’s concerts, the concert series Preußens Hofmusik (Prussian court music) and the Museum concerts in the Bode Museum are also part of the varied program.
The ticket sales for all performances in the 2018/19 season begin on Saturday, 14 April 2018 from 10 am. Ticket sales for subscriptions and the FESTTAGE cycles start as early as on 24 March. Friends of the Staatsoper, subscribers and holders of a StaatsopernCard are entitled to buy tickets for all performances early, starting on 7 April 2018. A new feature offered from mid-May on is a 360 degrees seat plan panorama view for online ticket purchases.