Dear friends,

in the summer of 2023, we set sail from our home port in central Berlin and embarked for new shores, calling in at many sites around town since then. You, dear audience, have journeyed with us, placed your trust in us, and joined us in discovering new works, new places, and new forms of theatre. To kick off the 2024/25 season as the opera for all of Berlin’s urban communities, we invite you to join us once again for a very special experience: on 21 September, we’ll launch our new season with George Frideric Handel’s MESSIAS oratorio, at Hangar 1 of Tempelhof Airport. Answering the venue’s grand dimensions, director Damiano Michieletto will work with five hundred singers from the city’s many diverse choirs and embed them within an entirely new theatrical concept.

In the course of our regular rehearsal and performance activities, the Schiller Theatre has proven to be a well-functioning venue. It’s not just that the highlights of our home-base repertoire can shine here in all their glory. The audience also enjoys a special closeness to what’s happening onstage, making every performance even more vivid!
You can now browse through the schedule and book your favourite productions from 25 March. Insider tip: With the OpernCard25 you can book exclusively from March 18!

Season
2024/25

Out into the city

We are renovating for you! Since September 2023, the Komische Oper complex on Behrenstrasse has been undergoing extensive renovation, modernization, and expansion. The show goes on... ...and how! During the renovations, performances will happen not only at the Schiller Theatre, but also at Tempelhof Airport and the old Kindl brewery site, as well as in a big tent and throughout Berlin’s many distinctive neighbourhoods.
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Tempelhof Airport / Hangar 4

Columbiadamm 10
12101 Berlin

After the great success of The Raft of the Medusa, the Komische Oper Berlin is kicking off the new season by returning to Hangar 1 of Tempelhof Airport with Handel’s Messiah (see p. 19). Tempelhof Airport was built from 1936 to 1941 and was once the world’s largest building, featuring 307,000 square metres of indoor space along with a roof that could hold seating for eighty thousand air-show spectators. While serving as a monumental showpiece during the Nazi era, the airport later became a symbol of freedom during the post-war era with the Berlin Airlift. Since its closure in 2008, its seven hangars have accommodated refugees, social projects, cultural events, and sporting meets.

Premiere

Georg Friedrich Händel
Premiere on September 21!

Chamber Concert

Chamber Concert 1

Only one time on September 30!

Schiller Theatre

Bismarckstraße 110
10625 Berlin

Without the Schiller Theatre, there’d be no Komische Oper Berlin! Opened in 1907, it became a supplementary venue for the Prussian State Theatre in 1921. Walter Felsenstein directed here in the 1930s, under Intendant Heinrich George. The Schiller Theatre was bombed out in 1944, so its artists shifted their work to the Hebbel Theatre. It was there that Felsenstein created his legendary production of La vie parisienne by Jacques Offenbach, which ultimately earned him the intendant job at what was once the Metropol Theatre on Behrenstrasse. This is where he founded the institution now considered the birthplace of modern music theatre: the Komische Oper Berlin. The Schiller Theatre was rebuilt in 1950/51, and has served as a venue for the Komische Oper Berlin since the 2023/24 season.

Premieres

Franz Wittenbrink
Children’s opera in two acts

Premiere on Oktober 26!
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
A Musical-Thriller


Premiere on November 17!
Jacques Offenbach
Opéra-comique in three acts
Concert premiere on Dezember 22!
Engelbert Humperdinck
Fairy-tale opera in three acts

Premiere on January 25!

Herbert Grönemeyer
Musical comedy based on Eugène Labiche’s


Premiere on February 8!

Philip Glass
An opera in three acts

Premiere on March 15!
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Dramma giocoso in two acts

Premiere on April 27!

Re­per­toire

A Musical–Vaudeville
Book by Fred Ebb und Bob Fosse

It's back from Oktober 10!
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Opera buffa in four acts

It's back from November 23!
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Grand opera in two acts

It's back from Dezember 6!
Giacomo Puccini
Based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger, in four acts

It's back from January 11!
Jacques Offenbach
Opéra bouffe in three acts


It's back from February 22!
Lone­ly House
Kurt Weill
Songs and chansons by Kurt Weill

It's back from March 9!
Jerry Herman
Musical

It's back from March 29!
Oscar Straus
Operetta in two acts

It's back from April 12!
Kurt Weill
Children’s opera in two acts

It's back from May 8!

Sym­pho­ny Con­certs

Symphony concert for one man und 100 metronomes

Only one time on November 29!
New Year's concert with Klezmer, Mahler und Uri Caine

Only one time on January 1!
A literary symphony concert

Only one time on April 4!
A symphony concert with more than just Mozart

On May 2!
A choral evening amongs the symphony concerts

Only one time on June 20!
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Kindl Site

Berlin-Neukölln

For the third time now, the Komische Oper Berlin will be guesting at the former Kindl brewery site with Schall&Rausch, the festival for brand-new experimental music theatre. Founded in 1872 by a group of Rixdorf innkeepers, this facility became one of Germany’s biggest breweries during the early twentieth century, thanks to its bestselling namesake export: Kindl Pilsner. After the Second World War, the Neukölln location, despite occasional good periods, could no longer match its previous successes and was closed in 2005. Today, the former brewery site has gained a new character by housing various NGOs, the SchwuZ Queer Club, and the KINDL Centre for Contemporary Art, now offering politics, art, and entertainment instead of—or alongside—a cold bottle of beer.

Schall&Rausch

Festival for brand new music theatre

From February 7 until February 16!
A glittering, glamorous music theatre rebellion, by Gaye Su Akyol and Pinar Karabulut

Premiere on February 7!
The Schall&Rausch Playroom

From February 8!
Gig Theatre by Lisa van der Aa

From February 8!
A geohistory opera

From February 14!

Symphony Concert

Symphony Concert

Only one time on February 14!

Tent

In the middle of Berlin

In the 2023/24 season, the magnificent Queen of Flanders tent, overflowing with light-hearted music theatre, was pitched right outside Berlin’s City Hall. The royal pleasure craft has now set sail again, voyaging to its next exciting location in the heart of Berlin. Where exactly will its anchorage be? As soon as we get the coordinates, we’ll be sure to announce this right away on our website. So it’s doubly worth your while to check back regularly!

Premiere

Gerd Natschinski
Musical in seven acts

Premiere on June 14!
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Konzerthaus Berlin

Gendarmenmarkt 2
10117 Berlin

Designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Berlin’s Konzerthaus was first opened in 1821 as a theatre. This is where Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischutz (The Marksman) premiered, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony had its first Berlin performance. Almost completely destroyed during the Second World War, the building was reopened as a theatre in 1984 and became a concert hall in 1992. In addition to the Konzerthaus, the Ernst-Reuter-Saal in Reinickendorf will also host a symphony concert of the Komische Oper Berlin.

Sym­pho­ny Con­cert

The symphony concert of our music director

Only one time on October 31!

Ernst-Reuter-Saal

Eichborndamm 213
13437 Berlin

The Ernst-Reuter-Saal was built in 1957 and is located in a side wing of the Reinickendorf town hall. Designed as a concert hall, it still retains the style of the 1950s. When it opened, it was considered one of the halls with the best acoustics in Germany. The architectural design, in which orchestras, renowned singers and actors of the time participated, ensured this at the time. The result can still be seen and heard today.

Symphony Concert

A symphony concert with more than just Mozart

On May 12!
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... and all over Berlin!

Out to the city, into the neighbourhoods! The Komische Oper Berlin is the opera company for all of the city’s urban communities. For over ten years now, the Opera Dolmuş (see p. 134) has been delivering music theatre to various local neighbourhoods as part of the Selam Opera! programme. Meanwhile, the music theatre outreach programme Jung – für alle! has been collaborating with schools and other institutions from Spandau to Köpenick, and from Reinickendorf to Zehlendorf. And the opera can pop up anywhere, be it at the market hall or the airport, whether as a pop-up opera piece or a chamber concert. Keep your eyes and ears open, as the Komische Oper Berlin is sure to appear somewhere nearby ...
Intercultural project between music theater and urban society

Out of the house, into the city! We keep on playing ... and how!

Komische Oper Berlin for children and their families, projects for young and old, music theater education - for everyone!

Ready, steady, go for Tickets!

On Monday, March 18, 2024, 11 a.m., the exclusive advance sale begins for OpernCard25 holders, subscribers and members of the Förderkreis. Tickets can be booked online, by phone or directly at the opera box office (Unter den Linden) - one week before the general advance sale starts on March 25, 2024!

Thank You!

Mäzen:innen

Hauptpartner:innen

Partner:innen

Unterstützer:innen