John Neumeier: The Nutcracker - Hamburg Ballet

Neumeier's dance version of the Shakespeare play about the trials and tribulations of love has lost none of its freshness over three decades after its premiere. With his selection of music, which ranges from Mendelssohn Bartholdy to György Ligeti to traditional barrel organ music, John Neumeier shows his dramaturgical sensibility by integrating three different musical styles into his choreographic narrative.

The Hamburg Ballet was one of the first ballet companies internationally to return to its studios after the first lockdown. The ballet Ghost Light by John Neumeier deals with isolation and the feelings and fantasies an empty stage may evoke. Developed in fragments using small groups of dancers and under the constraints imposed by Covid-19, the choreography reflects situations, fears, relationships, memories, and emotions experienced during the pandemic.

Intrigue, champagne, and irony: in a production directed by Barrie Kosky, the Bavarian State Opera presents a sparkling production of Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus.

“Nureyev” is the award-winning production by Yuri Possokhov and Kirill Serebrennikov, which was controversial even at its 2017 premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre yet went on to become a huge hit with audiences. In 2023, it was removed from the repertoire for political reasons. The Staatsballett Berlin is presenting the production for the first time outside of Russia.

The story of Jenůfa and her stepmother, the verger’s wife, is set within the confines of a closed community. Rivalry, jealousy and social control degenerate into the murder of an illegitimate but innocent child. Leoš Janáček’s third opera, based on the controversial play by Gabriela Preissová, is best known as Jenůfa, but by giving it the subtitle Her stepdaughter, the composer underlined the importance of the stepmother. Janáček’s score was rejected for a long time by the National Theatre in Prague. Jenůfa was nevertheless his breakthrough as a composer in musical theatre, where he used the speech melody as ‘the most authentic expression of the soul’. The Latvian director Alvis Hermanis, one of the masters of European theatre, makes his debut at La Monnaie. Our chief conductor Ludovic Morlot is the musical director.

It was during one of the rare happy periods of his life that Schumann composed his third symphony and a palpable joy can be heard in this masterpiece. In contrast Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 is, like many of the composer's minor-key pieces, imbued with a profound melancholy. Accomplished pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja is soloist with the Budapest Festival Orchestra conducted by its founder Iván Fischer. Programme: Sergei Prokofiev Overture on Hebrew Themes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor KV 491 Robert Schumann Symphony No. 3 in E flat major "Rhenish"

The Magic Flute by Mozart at La Monnaie.

Romeo Castellucci's production of Christoph Willibald Gluck's mythic opera. Concurrently via projected text, we learn the story of Els, a bedridden woman with locked-in syndrome, conscious but near-completely paralyzed. A live video feed from the hospital shows Els listening to the music along with the audience.

L’Italiana in Londra was Domenico Cimarosa’s first international triumph, thrilling audiences all over Europe after its premiere in 1778. It later became eclipsed by the even bigger success of Il matrimonio segreto however, and has become a rarity on stage today. Set in a London hotel, this cheerful ‘Intermezzo in musica’ has cleverly crafted arias, duets and ensembles that drive the plot along, the story being one of thwarted love, quarrels and misunderstandings. L’Italiana in Londra has been summed up by director R.B. Schlather as ‘incredibly charming and sophisticated ... demanding, dark, dirty and very funny ... an impeccable rom-com.’

Erich Wolfgang Korngold's "Die tote Stadt" in a Bayerische Staatsoper production from 2019, directed by Simon Stone. Kirill Petrenko is conducting Jonas Kaufmann and Marlis Petersen.

Die Zauberflöte is one of Mozart’s most famous works and one of the most beloved of the entire operatic repertoire. Generations of spectators have been fascinated by the melodies and adventures of Papageno, the Queen of the Night, Tamino, and Pamina, the ordeals faced by the young lovers, and the work’s inexhaustible allegorical depth. The director Romeo Castellucci has deliberately stepped back from the narrative dimension of the opera in order to explore its raw emotion and its philosophical heart. For his part, the conductor Antonello Manacorda brings Mozart’s immortal music to life with the help of an outstanding cast that includes Sabine Devieilhe, one of today’s finest interpreters of the Queen of the Night.

In his 45th year as artistic director of Hamburg Ballet, John Numeier directs a modern adaptation of Tolstoy's masterpiece "Anna Karenina" in co-production with the Bolshoi Theatre and the National Ballet of Canada.