Die Ausflüge des Herrn Brouček

On March 16, 2025, Leoš Janáček's satirical opera Die Ausflüge des Herrn Brouček will be performed for the first time at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, staged by Canadian director Robert Carsen, who is making his house debut with this new production. Conducted by renowned Janáček expert Simon Rattle, the production features renowned soloists such as Peter Hoare in the title role, Lucy Crowe, Aleš Briscein and Gyula Orendt as well as the Staatsopernchor Berlin.

In his opera Die Ausflüge des Herrn Brouček, Leoš Janáček succeeded in further developing his advanced musical language and enriching it with ambiguous comedy. The libretto is based on two novels by the writer Svatopluk Čech. It took Janáček nine years to complete the work, which was finally premiered at the National Theatre in Prague on April 23, 1920.

With his satirical two-part play about the small-minded Prague landlord Matěj Brouček, Janáček created what is probably his most humorous work. After Mr. Brouček, who has been decried as a philistine, has had plenty of beer one night, he travels to the moon, which is inhabited by a society of artists who are as bizarre as they are spiritual. In the second part of the opera, he finds himself in medieval Prague, where he is caught between the fronts of a religious struggle and is ordered to go to war.

Robert Carsen's directorial handwriting is characterized by its dramatic depth, poetry, humour and artistic sophistication. Carsen has already staged six of Leoš Janáček's nine operas and is now presenting a work at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden for the first time. In his production, the Canadian brings the eventful history of Prague to life and transports the action to the turbulent 1960s - the time of the Prague Spring in 1968, the first moon landing in 1969, the “Flower Power” movement and the infamous Woodstock Festival of 1969.

After conducting Aus einem Totenhaus, Katja Kabanowa, Jenůfa and Die Sache Makropulos, Simon Rattle returns to the Staatskapelle's podium with another work by Janáček.

Die Ausflüge des Herrn Brouček is a co-production with the National Theatre Brno as part of the Janáček Festival and the Teatro Real, Madrid.

Premiere on Sunday, March 16, 2025 at 6 p.m. | Staatsoper Unter den Linden
Further performances on March 20, 27, 29 and April 3, 2025.