2020 / 21 Season 2020 / 21 Season About the Semperoper Semperoper Dresden Dresden and its majestic Old Town are home to ner gave the world premieres of »Rienzi«, »The calibre as well as international collaborations, Aaron S. Watkin has been the director of Sem- a cultural heritage of international renown. Flying Dutchman« and »Tannhäuser«. There is the reputation of the Semperoper will continue peroper Ballett since 2006. Today the company Every year hundreds of thousands of visitors are also an indelible connection to Richard Strauss, to grow under his watch. is renowned for the strength and versatility of captivated by the precious paintings, prestigious nine of whose 15 operas were performed for the Christian Thielemann has been principal its dancers, who perform a wide repertoire of orchestras and musical ensembles as well as first time at the Semperoper, including conductor of the Staatskapelle since the 2012/13 classical and contemporary dance styles. impressive buildings from different eras. One of »Salome«, »Der Rosenkavalier« and »Elektra«. season. The Saxon State Opera Chorus is famous At the Semperoper, tradition and modernity the most famous venues is also located in this In fact, Richard Strauss collaborated closely in Germany and elsewhere through its concerts have gone hand in hand for centuries. Des- city on the Elbe: the Semperoper, an opera with the Staatskapelle for almost seventy years. and CD productions. Founded by Carl Maria von troyed during the bombing of Dresden on 13 house with a global reputation, a distinguished In 2014, his 150th birthday was celebrated at Weber in 1817, celebrations to mark its 200th February 1945, the opera house was officially ensemble and many international guests. This the Semperoper with a special programme of anniversary were held in October 2017. Weber reopened 40 years later, on 13 February 1985. is also the home of the Staatskapelle Dresden, events. was also instrumental in creating a dedicated one of the oldest orchestras in the world and From the 2018 / 19 season, Peter Theiler is ballet company in Dresden. Founded in 1823, its thus steeped in tradition. Founded in 1548 by Artistic Director of the Saxon State Opera in first artistic heyday came in the 1920s, followed Elector Moritz of Saxony as a court orchestra, Dresden. Together with his team and artistic by many great choreographies after the Second its list of former conductors includes Heinrich directors, Peter Theiler understands music the- World War under directors Tom Schilling, Schütz, Carl Maria von Weber and Richard Wag- atre and ballet in all its facets as a living Harald Wandtke and Vladimir Derevianko. ner, who described the ensemble as his »mira- memory and vital expression of our contem- culous harp«. Operatic history has been written porary world. With celebrated conductors, at the Semperoper: This is where Richard Wag- stage directors and singers of the highest 2020 / 21 Season Opera Premieres PREMIERE PREMIERE PREMIERE GIOACHINO ROSSINI WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI Guillaume Tell / William Tell The Magic Flute L’Orfeo Conductor Giampaolo Bisanti Conductor Omer Meir Wellber Conductor Wolfgang Katschner Staging Georg Schmiedleitner Staging Josef E. Köpplinger Staging Nikolaus Habjan Premiere 27 September 2020 Premiere 1 November 2020 Premiere 26 March 2021 Performances 29 Sep & 2, 6, 11, 23 & 30 Oct 2020 Performances 4, 5, 7, 14, 18, 21, 23, 29 Nov(af+ev), Performances 30 Mar & 2, 7, 9, 12 Apr 2021 4, 12 Dec 2020, 2(af+ev), 6, 22, 24(af+ev), 28, 31 Jan, 4, 15 Feb, 18, 21 Mar, 4 Apr(af+ev), 10, 21, 23 May(af+ev), An opera about the power of music: In »L’Orfeo«, Claudio The world-famous and thrilling overture to »Guillaume 11, 25 Jun & 8, 10 Jul 2021 Monteverdi tells of the singer Orpheus, who is able to Tell« opens an opera that proves no less spectacular. Fea- bring back his wife Euridice from the realm of the dead turing the shooting of an apple and the legendary oath on »The Magic Flute« by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is with the beauty of his voice. Monteverdi invented the Rütli meadow, Gioachino Rossini’s work, which premiered beloved by opera fans all around the world. Its secret lies genre of opera with this work from 1607. For the Sem- in 1829, brings to the stage the founding myth of in a wonderful blend of naïve folk theatre, a humanistic peroper, director and puppeteer Nikolaus Habjan, a shoo- Switzerland. The composer ensured plenty of vocal message as well as moments of pure magic contrasted ting star of the Austrian theatre scene, stages the opera fireworks in his final masterpiece, presenting brilliant arias with divine solemnity. The work is infused with the genius not only with singers but also life-size puppets. The con- and exciting large choral scenes – and, famously, 19 high of Mozart, who in his last opera poured out a veritable ductor and lutenist Wolfgang Katschner will be our guide Cs in the tenor’s aria. cornucopia of musical ideas. In his staging, Josef E. through the fantastic musical world of this earliest of Köpplinger send the audience together with Tamino on a operas. dreamlike and poetic journey, full of vivid images, into adulthood. 2020 / 21 Season Der Freischütz 2020 / 21 Season Opera Premieres PREMIERE PREMIERE RICHARD STRAUSS GIACOMO PUCCINI Capriccio Turandot Conductor Christian Thielemann Conductor Ivan Repušić Staging Jens-Daniel Herzog Staging Marie-Eve Signeyrole Premiere 8 May 2021 Premiere 3 July 2021 Performances 14 & 16 May 2021 Performances 6, 9, 11 & 14 Jul 2021 Richard Strauss’s last opera, »Capriccio«, transports us One of Giacomo Puccini’s most colourful operas, into a Rococo world, specifically to a castle near Paris »Turandot« features a uniquely exotic score, which makes where a poet and a composer are vying for the love of a use of original Chinese melodies. The story of Princess countess. This is presented as an argument about the Turandot, who demands that any suitor solve three ridd- nature of opera. What is more important: the words or les, alternates between the image of a distant fairytale music? ... Strauss orchestrated this work, a self-confessed world with bizarre characters and the exposure of a cruel »Conversation Piece for Music«, for large orchestra. society where despotism and bondage prevail. Only the Under Christian Thielemann, the Staatskapelle Dresden unknown Prince Calaf succeeds in the impossible. His will enchant listeners with an atmospheric chamber-like aria »Nessun dorma« (Let no one sleep!) has become one timbre in the famous string sextet and poetic moonlight of the best-known in the entire Italian operatic literature. music. 2020 / 21 Season Opera Repertoire GEORGES BIZET ALBERT LORTZING Carmen Der Wildschütz / The Poacher Conductor John Fiore Director Axel Köhler Performances 3, 6, 11, 13, 16 Mar & Musical Director Johannes Fritzsch 18, 24 Apr 2021 Staging Jens-Daniel Herzog Performances 22, 27, 30 May & 8 Jun 2021 The uncompromising Carmen lives only for the moment; love is as easy for her as a bird in the To celebrate his engagement to the young Gret- wind. Soldier Don José’s passion for Carmen chen, the village schoolmaster Baculus shoots leads to his downfall when virile Escamillo what seems to be a roe deer on the lands of Torrero interferes with the already crumbling Count Eberbach. Yet this act of poaching could relationship. The final showdown ends fatally. well be his undoing … Lortzing’s comic opera Panned by critics as an »immoral work« at the is a classic satire, a charming tale of mistaken premiere, this opera has become an integral part identities that pokes fun at middle-class of the standard repertoire. vanities and hollow values. Yet all the foibles Der Freischütz Der Rosenkavalier and mistakes are so wonderfully human that we cannot take offence, but rather are forced to laugh at ourselves. CARL MARIA VON WEBER RICHARD STRAUSS Der Freischütz Der Rosenkavalier Conductor Thomas Guggeis Conductor Nicolaj Szeps-Znaider Director Axel Köhler Director Uwe Eric Laufenberg Performances 13, 15, 20, 24, 25. May, Performances 27, 30 Jun & 4 Jul 2021 21, 26 Jun & 7 Jul 2021 When Octavian delivers a silver engagement The desperate desire for success draws assis- rose to Sophie on behalf of the aged fortune- tant forester Max into the darkest recesses of hunter Baron Ochs, the young couple fall in the human soul. He resolves to accompany Cas- love. For the Marschallin this blossoming rela- par into the Wolf’s Glen to cast the magic bul- tionship means the loss of her younger lover lets with which he hopes to win the hand of his Octavian, for Sophie social advancement and Agathe at the prize shooting. This perhaps most for Ochs a great humiliation. Hardly any opera romantic of German operas portrays not only is more familiar to Semperoper audiences than the fate of a man driven to extremes by the fear the bittersweet comedy »Der Rosenkavalier« by of failure, but also a society which has lost its Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Carmen bearings and seeks stability. which premiered here in 1911. Der Wildschütz / The Poacher 2020 / 21 Season Opera Repertoire WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART JOHANN STRAUSS Die Entführung aus Die Fledermaus dem Serail Conductor Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider Director Günter Krämer Conductor Alessandro De Marchi Performances 16, 21 Dec 2020 & 1, 3 Jan2021 Director Michiel Dijkema Performances 4, 6, 11, 26, 28 Sep, 25 Oct(af+ev) & A marquis and a chevalier, a Hungarian coun- 6 Nov 2020 tess and aspiring artists meet at Count Orlofsky’s ball. No one, however, is who they Kidnapped by pirates and imprisoned in Pasha claim to be. Everything is masquerade and Selim’s seraglio, Pedrillo, his lover Blonde and fakery, and so the high-society ball ends at the Konstanze dream of rescue.