Yesterday’s summer concert by the Staatskapelle Berlin, conducted by Alain Altinoglu at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and with free admission as part of the Kultursommerfestival, as well as two performances of Puccini’s TURANDOT today (8 July) and Sunday (10 July) and a performance of Bizet’s LES PÊCHEURS DE PERLES on Saturday (9 July) bring the 2021/22 season at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden to a close.
Image above: Staatskapelle Berlin, Photo: Peter Adamik
During the break in the season, German-language guided tours of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden will take place daily at 2 and 4 pm from 11 July to 24 August. Tickets and further information: https://www.staatsoper-berlin.de/de/ihr-besuch/fuehrungen/.
REVIEW 2021/22
Despite more than 140 changes in the cast of soloists alone, every planned opera performance at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in the 2021/22 season went off successfully. Even with the additional logistical effort required by Corona, regular performances were maintained, in compliance with the applicable safety and hygiene measures and under changing conditions as far as seating capacity was concerned. For this, the Staatsoper Berlin would like to thank all its staff, whose motivation and commitment contributed to a wonderful season.
The 2021/22 season opened with STAATSOPER FÜR ALLE around the audience premiere of Mozart’s LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, staged by Vincent Huguet and conducted by Daniel Barenboim (18 September 2021). It was the first performance to take place in front of a full and sold-out house in 18 months, under 2G+ conditions and with masked compulsory. Other selected highlights of the season included:
The performances of the complete Mozart da Ponte cycle with LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, COSÌ FAN TUTTE and DON GIOVANNI (FESTTAGE 2022).
The world premiere of Peter Eötvös’ SLEEPLESS, conducted by the composer himself and staged by Kornél Mundruczó (28 November 2021).
The new production of Leoš Janáček’s THE MATTER OF MACROPULOS, under the musical direction of Simon Rattle, staged by Claus Guth and with, among others, Marlis Petersen making her role debut as Emilia Marty (premiere on 13 February 2022).
The premiere of Giacomo Puccini’s TURANDOT directed by Philipp Stölzl and conducted by Zubin Mehta (18 June 2022), as part of STAATSOPER FÜR ALLE. After two years, the 16th edition of STAATSOPER FÜR ALLE was finally able to take place again for everyone, without limited seating capacity. Thanks to BMW, admission was, as always, free of charge. Despite the high summer temperatures, around 22,000 enthusiastic visitors from Berlin and all over the world came to the STAATSOPER FÜR ALLE weekend on 18 and 19 June with the opera broadcast of TURANDOT and the live concert by the Staatskapelle Berlin, conducted by Daniel Barenboim.
The BAROCKTAGE, with among others the premiere of André Campra’s rarely performed opera IDOMÉNÉE under the musical direction of Emmanuelle Haïm and directed by Àlex Ollé (5 November 2021).
The acclaimed European tour of the Staatskapelle Berlin under the baton of Daniel Barenboim to Athens, Geneva, Madrid, Vienna and Zurich in November 2021.
In addition to the audience premiere of Mozart’s LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, the new productions of Wagner’s LOHENGRIN and Janáček’s JENŮFA were also performed live in front of an audience for the first time.
Staatskapelle Berlin: In Berlin, the Staatskapelle Berlin performed symphony concerts under the direction of Daniel Barenboim, Christian Thielemann, Simone Young, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Alain Altinoglu, Marc Minkowski and Andrés Orozco-Estrada, among others.
In 2021 the 200th anniversary of the Staatsoper Chorus was celebrated, among other things at the opening festival 2021/22, at STAATSOPER FÜR ALLE in September 2021 and as a highlight with a festive concert in December 2021. In addition, there were several choral symphonic concerts together with the Staatskapelle Berlin as well as many evenings on the opera stage. In addition, there was a symposium on the history and present of the Staatsoper Chorus.
LINDEN 21: The world premiere of Thom Luzʼ WERCKMEISTER HARMONIEN in the Apollosaal (24 May 2022). In addition, rehearsal stage 1 was used as a venue for the first time, for the premiere of Christian Jost’s chamber opera DIE ARABISCHE NACHT, with members of the opera studio among others (14 April 2022).
Education: The Opera Children’s Orchestra performed at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden as part of the FESTTAGE 2022 on 16 April 2022 and for the first time “on guest performance” at the Nikolaisaal Potsdam. On 3 July, the 22 children aged 10 to 13 from the Kinderopernhaus Unter den Linden were able to celebrate their premiere GESCHWINDE, IHR WIRBELNDEN WINDE. The Kinderopernhaus Berlin is funded by the State of Berlin and co-financed by the participating districts. Further sponsors are the Hilti Foundation as main partner of the Junge Staatsoper and furthermore the Stiftung Berliner Sparkasse, the Caritasverband Berlin as well as the Freunde und Förderer der Staatsoper Unter den Linden. The main partner of the children’s and youth programme of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden is the Hilti Foundation, Liechtenstein within the framework of its funding priority “Community Arts & Culture”.
Sustainability: In addition to the 10th Climate Concert of the Orchestra of Change at the Kraftwerk in May 2022, the first edition of the new discourse and concert performance series SUSTAINABLE LISTENING took place shortly afterwards in June at the Apollosaal. The series is dedicated to climate and environmental issues, with music, impulses and exchange with climate experts. The first edition was dedicated to the topic “Ocean”. The series will be continued in January 2023.
All in all, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden presented more than 300 events in 2021/22, two STAATSOPER FÜR ALLE editions thanks to BMW (at the beginning and end of the season) and numerous projects by the Junge Staatsoper.
Visitors: Taking into account the various social factors (such as changed leisure time behaviour, financial factors, current world events and still Corona and cases of illness), 2021/22 was also a successful season in terms of attendance. Nevertheless, the Berlin State Opera, like almost all theatres, has noticed that audiences are currently still hesitant, generally booking at shorter notice, and that international audiences are not yet back as they were before the pandemic. The house assumes that it will take a while for these things to settle down again – which on the one hand also requires some patience and acceptance, but at the same time the Berlin State Opera naturally sees it as its task to counteract this in communication and with measures in that it tries to remind people again of the value of the shared live experience, here in the form of music theatre. “In 2021/22, in addition to campaigns to retain existing visitors, we were able to put a special focus on offers for a younger audience and for more accessibility, with campaigns such as STAATSOPER ZUM KINOPREIS thanks to the friends and supporters, further U30 campaigns as well as offers for KulturLeben Berlin – Schlüssel zur Kultur e.V, solidarity tickets and events with free admission. It is also important for us that we have returned to our “rhythm” with the coming season and thus offer our audience more planning security again: We only published our 2021/22 season in June 2021 and successively put it on sale. It was therefore an important step that the 2022/23 season was published again in April and is now already on sale.”
OUTLOOK 2022/23
The start of the 2022/23 season at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden will be dominated by Wagner’s RING tetralogy: all four parts will be premiered within just one week in October (2, 3, 6 and 9 October 2022), which means that the new RING can be experienced in its entirety from the very beginning, a truly “mammoth project” for a repertory house. After two further series of performances in autumn 2022, the tetralogy will then be shown again at the FESTTAGE 2023. For the third time, Daniel Barenboim, who will celebrate his 80th birthday on 15 November 2022, is working on a RING production at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. The director and stage designer at his side is Dmitri Tcherniakov. With, among others. Michael Volle (Wotan and Der Wanderer), Anja Kampe (Brünnhilde, with role debuts in SIEGFRIED and GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG), Vida Miknevičiūtė (role debut Sieglinde), Andreas Schager (Siegfried), Robert Watson (Siegmund), Johannes Martin Kränzle (Alberich), Claudia Mahnke (Fricka), Anna Kissjudit (Erda), Mika Kares (house debut with Fasolt, Hunding and role debut Hagen), Stephan Rügamer (Mime) and Rolando Villazón (role debut Loge) as well as the Staatsoper Chor and Staatskapelle Berlin.
To kick off the season, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden invites you to an opening festival on 4 September 2022. The first revivals include Donizetti’s L’ELISIR D’AMORE (from 11 September) and Simon Steen-Andersen’s WALK THE WALK as part of LINDEN 21 (from 2 September).
The ticket service is closed from 11 July to 24 August, but the 2022/23 season can be booked online. With the Flex Package, visitors save from the second ticket onwards.
More information: www.staatsoper-berlin.de/flex-paket
