2013/14
02 - 05 July 2014 | Members’ trip to the concert of the Staatskapelle Berlin in Paris
Saint-Sulpice, Champs-Élysées, Montmartre, Opéra Garnier, the »savoir vivre à la française« as well as the fascinating Eiffel Tower: The summer in Paris is seductive. This is especially true when the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim make a concert at the Salle Pleyel. Their summer tour gave us the perfect opportunity to travel to the Seine and spend days full of music in on this beautiful city.
28 April 2014 | Presentation of the new Season with Artistic director Jürgen Flimm
On April 28th, Artistic Director Jürgen Flimm introduced the new season 2014/15 to the Friends and Sponsors of the Staatsoper. In the upcoming season we can look forward to 9 premieres on the big stage, 21 operas from the repertory and about 80 concerts. Great singers such as Anna Netrebko, Plácido Domingo, Rolando Villazón, Waltraud Meier, Edita Gruberova, Peter Seiffert, René Pape, Thomas Hampson, Wolfgang Koch, Christian Gerhaher and many more will provide us with great musical events. After drinking a glass of wine at the invitation of the Südliche Weinstraße, we had the wonderful opportunity to visit the rehearsal of Achim Freyer’s sublime staging of de' Cavalieris »Rappresentatione di anima et di corpo«.
18 April 2014 | Guided tour: Construction Site of the Opera House Unter den Linden
During the FESTTAGE, we offered the possibility to visit the construction site of the Opera House Unter den Linden. We still have to have patience until the Staatsoper will return to »our« Staatsoper Unter den Linden – this summer, senate building director Regula Lüscher will pronounce the final date for the re-opening. But now we could get our own idea of the progresses that have been made. Our guides Jörg Freyer and Kay Keßner showed us the construction project and its history and gave us an idea in what a fantastic building the Staatsoper will return. In the Staatsoper’s former orchestra rehearsal hall we looked forward with anticipation to the extraordinary production of Salvatore Sciarrino’s chamber opera »Macbeth« which Jürgen Flimm will stage her in June.
15 April 2014 | Talk with Peter Seiffert
Peter Seiffert is one of the leading heldentenors of his generation and performed in every important opera house of the world. At the Staatsoper’s FESTTAGE in 2014, he thrilled everyone as »Tannhäuser«. In the extraordinary hotel Waldorf Astoria Berlin we met Peter Seiffert for a talk. With great passion and his humorous and winning character, he talked about his life as opera singer, the role of »Tannhäuser« and the production in the Schiller Theater. We are already looking forward to seeing him again and again on the Staatsoper’s stage.
14 April 2014 | Guided tour of the Schiller Theater
Have a glance behind the iron curtain, look into the wardrobes of the artists, get to know the history of the Schiller Theater – all of that was possible for our members and visitors of the FESTTAGE during a guided tour through the Schiller Theater. They learned a lot about what is necessary behind the scenes so that the curtain rises every evening got to know places that are usually invisible to visitors.
13 April 2014 | FESTTAGE-Reception after »Simon Boccanegra«
As second opera of this year’s FESTTAGE, Giuseppe Verdi’s »Simon Boccanegra« with Daniel Barenboim, a fantastic Staatskapelle and great singers thrilled the audience in the Schiller Theater. Afterwards, our members and visitors of the FESTTAGE met in the Glassy Foyer to drink to the FESTTAGE 2014. It was a great pleasure to welcome many of the artists of the performance at our reception: Maria Agresta, who had enchanted the audience as Maria Boccanegra, Dmitry Belosselskiy (Fiesco), Àngel Òdena (Paolo Albiani), Wilhelm Schwinghammer (Pietro), Jonathan Winell (Hauptmann der Bogenschützen), Evelin Novak (Dienerin Amelias) as well as Markus Bruggaier (horn), Matthias Glander (solo clarinetist), Susanne Schergaut (1st violin) and Hartmut Schuldt (solo bass clarinetist) let fade away the evening with us. We could exchange views about the evening and casually get into conversation with the musicians.
06 February 2014 | Welcome reception »Katja Kabanowa«
At a reception behind the scenes of the Schiller Theater, we gave a welcome to the new members of our association. They met longtime members, socialized and talked about their shared love for opera. Afterwards, we visited the performance of »Katja Kabanowa« with Simon Rattle as conductor and staged by Andrea Breth. The evocative presentation and the thrilling music had enchanted both audience and press. During a guided tour after the performance we got great insights into the world behind the scenes. Thus, we got to know the history and details of the building and learnt a lot about the necessary procedures behind the scenes that enable an opera performance.
22 January 2014 | Exclusive guided tour of the Daimler Kunst SammlungThe arts collection Daimler Contemporary was founded in 1977. Today it includes about 1.800 works by German and international artists. At a guided tour through the exhibition rooms in Haus Huth our members got to know the wonderful exhibition »highways and byways. together again«, where Nic Hess stages American art out of the collection and shows a cross section from Josef Albers, the Los Angeles »Abstract Classicist« and the »Washington Color School«, Minimal Art and Radical Painting to latest ideas. Afterwards we could talk about the art we’d just seen during a reception.
19 - 21 January 2014 | Members‘ trip to Dresden
At our members’ trip to Dresden, we accompanied René Pape to the city of his birth. Many oeuvres by Richard Strauss were premièred at the Semperoper. Thus, the opera house celebrated the composer’s 150th birthday with a fascinating premiere of »Elektra«. Christian Thielemann as conductor and a fantastic cast with René Pape, Waltraud Meier and Anne Schwanewilms enchanted everyone. After the performance we went to the first night party and had dinner together. On the following day, we visited the cultural highlights of Dresden such as the Frauenkirche and the art gallery.
03 December 2013 | Photos of the concert for our members with Evelin Novak and Gyula Orendt
Our members could celebrate a very special evening at this year’s concert for our members. At the invitation of Vattenfall GmbH, Gyula Orendt and Evelin Novak, both members of the Staatsoper’s ensemble, gave a wonderful concert in the former turbine hall of the heat and power station Moabit. 150 members and guests listened to arias and duets and donated in favor of the Junge Staatsoper.
29 November 2013 | Photos of the opening night dinner »Il trovatore«
In celebration of the top-class opening night of Giuseppe Verdi’s »IL TROVATORE« on 29 November 2013, artistic director Jürgen Flimm and the Staatsoper’s Friends and Supporters have invited to an exclusive dinner. Together with Plácido Domingo, Anna Netrebko and Daniel Barenboim, the guests dined in a festive ambience after the performance.
The donations of the evening benefit the Junge Staatsoper.
28 November 2013 | Discussion with Mara Kurotschka
Together with Philipp Stölzl, Mara Kurotschka staged the highly coveted performances of » IL TROVATORE« with Anna Netrebko and Plácido Domingo at the Staatsoper im Schiller Theater. One day before the premiere, we talked to the co-director about the evolution of this staging from the first ideas to the completed work. Where did they get the idea for the fantastic stage design from, which approaches did the stars make to their roles – these were just some of the questions that the 40 guests were interested in. Jens Schroth, the Staatsoper’s head dramaturg, moderated the talk and impressed the listeners with his comprehensive knowledge about Giuseppe Verdi’s oeuvre. We are happy that we have found the hotel Brandenburger Hof as a wonderful new cooperation partner and thus this talk could take place in a very classy ambience.
20 October 2013 | Sunday shopping at Dussmann KulturKaufhaus
On October 20th, 2013, the Dussmann KulturKaufhaus hosted the 7th Sunday shopping to the benefit of the Staatsoper. All revenues of the day were donated to our association and will benefit the Junge Staatsoper. And shopping was even more fun on this special day as artists of the Staatsoper performed in the KulturKaufhaus and turned it into a concert hall.
As a start, a string quintet of the Staatskapelle – accompanied on the piano by Lora Dimitrova – presented the wonderful Sextet for strings and piano op. 33 (1906) by Felix von Weingartner. The Children’s choir and the Youth choir of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden under the direction of Vinzenz Weissenburger and Frank Flade enchanted everyone. Sónia Grané (soprano), Stephen Chambers (tenor) and Maximilian Krummen (baritone) of the Staatsoper‘s Opernstudio sang arias and duets by W. A. Mozart, accompanied on the piano by Adrian Heger. As a crowning final, the members of the Staatsoper’s ensemble Marina Prudenskaya (mezzo-soprano) and Stephan Rügamer (tenor) delighted with arias and songs by J. Brahms, S. Rachmaninow and G. Verdi. They were accompanied on the piano by Klaus Sallmann.
We cordially thank the KulturKaufhaus Dussmann for this extraordinary commitment. We also give great thanks to the artist, who made such a special event of this afternoon.
11-13 October 2013 | International Opera Weekend by the Young Friends
From 11 to 13 October 2013, the Young Friends of the Staatsoper held the 8th International Opera Weekend in Berlin. Young opera friends from all over Europe were invited to see three operas in Berlin’s three opera houses. The participants were thrilled by the variety of the performances: »Wozzeck« at the Staatsoper im Schiller Theater, »Ball im Savoy« at the Komische Oper and »Nabucco« at the Deutsche Oper. Furthermore, a guided tour through the construction site of the opera house Unter den Linden, a reception in the Schiller Theater and a guided tour through Kreuzberg were on the program for the Young Friends and their visitors who came from Italy, Norway and France to Berlin.
07 October 2013 | Guided tour through the Collection Hoffmann
The private Collection Hoffmann is an extraordinary treasure of contemporary art by diverse artists such as Andy Warhol, Chiharu Shiota, Ernesto Neto, François Morellet or Frank Stella.
Erika Hoffmann opens her living and working areas situated on two floors of a former industrial building in order to let others have a share in this special collection. Thus, our members could experience in this private atmosphere a very personal approach to the masterpieces and get inspired by the richness of the contemporary art on display, made by artists of diverse origin and from different generations.