All-time favourites, comedy and operetta inform the choices for music theatre in Theater Bremen’s 2025-26 season
The press conference to announce the 2025/26 season for theatre, music theatre, dance and youth theatre at Theater Bremen (info here) was dedicated to the memory of Michael Börgerding, the company’s former artistic director who passed away in January this year and was instrumental in the development of the 2025-26 season.
At the beginning of the press conference the Chair of the Supervisory Board of Theater Bremen, State Secretary for Culture Carmen Emigholz, confirmed the interim solution until the summer of 2027, the end of Börgerding’s contracted tenure, to be provided by a management team consisting of department heads, the chief operating officer and the commercial manager: ‘This also expresses the Supervisory Board’s great appreciation for what this theatre, which has had to endure many setbacks, has achieved. We are in the midst of a very successful season, which speaks to the very high level of acceptance of this theater. The interim team has proven that it is managing the theater well and has a positive impact on audiences. This is an outstanding achievement by the entire team,’ she said. ‘I have therefore decided, with my colleagues on the supervisory board, that the team’s tenure will be extended until what would have been the end of Michael Börgerding’s term as director. What has been achieved is impressive proof, and this confirmation is only appropriate.’
The musical theater begins the new season with Puccini. Ulrike Schwab, who received critical acclaim for her productions of Pagliacci and Salome (see review here) at Theater Bremen in recent seasons, will bring Madama Butterfly to the stage. First Kapellmeister Sasha Yankevych will conduct.
Director Barbora Horáková will make her Bremen debut with Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel to be conducted by Music Director Stefan Klingele
Frank Hilbrich, in his last season as Co-Head of Music Theatre at Theater Bremen, directs Fritz Kreisler’s operetta Sissy.
Rossini’s comic opera Il viaggio a Reims will be conducted by Sasha Yankevych and directed by Anna Weber, making her directorial debut in Bremen.
With Dido and Aeneas/Erwartung, Yu Sugimoto and Kristina Franz explore the music of Purcell and Schoenberg.
Frank Hilbrich directs Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, with Stefan Klingele conducting. Marco Štorman returns to Theater Bremen after his most recent success with Mozart’s Clemenza di Tito (see review here) to direct Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, conducted by Sasha Yankevych.
The revivals of productions from past seasons include Hello Dolly, Verdi’s Otello, Puccini’s La bohème, and Doctor Atomic by John Adams.
Imaginative classics are central to the Bremerhaven 2025-26 season
The municipal theatre of Bremerhaven (info here) has introduced its 2025-26 programme for theatre, music theatre (opera, operetta and musical), concert season, ballet and theatre for children and adolescents.
The core of the new productions is formed by ‘classics’ both conventional and modern. First up is The Love for the Three Oranges by Prokofiev, conducted by General Music Director Marc Niemann in what will be his last season with the company. Julius Theodor Semmelmann returns to direct and design the set, following his successful Der Rosenkavalier here in 2023-24 (see review here).
The seasonal operetta for this season is Emmerich Kálmán’s Die Csárdásfürstin, conducted by the company’s expert for operetta, Hartmut Brüsch.
Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi receives concert performances promising a vocal feast with company members Victoria Kunze and Boshana Milkov in the roles of Juliet and Romeo. First Kapellmeister Davide Perniceni conducts. Kunze then takes on the role of Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata, in a production conducted by Marc Niemann.
For Die Csárdásfürstin and La traviata, the company will work with directors at the beginning of already exciting careers, Sebastian Kranner and Katharina Kastening, respectively.
Die tote Stadt by Korngold completes the season, conducted by Niemann and directed by Johannes Pölzgutter, who returns to Bremerhaven after successful productions of Les contes d’Hoffmann (2021) and Rusalka (2023, see review here).
The musical of the season is Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim, conducted by Davide Perniceni and directed by Toni Burkhardt, returning after his successful 2024-25 My Fair Lady (see review here).
Following the success of Gold by Leonard Evers throughout the 2024-25 season, this production will be revived in 2025-26, and the company’s children and youth chorus will present a further opera for children, focusing on, but not limited to, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, conceptualised and directed by the Head of the Youth Theatre section, Bianca Sue Henne, together with the chorus director, Edward Mauritius Münch. Also from the 2024-25 season, the musical Catch me if you can will be revived.
Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe