The 2024–25 season at the Bayerische Staatsoper
Nine new Bayerische Staatsoper productions and three new Bayerisches Staatsballett productions, the fourth edition of the UniCredit September Festival, the third Ja, Mai Festival and a variety of concerts with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester as well as the Ballet Festival Week and the Munich Opera Festival provide the framework for the coming season in the Bayerische Staatsoper’s divisions.
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BAYERISCHE STAATSOPER 2024–25 PREMIERES:
DAS RHEINGOLD – With Das Rheingold, Tobias Kratzer is beginning his new staging of Richard Wagner’s masterpiece Der Ring des Nibelungen, with its four evenings premiering over three seasons. General Music Director Vladimir Jurowski will be the musical director.
LA FILLE DU RÉGIMENT – Gaetano Donizetti’s La fille du régiment follows shortly before Christmas. Damiano Michieletto is once again directing t the Bayerische Staatsoper. Stefano Montanari will be conducting.
DIE LIEBE DER DANAE – Director Claus Guth returns to the Bayerische Staatsoper for the fourth time to stage a work by Richard Strauss: Die Liebe der Danae. Sebastian Weigle will conduct the Bayerisches Staatsorchester.
KÁŤA KABANOVÁ – With Kát’a Kabanová, Krzysztof Warlikowski is staging his ninth opera at the Bayerische Staatsoper. After The Cunning Little Vixen, conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla is working on another Czech opera from Leoš Janáček.
CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA / PAGLIACCI With Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo, d -irector Francesco Micheli combines the two operas, which are often performed together. This is his first production at the Bayerische Staatsoper. The musical direction is in the hands of Daniele Rustioni.
DON GIOVANNI – Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completes the new Da Ponte cycle as a new production of the Munich Opera Festival 2025. FAUST award winner David Hermann is staging the production for the first time at the Bayerische Staatsoper. General Music Director Vladimir Jurowski conducts.
PÉNÉLOPE – Gabriel Fauré’s Pénélope will have its premiere for the first time at the Prinzregententheater at the end of the season. Andrea Breth directs for the first time in Munich, Susanna Mälkki makes her debut conducting the Bayerisches Staatsorchester.
UNICREDIT SEPTEMBER FESTIVAL 2024: The UniCredit September Festival now runs annually at the beginning of the season since the 2021–22 period. It will commence with the Opera for All concert on Friday 20 September, this time round in the Festspielhaus Oberammergau. On Saturday 21 September, and Sunday, 22 September, the Nationaltheater and the plaza at FÜNF HÖFE will be transformed into a Greek agora. There will be flashmobs, small concerts and participatory performances, a kids’ programme, exhibitions, talks and backstage tours. Opera and ballet performances for children and adults will be offered at an exclusive price in the Nationaltheater and the Cuvilliés-Theater.
MUNICH OPERA FESTIVAL 2025: The Munich Opera Festival 2025 starts with the premiere of Don Giovanni. One of the focus points is on myths and how they change over the centuries. Along with Dido and Aeneas … Erwartung and Pénélope, two pieces that are directly connected with the Trojan War as the greatest battle in the ancient tradition, the programme also features Die Liebe der Danae by Richard Strauss, where the characters are all borrowed from the Greek gods and legendary figures. In Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka, the eponymous mythological creature is brought to us in the eastern Slavic tradition, while in Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin and Das Rheingold German and Nordic myths play out on the stage. Don Giovanni can also be enjoyed with Opera for All on Max-Joseph-Platz. Numerous chamber concerts, lieder recitals and baroque concerts complement the programme. With contemporary ballets from our younger generation of choreographers, the SPHÄREN.03 | León & Lightfoot ballet evening also celebrates a premiere.
JA, MAI-FESTIVAL 2025: Following an interlude in the 2023–24 season, the Ja, Mai Festival will now return in the 2024–25 season. The core concept of the festival, as with its last two outings, is to place musical theatre in the present. Along with the focus on contemporary musical theatre, the beginnings of musical theatre in the early seventeenth century will also be examined, to then draw a link between yesterday, today and tomorrow, which is also reflected in the material of the performed operas. Along with the UTOPIA Hall and the Cuvilliés Theatre as the main venues, as part of cooperations with other institutions in the city, new locations will also be opened up for the support programme.
The third edition of the festival hails the motto, ‘Illusions’, referring to the ambiguous perception of reality. Front and centre will be the two operas, Das Jagdgewehr by Thomas Larcher (2018) and Matsukaze by Toshio Hosokawa, whose 2011 composition was inspired by Nō theatre. The Lotte van den Berg and Tobias Staab director duo operate in the realm between dance, theatre and film, and with Matsukaze will now collaborate for the first time with the visual, internationally active artist, Alicja Kwade. While a Japanese monk consoles the restless ghosts of two dead sisters here, Das Jagdgewehr is based on a novel by the Japanese poet, Yasushi Inoue, and describes different perspectives of an adulterous affair and the price of living a life with a lie. Director Ulrike Schwab is developing Das Jagdgewehr in a stage design by Jule Saworski. Both productions feature the young soloists of the Bayerische Staatsoper’s Opera Studio.
BAYERISCHES STAATSORCHESTER 2024–25: Following a multitude of special concerts and events in the 2023 anniversary year, the 2024–25 season seamlessly links into the diversity and excellence for which the Bayerisches Staatsorchester is so highly valued in Munich and around the globe.
Magnificent symphonics and superb soloists – the Academy Concerts promise enthralling performances with famous and rarely performed works, which, in unusual combinations in places, shed new light on ‘supposedly’ familiar compositions. The now more than two-hundred-year-old tradition of the Academy Concerts will also continue with General Music Director Vladimir Jurowski, who himself will conduct three programmes. Debuts with the young conductors Thomas Guggeis and Tarmo Peltokoski are also planned, and Krzysztof Urbański will once again grace the podium. Solo singers include Aigul Akhmetshina, Hanna-Elisabeth Müller, Emily Sierra, Daniel Behle, Christof Fischesser and Matthias Goerne. Emanuel Graf (cello) and Daniel Lozakovich (violin) will play solo concertos.
Exquisite chamber music formations, from string and wind quintet to brass ensemble through to the extended octet, can be enjoyed in the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche and in the Cuvilliés Theatre. Our themed concerts once again bring a wonderful exchange of music and science. And we are also very much looking forward to the promising talent projects with the Hermann Levi Academy and the ATTACCA Youth Orchestra.
BAYERISCHES STAATSBALLETT 2024–25: With the UniCredit September Festival, the Bayerisches Staatsballett will start into the new season with the mixed bill Wurzeln und Blätter programme and a comprehensive workshop offering for all age groups. The curtain rises at the end of November 2024 for the season’s first premiere: With Pierre Lacotte’s version of La Sylphide one of the oldest classics of the romantic tradition will now be added to the repertory.
The 2025 Ballet Festival Week brings a unique performance series of the Wings of Memory triple bill, with which the company will now dance Pina Bausch’s version of The Rite of Spring for the first time. As part of the Munich Opera Festival, with Sphären. 03 Ballet Director Laurent Hilaire also presents another edition of the curated young choreographers’ programme, with Sol León and Paul Lightfoot as the curators in summer 2025.
In addition to the productions of Giselle and Illusionen – wie Schwanensee, which now return to the repertory after being away for some years, the programme will also feature the triple bill Duato/Skeels/Eyal, Onegin, Le Parc, Romeo and Juliet, Schmetterling and the guest performance by the Lucia Lacarra Ballet Company as part of the 2025 Ballet Festival Week.
COMMUNITY / KIDS & CO:
COMMUNITY – The Bayerische Staatsoper’s Community programme is designed for various kinds of people in and around Munich. The focus is on joining in with cultural activities, participation and equal-basis communication. Projects are run with various cooperation partners all over the city.
WESTWIND – A key focus of the community work focuses on the new Freiham neighbourhood in the west of the city. The ecological and social aspects that play a major role in the new districts emerging are extremely important for cultural and future-oriented work. The diversity of those that are building in Freiham and those that are moving into this district enables a diverse society and new concepts for living together. There will be an extremely varied cultural offering for and with the (future) residents. Between asphalt and nature emerges a new cultural meeting zone for Munich’s urban society. With participative projects, singing, dance and theatre, in the WESTWIND Community Project, creative open spaces are produced and arranged. (In cooperation with Grete Kulturzentrum Freiham and Stadtteilmanagement Freiham.)
<30 – A further focus concentrates on the young community under 30 years old (<30). Both beginners and loyal young visitors are offered discounted tickets and the support programme: Open Mind is a new format that focusses on experimentation and the topics of young adults. Artists interpret a topic that the community has specified in advance. The Open Previews, Open Nights and the Open Stage provide with dress rehearsal visits, party after performances and a stage for <30 various opportunities to sneak a peek behind the scenes of the Bayerische Staatsoper. Various young people under 30 are involved in the conception and implementation of the new formats and programmes of <30.
KIDS & CO: Cultural education, productions for children, support programme and workshops are also Kids & Co focus points in the 2024–25 season. With musical theatre elements from acting, dancing, singing and music, child-appropriate themes are recounted and imparted using aesthetic materials. A large selection of participatory workshops on voice, movement, rhythm and sound as well as numerous family performances with introductions for children complete the programme.
TICKETING IN THE 2024–25 SEASON: It is now possible to place written orders for all performances in the 2024-25 season using our online form in the programme. The processing of orders begins three months before the respective performance date. Orders for performances in September and October 2024 will be processed from 20 June 2024.
Online, telephone and box office sales begin two months before the respective performance date. If this day is a Sunday or bank holiday, sales will begin on the preceding workday.