During a press conference on Thursday, February 27, 2020, the Oper Leipzig presented its plans for the next season. Intendant and General Music Director of the Oper Leipzig, Prof. Ulf Schirmer, together with Ballet Director and Principal Choreographer, Mario Schröder, Managing Director of the Musikalische Komödie, Torsten Rose, and Chief Dramaturg and Director of the Junge Oper Leipzig, Dr. Christian Geltinger, presented the highlights of the 2020/21 season.
A total of 12 new productions will celebrate their premiere during the 2020/21 season. In addition to four new opera productions, three Leipzig Ballet premieres, and four premieres at the Musikalische Komödie -- which will return to its home at the Haus Dreilinden -- the season also features a children's opera project supported by the European Union, in addition to 35 other works in the active repertoire.
From September 2020 to July 2021, more than 400 events are on the program for the coming season, encompassing opera, the Leipzig Ballet, and the Musikalische Komödie. Performances range from opera, light opera, operetta, and musical to both classical and modern ballet. Special events include the New Year's Eve Gala, an operetta workshop, collaborations with other cultural institutions in the city, as well as smaller format presentations both in our venues and in the surrounding urban environment. This also includes the wide range of services offered by the Junge Oper Leipzig, which offers programming for children, young adults, and families, as well as multigenerational projects. In addition, we will offer house and special tours as well as host external events.
Opera
The summer of 2022 is fast approaching. By then, the Oper Leipzig, under the direction of its Intendant and general music director Prof. Ulf Schirmer, has set the ambitious goal of having all 13 Wagner operas in its repertoire, and will bring them to the stage within three and a half weeks for the »Wagner 22« Festival. The Oper Leipzig will present a new production of Lohengrin, directed by Katharina Wagner on November 7, 2020, in a co-production with the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona. With that premiere, there remains only the new production of Meistersinger von Nürnberg in the run-up to 2022.
A core component of every opera house is Italian repertoire, which only naturally includes works by Wagner's Italian antipode Giuseppe Verdi. A new production of Verdi's opera Il trovatore will celebrate its premiere on November 29, 2020. Featuring an international cast of singers (Marina Prudenskaya, Gaston Rivero) and Antonino Fogliani at the podium of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, it is sure to be one of the season's musical highlights.
Following the success of the operatic discovery of Cinq-Mars (The King's Rebel), the Oper Leipzig will once again collaborate with the Italian research institution Palazzetto Bru Zane. In the coming season, that collaboration will lead to the revival of Les Barbares, an unknown work by Camille Saint-Saëns, presented on stage to mark the 100th anniversary of the composer's death. The curtain will rise on the new production by Anthony Pilavachi on March 27, 2021.
With the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, the Oper Leipzig has successfully commissioned a world premiere for the 2020/21 season, which will celebrate its premiere on July 3, 2021. The opera Paradiese, which was composed by Gerd Kühr, features a libretto by the writer Hans-Ulrich Treichel, professor emeritus at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig. Musical direction for the premiere is the hands of Prof. Ulf Schirmer and Barbora Horáková will direct for the stage. In addition, a composition competition for young composers will return this season.
The season will close with a weekend featuring performances of Richard Wagners early work.
Leipzig Ballet
In the year 2020, the Leipzig Ballet looks back at 10 years with Ballet Director and Principal Choreographer Mario Schröder. To mark the occasion, the Leipzig Ballet will mount a revival of the popular Chaplin production in the 2020 /21 season, the ballet with which Mario Schröder made his Leipzig debut.
In the world premiere Rituals, which will premiere on October 3, 2020, two different cultures meet: European and Japanese cultures come to life to the music of Franz Schubert and Toru Takemitsu. Rituals operate at the junction between theatrical, religious, and everyday life. As such, they are an essential form of expression of a culture’s identity. Here, the Leipzig Ballet reflects the different cultural circles from which the company’s dancers originate.
The focus of the second premiere on the main stage is the myth of Faust, which opens on February 6, 2021. Edward Clug, head of the Slovenian National Ballet Maribor, tells the myth in reference to Goethe’s Faust. The first part of the tragedy is set to the music of Milko Lazar, one of the most renowned Slovenian composers of our time.
The third ballet premiere, on May 21, 2021, will focus on the famous beatboxer Harry Yeff, better known in the international music scene under the stage name Reeps100. He will enter into a dialogue between dance and his rhythms and sounds, created with mouth, nose and throat, in Mario Schröder's choreographic premiere entitled FUSION.
And for audiences of all ages, we will present a Christmastime revival of the ballet The Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
Musikalische Komödie
The 2020/21 season at the Musikalische Komödie is marked by the ensemble’s return to its lavishly renovated headquarters in the Haus Dreilinden after a 15-month interlude in the Westbad.
The red carpet will be rolled out for the premiere of The Queen of Movies on December 11, 2020, inviting audiences into a dazzling world of glamour and glitz. And with this premiere, the Musikalische Komödie once again shows its stuff as one of the few ensembles in all of Germany known specifically for performing little-known operettas. Andreas Gergen will direct for the stage.
Classical Viennese operetta will also appear on the program, in the form of a new production of Emmerich Kálmán’s Gräfin Mariza, directed by Ulrich Wiggers, which will take the stage on April 24, 2021. Wigger’s most recent appearance in Leipzig, The Duchess of Chicago, was a hit with audiences and critics alike. Back at his side as set and costume designer is Lief-Erik Heine.
For many years, the Musikalische Komödie has also made a name for itself as the home of top-notch musicals performances, a fine complement to its expertise in operetta. With the premiere of Sweeney Todd on February 20, 2021, a work by Stephen Sondheim will appear on the program for the very first time. Sondheim, who also wrote the texts for Bernstein’s West Side Story, is considered one of the most demanding musical composers. His musical language reflects the serious source material and problematic milieus that are often the focus of his pieces. Principal Director Cusch Jung will direct for the stage, and audience favorite Jan Amann will take on the title role.
Things will get wild in the musical Bullets over Broadway, after the film of the same name by Woody Allen. Cusch Jung will also direct for the stage here, and together with Benjamin Sommerfeld (On the Town, Kein Pardon), they’ll bring a grand musical to the Haus Dreilinden. This second new musical production of the season premieres on June 19, 2021.
In cooperation with the Conductors’ Forum of the German Music Council, an operetta workshop at the Musikalische Komödie will take place once again in 2021. The final concerts on January 9 and 10, 2021, will feature a concert performance of Jettchen Gebert, a Singspiel by Walter Kollo.
Junge Oper Leipzig
Beginning in 2012, the Oper Leipzig Education Department has been systematically developed and expanded into a fourth division: the Junge Oper Leipzig. It includes the area of theater pedagogy as well as the children’s and youth choir, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary in September 2020 with a festive concert.
The Junge Oper Leipzig division cooperates with the opera, Leipzig Ballet, and the Musikalische Komödie divisions by initiating productions for young audiences and providing theatrical pedagogical support. It also produces numerous productions of its own, such as children’s and youth choir productions, the children’s opera club, the youth theater club, and the senior citizens’.
The youth choir is working on developing a piece entitled Nah uns die Sinnflut! In addition, the classroom piece Adna is new and the production King Arthur are both back on the program.
Children and young people can become active independently of the children's choir not only by joining clubs, but also in specialized formats such as »Oper zum Mitmachen«. All the theatrical pedagogical offers are inclusive.
A special highlight of the 2020 /21 season will be the children's opera project Turandot for Children, in which children aged 7 to 12 years will have the opportunity to perform as a class on the stage of the Musikalische Komödie together with professionals. In joint workshops, teachers and pupils will learn various passages from the opera, supported by singing instructors. This project is funded by the European Union, and, as a result, the workshops and performances are offered free of charge to participants and their families.
A total of 12 new productions will celebrate their premiere during the 2020/21 season. In addition to four new opera productions, three Leipzig Ballet premieres, and four premieres at the Musikalische Komödie -- which will return to its home at the Haus Dreilinden -- the season also features a children's opera project supported by the European Union, in addition to 35 other works in the active repertoire.
From September 2020 to July 2021, more than 400 events are on the program for the coming season, encompassing opera, the Leipzig Ballet, and the Musikalische Komödie. Performances range from opera, light opera, operetta, and musical to both classical and modern ballet. Special events include the New Year's Eve Gala, an operetta workshop, collaborations with other cultural institutions in the city, as well as smaller format presentations both in our venues and in the surrounding urban environment. This also includes the wide range of services offered by the Junge Oper Leipzig, which offers programming for children, young adults, and families, as well as multigenerational projects. In addition, we will offer house and special tours as well as host external events.
Opera
The summer of 2022 is fast approaching. By then, the Oper Leipzig, under the direction of its Intendant and general music director Prof. Ulf Schirmer, has set the ambitious goal of having all 13 Wagner operas in its repertoire, and will bring them to the stage within three and a half weeks for the »Wagner 22« Festival. The Oper Leipzig will present a new production of Lohengrin, directed by Katharina Wagner on November 7, 2020, in a co-production with the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona. With that premiere, there remains only the new production of Meistersinger von Nürnberg in the run-up to 2022.
A core component of every opera house is Italian repertoire, which only naturally includes works by Wagner's Italian antipode Giuseppe Verdi. A new production of Verdi's opera Il trovatore will celebrate its premiere on November 29, 2020. Featuring an international cast of singers (Marina Prudenskaya, Gaston Rivero) and Antonino Fogliani at the podium of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, it is sure to be one of the season's musical highlights.
Following the success of the operatic discovery of Cinq-Mars (The King's Rebel), the Oper Leipzig will once again collaborate with the Italian research institution Palazzetto Bru Zane. In the coming season, that collaboration will lead to the revival of Les Barbares, an unknown work by Camille Saint-Saëns, presented on stage to mark the 100th anniversary of the composer's death. The curtain will rise on the new production by Anthony Pilavachi on March 27, 2021.
With the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, the Oper Leipzig has successfully commissioned a world premiere for the 2020/21 season, which will celebrate its premiere on July 3, 2021. The opera Paradiese, which was composed by Gerd Kühr, features a libretto by the writer Hans-Ulrich Treichel, professor emeritus at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig. Musical direction for the premiere is the hands of Prof. Ulf Schirmer and Barbora Horáková will direct for the stage. In addition, a composition competition for young composers will return this season.
The season will close with a weekend featuring performances of Richard Wagners early work.
Leipzig Ballet
In the year 2020, the Leipzig Ballet looks back at 10 years with Ballet Director and Principal Choreographer Mario Schröder. To mark the occasion, the Leipzig Ballet will mount a revival of the popular Chaplin production in the 2020 /21 season, the ballet with which Mario Schröder made his Leipzig debut.
In the world premiere Rituals, which will premiere on October 3, 2020, two different cultures meet: European and Japanese cultures come to life to the music of Franz Schubert and Toru Takemitsu. Rituals operate at the junction between theatrical, religious, and everyday life. As such, they are an essential form of expression of a culture’s identity. Here, the Leipzig Ballet reflects the different cultural circles from which the company’s dancers originate.
The focus of the second premiere on the main stage is the myth of Faust, which opens on February 6, 2021. Edward Clug, head of the Slovenian National Ballet Maribor, tells the myth in reference to Goethe’s Faust. The first part of the tragedy is set to the music of Milko Lazar, one of the most renowned Slovenian composers of our time.
The third ballet premiere, on May 21, 2021, will focus on the famous beatboxer Harry Yeff, better known in the international music scene under the stage name Reeps100. He will enter into a dialogue between dance and his rhythms and sounds, created with mouth, nose and throat, in Mario Schröder's choreographic premiere entitled FUSION.
And for audiences of all ages, we will present a Christmastime revival of the ballet The Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
Musikalische Komödie
The 2020/21 season at the Musikalische Komödie is marked by the ensemble’s return to its lavishly renovated headquarters in the Haus Dreilinden after a 15-month interlude in the Westbad.
The red carpet will be rolled out for the premiere of The Queen of Movies on December 11, 2020, inviting audiences into a dazzling world of glamour and glitz. And with this premiere, the Musikalische Komödie once again shows its stuff as one of the few ensembles in all of Germany known specifically for performing little-known operettas. Andreas Gergen will direct for the stage.
Classical Viennese operetta will also appear on the program, in the form of a new production of Emmerich Kálmán’s Gräfin Mariza, directed by Ulrich Wiggers, which will take the stage on April 24, 2021. Wigger’s most recent appearance in Leipzig, The Duchess of Chicago, was a hit with audiences and critics alike. Back at his side as set and costume designer is Lief-Erik Heine.
For many years, the Musikalische Komödie has also made a name for itself as the home of top-notch musicals performances, a fine complement to its expertise in operetta. With the premiere of Sweeney Todd on February 20, 2021, a work by Stephen Sondheim will appear on the program for the very first time. Sondheim, who also wrote the texts for Bernstein’s West Side Story, is considered one of the most demanding musical composers. His musical language reflects the serious source material and problematic milieus that are often the focus of his pieces. Principal Director Cusch Jung will direct for the stage, and audience favorite Jan Amann will take on the title role.
Things will get wild in the musical Bullets over Broadway, after the film of the same name by Woody Allen. Cusch Jung will also direct for the stage here, and together with Benjamin Sommerfeld (On the Town, Kein Pardon), they’ll bring a grand musical to the Haus Dreilinden. This second new musical production of the season premieres on June 19, 2021.
In cooperation with the Conductors’ Forum of the German Music Council, an operetta workshop at the Musikalische Komödie will take place once again in 2021. The final concerts on January 9 and 10, 2021, will feature a concert performance of Jettchen Gebert, a Singspiel by Walter Kollo.
Junge Oper Leipzig
Beginning in 2012, the Oper Leipzig Education Department has been systematically developed and expanded into a fourth division: the Junge Oper Leipzig. It includes the area of theater pedagogy as well as the children’s and youth choir, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary in September 2020 with a festive concert.
The Junge Oper Leipzig division cooperates with the opera, Leipzig Ballet, and the Musikalische Komödie divisions by initiating productions for young audiences and providing theatrical pedagogical support. It also produces numerous productions of its own, such as children’s and youth choir productions, the children’s opera club, the youth theater club, and the senior citizens’.
The youth choir is working on developing a piece entitled Nah uns die Sinnflut! In addition, the classroom piece Adna is new and the production King Arthur are both back on the program.
Children and young people can become active independently of the children's choir not only by joining clubs, but also in specialized formats such as »Oper zum Mitmachen«. All the theatrical pedagogical offers are inclusive.
A special highlight of the 2020 /21 season will be the children's opera project Turandot for Children, in which children aged 7 to 12 years will have the opportunity to perform as a class on the stage of the Musikalische Komödie together with professionals. In joint workshops, teachers and pupils will learn various passages from the opera, supported by singing instructors. This project is funded by the European Union, and, as a result, the workshops and performances are offered free of charge to participants and their families.
