‘No risk, no fun’
2025/26 season at Hamburgische Staatsoper under new leadership team
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A new generation of leaders takes over at Hamburg State Opera, all in their early to mid-forties: artistic director Tobias Kratzer, general music director Omer Meir Wellber, and Demis Volpi, artistic director of the ballet company (appointed in the summer of 2024). Managing director Dr Ralf Klöter praised their ability to achieve balance of continuity and new departure, while Dr Carsten Brosda, the city state of Hamburg’s senator for culture and media, emphasised how much Hamburg’s citizens were looking forward to the developments at their opera house. Indicative of the collaborative spirit of the season, the opera, ballet and concert departments gave a joint press conference, and their season is represented in a single combined brochure.
For the ten concerts of the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg concert season, a contemporary composer has been commissioned to replace a movement from a well-established symphony or instrumental concert with a composition of their own. For example, pianist Stephen Hough plays his own Con gran espressione as the second movement of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto.
Demis Volpi creates a new, Hamburg version of his Düsseldorf ballet Surrogate Cities, and contributes to an evening entitled Kein Zurück (No Return). Alexei Ratmansky choreographs a new ballet inspired by Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The ballet company also revives work by John Neumeier: 2002 Hamburg Die Möwe, 1978 Hamburg Die Kameliendame, The Nutcracker (1971 Frankfurt, 1974 Hamburg), 2003 Hamburg Death in Venice, and the 2000 Hamburg Nijinsky, as well as Volpi’s own Hamburg 2025 Demian. An evening entitled The Times are Racing combines a revival of four pieces by Pina Bausch, Hans von Manen, Volpi and Justin Peck, an evening entitled Slow Burn combines work of Aszure Barton and William Forsythe.
Community engagement is key across the sections, with the Click-in outreach programme for schools, including visits, workshops, guided tours, training, post-show discussions, advice, cooperation and more. Collaboration will also be central in a unique version of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. The piece will be related to a notorious criminal case of the 1980s in Hamburg’s red-light district, focusing on a hired killer who finally shot himself, his wife and the state prosecutor in the court he stood trial in, with a weapon provided by his solicitor.
Opera for a younger audience is key to Kratzer’s vision, making it part of the main program. Of the nine new opera productions for the season, two will be pieces for audiences from six years of age upwards: Iris ter Schiphorst’s 2009 opera The Goose Girl based on the fairy tale by the Grimm Brothers and directed by Kratzer. The second piece is Elisabeth Stöppler’s production Michael’s Journey. This is based on one of the component pieces of Stockhausen’s seven-part monumental work Licht (created between 1977-2005).
The opera season opens with Kratzer’s production of Robert Schumann’s oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri, with Vera-Lotte Boecker singing the title role, and Wellber conducting. Alexandra Szemerédy and Magdolena Parditka work together on directing and design for Glinka’s Ruslan und Ljudmila. Christoph Marthaler returns to Hamburg to direct a new piece inspired by the music of Gustav Mahler, with a cast of musicians, singers and actors (Die Unruhenden). Kratzer directs a world premiere that sees the second collaboration, after many years, of composer Olga Neuwirth and Nobel Prize laureate Elfriede Jelinek: in Monster’s Paradise, a tyrannical king can be conquered only by a Godzilla-like monster. Christopher Rüping directs an evening of lesser-known music by Mozart (Die grosse Stille), conducted by Wellber, and allowing renowned tenor Gregory Kunde to explore Mozart. Three shorter operas are combined into a production entitled Frauenliebe und – sterben: eight songs for voice and piano by Robert Schumann, Bartók’s Herzog Blaubarts Burg, and Zemlinsky’s Florentinische Tragödie. Karina Canellakis will make her German debut here conducting opera, with Kratzer directing. The soloists for the Schumann Lieder are Kate Lindsey, Annette Dasch, Marlis Petersen and Elsa Dreisig (for two performances each, and each with a different pianist). An opera favourite, Il barbiere di Siviglia, completes the list of new productions, directed by Tatjana Gürbaca – her Hamburg debut.
In addition to the nine new productions, a total of 19 productions are revived from the opera company’s repertoire – between two to four per month. These are: Salome, Falstaff, Così fan tutte, Ariadne auf Naxos, Hänsel und Gretel, Tosca, Die Zauberflöte, L’elisir d’amore, Der fliegende Holländer, La traviata, Pique Dame, Maria Stuarda, Il trovatore, Lohengrin, Der Freischütz, Elektra, Madama Butterfly, Luisa Miller and Tristan und Isolde. A major programme of lectures and other events contextualising each of these productions is intended to ‘frame the repertoire’. This constitutes the endeavour to approach past productions from today’s perspective, revisiting directors, production approaches and interpretations of opera classics.
For these 28 opera productions altogether, the members of the relatively large resident company of singers (24) will have a good share of the smaller and larger parts, including leading ones. Wellber as General Music Director conducts a substantial number of productions but allows diversity with the employment of another 22 conductors across the season. 85 guest soloists include international names such as Asmik Grigorian and Klaus Florian Vogt.
Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe