Newly designed schedule: Hamburg's state opera starts!

Newly designed schedule: Hamburg's state opera starts!

On March 5, 2025, the new bosses of the Hamburg State Opera presented their first schedule. The new management team consists of Demis Volpi, Tobias Kratzer and Omer Meir Wellber. Volpi, who took over the office of Balletintantant from John Neumeier at the beginning of the current season, will present his first "Demian" action ballet to Hermann Hesse on July 6th. Kratzer, known as the shooting director of the German opera scene, has big plans for the coming season. Among other things, he will stage Richard Wagner's "Ring des Nibelungen" in Munich and brings Rossini's "Guillaume Tell" to Hamburg, for which he directed the direction in 2019.

Kratzer has a variety of successful productions in Bayreuth, Leipzig, Graz and Weimar and has been awarded several times as "director of the year". He also plans to expand the opera and music theater and address a younger audience. Omer Meir Wellber, the future general music director, has extensive experience as a conductor and previously worked in Valencia and Dresden. He will take on the role of the general music director in the concert season of the Philharmonic State Orchestra. Culture Senator Carsten Brosda expressed a positive statement about the first steps of the new management team.

New schedule with special highlights

The new season book of the Hamburg State Opera comprises 376 pages and was designed with an appealing design, which, however, partially affects readability. In the next season, Giuseppe Verdi's opera performances will be reduced from five to four. The works "Falstaff", "La Traviata", "Il Trovatore" and "Luisa Miller" remain performances. Puccini only lists "Tosca" and "Madama Butterfly", while Mozart is only "Così fan tutte" and "The Magic Flute" on the schedule.

Six premieres in the large house are planned, including Mikhail Glinka's "Ruslan and Ljudmila" and Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia". Raffaella Lupinacci in the role of Rosina and Jonah Hoskins are new in the ensemble as Count Almaviva. In addition, there will be a three -part cycle with the title "Frauenliebe and -e -Dying", which includes works by Béla Bartók, Robert Schumann and Alexander Zemlinsky. A special highlight will be the premiere of a Grand Guignol Opera by Olga Neuwirth in February 2026, which is entitled "Monster’s Paradise".

In order to increase the attractiveness of the Hamburg State Opera, one hopes for compensation through newly gained enema members, after several departures from big names were recorded in the program that could attract international tourism. The Hamburg State Opera will celebrate its 350th birthday in 2027/28, which also brings special plans for this season. Klaus-Michael Kühne plans to build a new state opera at Baakenhöft in Hamburg.