The Staatsoper Unter den Linden has announced its 2026–27 season, featuring six new opera productions alongside major projects led by General Music Director Christian Thielemann, the return of the Barocktage festival, and appearances by artists including Cecilia Bartoli, Lise Davidsen, Asmik Grigorian, Diana Damrau, and Freddie De Tommaso.
In their introduction to the season brochure, Elisabeth Sobotka and Christian Thielemann underline the cultural and social role of opera and concert performance. “At every performance, a community forms anew that shares ideas, values, emotions, and visions,” they write, describing the opera house as a space where artistic experience can also reflect broader societal questions.
Six opera premieres across three centuries
The season’s six premieres span a wide historical range, from early Baroque opera to the Italian Romantic repertoire.
The programme opens with Gaspare Spontini’s La Vestale, conducted by Carlo Rizzi and staged by Lydia Steier. Spontini served for many years at Berlin’s Royal Opera, the predecessor of today’s Staatsoper, and the opera’s themes of personal devotion and political authority frame the broader narrative of the season.
Early opera will be represented by Francesco Cavalli’s La Calisto, presented during the Barocktage festival. The production will be directed by Stefan Herheim, with L’Arpeggiata and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin performing under Christina Pluhar.
For the Festtage in spring 2027, the Staatsoper will present a new production of Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, conducted by Bertrand de Billy and directed by Johannes Erath, who previously staged György Kurtág’s Fin de partie at the theatre.
German Romantic opera will be represented by Engelbert Humperdinck’s Königskinder, conducted by Christian Thielemann and directed by David Bösch, exploring the emotional world of the composer’s opera written after the success of Hänsel und Gretel.
The season will conclude with Giuseppe Verdi’s La forza del destino, conducted by Philippe Jordan and directed by Vasily Barkhatov, whose earlier production of Bellini’s Norma was presented at the Staatsoper.
Alongside these productions, the theatre will also present a new participatory adaptation of Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus designed for children.
Thielemann’s Wagner and Beethoven
The programme places particular emphasis on Christian Thielemann’s work with the Staatskapelle Berlin.
In addition to conducting Königskinder, Thielemann will lead performances of Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser during the Festtage and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in February 2027.
He will also conduct Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in commemoration of the bicentenary of the composer’s death in 2027. The symphony’s final movement, setting Friedrich Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”, has served as the official anthem of Europe since 1985.
Barocktage returns
After a two-year hiatus, the Barocktage festival will return to the Staatsoper with a programme centred on early opera.
In addition to Cavalli’s La Calisto, the festival will include performances of Claudio Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and Henry Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas by the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, an ensemble closely associated with the festival for many years.
Cecilia Bartoli celebrates 40 years on stage
The season will also mark the 40th stage anniversary of Cecilia Bartoli, who returns to the Staatsoper with Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice.
Bartoli will appear with Les Musiciens du Prince and the choir Il Canto di Orfeo, conducted by Gianluca Capuano, in a project highlighting the transition between the Baroque and Classical eras.
Symphonic programmes of the Staatskapelle Berlin
Beyond the opera stage, the Staatskapelle Berlin will present an extensive programme of symphonic and chamber concerts.
Among the central themes will be continued explorations of Richard Strauss’s orchestral songs and Franz Liszt’s symphonic poems, reflecting the orchestra’s longstanding engagement with the German Romantic repertoire.
With productions ranging from early opera to late Romantic works and major symphonic projects, the 2026–27 season at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden highlights both historical repertoire and festival programming as the Berlin institution continues to expand its artistic profile.
Subscribe to our newsletter