An ancient marathon, the “fascination of horror”, a feminist “Dr. Faust” – stages and exhibition halls attract visitors with exciting events after the summer break. An overview.
An “Anthropolis” marathon, seven hours of Dostoyevsky, “Faust” in a feminist title – the stages come out of the summer break with ambitious projects. The exhibition houses lure with famous names such as Edvard Munch, Amedeo Modigliani or Lyonel Feininger, but above all with the Romantic master Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), whose 250th birthday is honored with large shows in Berlin, Dresden and Hamburg. A look at the cultural events of the coming months.
The cultural scene in the capital Berlin is being shaped more strongly by women. Three important posts have been filled by women: Iris Laufenberg is now director of the Deutsches Theater, Jenny Schlenzka is coming to the Gropius Bau as director and Joana Mallwitz is the head of the Konzerthausorchester. In a hangar of the old Tempelhof Airport, the Komische Oper opens the renovation-related time away from the traditional venue in a spectacular way (September 16) with Hans Werner Henze’s “Das Floẞ der Medusa”. The Deutsche Oper has all ten Bayreuth operas by Richard Wagner on its repertoire.
Place with history for art
With the Fotografiska Museum, a new location for contemporary photography opens in the former Tacheles art gallery (14.9.). The highlights of the cultural metropolis, which is lavishly furnished with first-class exhibitions, include “Edvard Munch. Magic of the North” (September 15) in the Berlinische Galerie, supplemented by “Munch. Lifescapes” (November 18) from the Potsdam Museum Barberini. Outstanding works by Caspar David Friedrich lure visitors to the Alte Nationalgalerie, where the topic is “Infinite Landscapes” by the Romantic master (April 19).
One of the low points of the cultural season can also be expected right next door on the Museum Island, which is part of the cultural world heritage: on October 23, the Pergamon Museum, one of the most popular German museums, will close completely for four years due to extensive renovation work. After the first sections from 2027 onwards, the entire museum will not be accessible again until 2037.
Director Karin Beier opens the season at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg with an antique marathon. Preparations for the major project entitled “Anthropolis. Monster. City. Thebes.” have been going on for more than two years. The series is scheduled for five episodes and will premiere on September 15, every two weeks. The texts for the individual episodes “Prologue/Dionysos”, “Laios”, “Oedipus”, “Iokaste” and “Antigone” were developed by the author Roland Schimmelpfennig on the basis of the ancient dramas by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.
It’s going to be exciting at Thalia
The season opening at the Thalia Theater is also eagerly awaited. Director Christopher Rüping is bringing the new novel “Still awake?” there on September 8th. by Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre on stage.
The highlight of the Hamburger Kunsthalle is the large exhibition marking the 250th birthday of Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). From December 15, more than 50 paintings and around 90 drawings can be seen – including many key works by the most important artist of German Romanticism. After more than 50 years, ballet director John Neumeier is celebrating his final farewell with “Epilogue” in the summer of 2024.
In Stuttgart, the opera intends to remain true to its reputation as the “Mecca of director’s theater” with five new productions in the coming season. A highlight: for the first time, ballet choreographer Eric Gauthier will be staging an evening of musical theater. Gauthier’s piece “La Fest” with baroque music is about celebrating – with singing and dancing under the musical direction of baroque specialist Benjamin Bayl.
Harald Schmidt remains loyal to the Stuttgart Theatre. In the next season, he will continue to question world events over eight evenings in his “season analysis” and take a pointed look at the season.
Modigliani big in Stuttgart
In its major exhibition, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart casts “modern views” on the painter, draftsman and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani, who died in 1920 (November 25, 2023-March 17, 2024). Around 50 paintings and works on paper by the Italian are on display, and they are also juxtaposed with works by German-speaking artists such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Wilhelm Lehmbruck and Paula Modersohn-Becker.
The next new show at the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden from November 4th to March 3rd will show the spectrum of the Swiss painter Nicolas Party. The dance festival “The World of John Neumeier” will also take place in Baden-Baden from September 29th to October 10th. From 16 September to 7 April in Karlsruhe, light artist Heinz Mack will illuminate the atriums of the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in a variety of ways.
physics and music
The young star conductor Thomas Guggeis is eagerly awaited in the cultural scene in Frankfurt. Because for the coming season, the 30-year-old will begin his dual role as general music director of the Frankfurt Opera and as director of the museum concerts. Raised in Bavaria, Guggeis studied conducting in Milan and Munich. And also completed a degree in physics.
Under the motto “Between Spaces” and with a large proportion of women, the Frankfurt Theater is entering the coming season. Almost exclusively female directors will show their new plays on the big stage. The season will open on September 21 with Molière’s highly topical comedy “The Miser”, directed by Mateja Koležnik.
Classics of modern art can be seen at the Schirn in Frankfurt from October 27th. The German-American artist Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) is shown there. It is “the first major retrospective in Germany for more than 25 years and draws a comprehensive and surprising overall picture of his work,” it says. Meanwhile, “Holbein and the Renaissance in the North” will be presented in the Städel from November 2nd. Works by Hans Holbein the Elder are included. J., Hans Holbein the Younger Ä., Hans Burgkmair, Albrecht Dürer and other famous artists.
Long evenings at the theater in Bochum
What the theater in Bochum has set out to do is monumental, almost monstrous. Intendant Johan Simons will perform Dostoyevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” as a seven-hour theater event. One stage is not enough for the award-winning director: the nine-strong ensemble performs on both stages of the theater. Part of the staging of the death of the morally depraved father of four brothers and the characters’ struggle for morality and faith is also a multi-course dinner for the audience. On October 14, Simon’s marathon version of the Dostoyevsky story celebrates its premiere.
The new season in Essen is all about the German over-classic par excellence: the theater and opera there take a new look at Goethe’s “Faust” under female artistic directors and directors. The opening premiere at the “Grillo” theater on September 9th is “Doktormutter Faust” – world premiere of the adaptation of “Faust” by the Berlin journalist and writer Fatma Aydemir. dr In it, Faust is a woman with feminist positions who encounters a reactionary state. On January 27th, Essen’s Aalto Music Theater offers the premiere of “Fausto”, the rarely performed first Faust opera for the French stage. The play, which premiered in 1831, was written by the then 26-year-old Louise Bertin, a paraplegic all-round artist. The director is the opera director Tatjana Gürbaca.
Creepy in Dusseldorf
The exhibition “Death and the Devil. The Fascination of Horror” (September 14 – January 21, 2024) at the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf is not for the faint-hearted. Discomfort, fascination and sometimes laughter are triggered by objects from fashion, art, music and film. A ghost train will be set up in front of the Kunstpalast for the opening. Also, the Finnish heavy metal band Lordi – known for their monster and zombie costumes – will perform on a stage in front of the Palace of Art.
The revival of “A Wilde Story”, a ballet by Marco Goecke based on motifs by Oscar Wilde, at the Hanover State Theater is eagerly awaited. Goecke had to give up his job as ballet director after a dog excrement attack on a journalist in early 2023. In the smallest federal state of Bremen, a large exhibition on the subject of Buddhism can be seen in autumn. From October 14, 2023 to April 28, 2024, the Übersee-Museum wants to make it possible to experience “the inspiring diversity of this timeless spiritual tradition” – from its ancient beginnings to its modern meaning.
Old classics in a new guise
Antique and old hits in Munich: The Greek poet Aeschylus is honored at the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel. The theater is showing the three-part myth of Oresteia in various manuscripts, including at the opening of the season on October 7 with Jean-Paul Sartre’s work “The Flies”. Thomas Mann’s classic “The Buddenbrooks” will follow on November 23. The State Opera brings old classics into the modern age. There are new productions, for example of “Le Nozze di Figaro” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (October 30), followed later by premieres of Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca” or the Strauss opera “Die Fledermaus”, staged by Barrie Kosky.
From October 28, visitors can immerse themselves in the landscapes of the famous English Romantic painter Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) in the art building of the Lenbachhaus in the “Turner. Three Horizons” show. The Alte Pinakothek is dedicated to the artists of Venice in the 16th century. “Venezia 500 – The gentle revolution of Venetian painting” with works from Giovanni Bellini to Titian starts on October 27th. On the other hand, there is contemporary art in the Haus der Kunst, starting November 10 with the exhibition “Meredith Monk: Calling”, which sheds light on the work of the American artist over six decades. And the Museum for Urban and Contemporary Art is presenting “Damien Hirst: The Weight of Things” from October 26th.
Great Masters in Dresden
With a double show, Dresden will be the hotspot for the 250th birthday of the painter Caspar David Friedrich in the second half of the year. The Albertinum is juxtaposing his paintings with landscapes by the great masters from the picture gallery – Jakob Ruisdael, Salvatore Rosa and Claude Lorrain – who inspired Friedrich (24.8.2024-5.1.2025). The Kupferstich-Kabinett shows drawings from his inventory that he made on hikes through the Dresden area and on trips home to Greifswald and Rügen or in the Giant Mountains.
The world premiere of the commissioned work “Ajax” by playwright Thomas Freyer is planned for October 28 at the Dresden State Theater.
Austria is facing a season of anniversaries – a symphony with a sing-along factor is celebrated as well as the still radical twelve-tone music. Ludwig van Beethoven’s 9th symphony was successfully premiered in Vienna in 1824. 200 years later, the “Götterfunke”, which has meanwhile also become the European anthem, can be heard here with top-class interpreters: Next May, Riccardo Muti will play the Ninth with the Vienna Philharmonic, while Joana Mallwitz will perform the work with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Starting in November, the Symphoniker will be devoting a series of concerts to the musical pioneer Arnold Schönberg and his twelve-tone music on the occasion of his 150th birthday next year.
In 2024, Anton Bruckner’s 200th birthday will also be celebrated – an opportunity to visit the place where the romantic composer worked in Linz. There the Bruckner Orchestra Linz begins a series of performances with all the symphonies of its namesake in December.
Just a few hours away, Bad Ischl will be one of the European Capitals of Culture in 2024. The diverse program revolves around the topics of remembrance culture, tourism and the environment.