METROPOLITAN OPERA
SEP 23, 27, OCT 2, 5, 9, 12, 16, 19, 2024

Two-time Tony Award–winning composer Jeanine Tesori’s powerful new opera GROUNDED, commissioned by the Met and based on librettist George Brant’s acclaimed play, wrestles with the ethical quandaries and psychological toll of 21st-century warfare. Mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, one of opera’s most compelling young stars, portrays Jess, a hot-shot fighter pilot whose unplanned pregnancy takes her out of the cockpit and lands her in Las Vegas, operating a Reaper drone halfway around the world. As she struggles to adjust to this new way of doing battle, she fights to maintain her sanity, and her soul, as she is called to rain down death by remote control. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin oversees the Met premiere of Tesori’s kaleidoscopic score and a cast that also features baritone Kyle Miller as the juvenile Sensor Operator who becomes Jess’s right hand man. Michael Mayer’s high-tech staging, using a vast array of LED screens, resents a variety of perspectives on the action, including the drone’s predatory view from high above.

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DEUTSCHE OPER BERLIN
NOV 6, 9, 16, 2024

As in all operas by Puccini, TOSCA is an illustration of how human attentiveness and pleasures of the palate can be mutually dependent if the composer’s artistic intentions become a benchmark for directorial interpretation. Puccini’s humane attentiveness is essentially dependent on an outcry and/or a sense of resignation. The pity inherent in his music does not content itself with abstract gestures; it wants to unsettle, to bring about change. Out of the “small things” named by Puccini as the source of his inspiration and the focus of his music “big things” grow – as long as we want them. Puccini’s choice of material owes something, directly or indirectly, to the spirit of Zola, Gorki and Hauptmann, and the link between that material and his compositional style places him likewise as a direct descendant of Verdi and an exponent of verismo. He was also known as an admirer of Wagner, although a Wagner imitator he assuredly was not.

In 1987, Götz Friedrich addressed Boleslaw Barlog’s straight production from 1969 with its stark, undemanding sets, and delivered a version that took Puccini’s declared intentions literally: the mutual dependence of human attentiveness and pleasures of the palate is inspired by the music and becomes a springboard into the stage interpretation of the work. This classic portray of TOSCA features Martin Muehle as Mario Cavaradossi, Lucio Gallo as Scarpia, and Kyle Miller as the former Republican Consul, Angelotti.

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DEUTSCHE OPER BERLIN
NOV 17, DEC 15, 2024
JAN 3, 28, FEB 9, MAR 4, APR 4, MAY 1, 2025

It’s the most performed opera in the German-speaking region, an unusual – and masterly – blend of Viennese folk theatre and fairy tale, mythology and freemasonry mystique: Mozart’s THE MAGIC FLUTE remains a puzzle to this day. Did Mozart and his librettist Schikaneder switch horses from the Queen of the Night to Sarastro half way through? Is the message not one of distrust towards a supposedly infallible priesthood and its simplistic good-versus-evil ideology? Are some Mozart experts right when they talk of a disconnect between text and music? Whatever the answer, it’s the music that allows us to relate to the story’s contradictions. Far from denouncing the characters, it confers an existentiality on their conflicts.

The Günter Krämer production focuses on the antithesis between two worlds, represented in THE MAGIC FLUTE by sun versus moon and dark versus light but also by the oppositions of nature versus culture and male versus female. These double-sided coins are visualised on stage as the contrast between black and white, neither of which – like Yin and Yang – can exist without the other. The fairy tale character of THE MAGIC FLUTE is conveyed with directorial exhilaration and a remarkable set design, which have helped to make the production an audience favourite over the last 30 years. Kyle Miller plays the role of the Priest.

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DEUTSCHE OPER BERLIN
DEC 6, 11, 31, 2024

A garret in Paris on a cold winter’s day around Christmas. Rodolfo, a writer, and Marcello, a painter, are working on their masterpieces. They have no money to buy food, pay the rent or fuel the stove. Colline, a philosopher, returns from the pawn shop empty handed, having failed to get rid of some books. Only Schaunard, a musician, has managed to come up with some victuals, kindling, cigars and cash, so off they go to Café Momus - without Rodolfo, who’s trying to work. Mimì, the embroiderer from next door, arrives to ask for a match to light her candle with. She collapses and loses her key; cue for Rodolfo to fall in love with Mimì, who is terminally ill with TB, although he dumps her two months later because the prospect of her ailment getting steadily worse in her freezing home is too much for him. Six months go by. Musetta, Marcello’s ex, arrives with Mimì, whose condition is grave. Musetta sells some earrings with a view to buying medicine; Colline gives up his coat. Gratitude and happiness for a short while. Rodolfo thinks Mimì is sleeping and her body regenerating, …but in fact she’s dead.

Götz Friedrich’s production from 1988 transposes the action from 1840s Paris to the end of that century, i.e. to Puccini’s own present day. His version of the work, with its colourful depictions of Belle Époque Paris and the outsized stage sets, continue to captivate audiences 35 years later. Kyle Miller is featured in the role of Schaunard.

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DEUTSCHE OPER BERLIN
DEC 27, 30, 2024
JAN 2, 6, 2025

A motley group of travellers on their way to Reims for the coronation of Charles X is billeted in the Hotel zur Goldenen Lilie. But when it transpires that no fresh horses are available for the stage coach, they realise they’re stranded.

Director Jan Bosse goes to town with the rather absurd premise of Europeans holed up in a spa hotel. A room of mirrors variously serving as spa clinic, sanatorium and lunatic asylum is the setting for the stalled journey of the characters, who are keen to live up to their respective national characteristics, try to best each other in coloratura warbling and end up planning their own celebratory feast. Kyle Miller is featured as the hot-headed Don Alvaro.

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DEUTSCHE OPER BERLIN
JAN 10, 17, 27, 2025

It is Verdi’s music that gives the story its emotional credibility and makes RIGOLETTO a tragedy that unfurls as a result of the interaction of three very different people – the Duke, a rake for whom Verdi wrote such seductive music that Gilda and the audience alike are swept up in his aura; Rigoletto, one of those typical Verdi creations who have good and bad sides to them; and finally Gilda, a pristine personification of innocence and sympathy. In RIGOLETTO we identify especially with these three people and come to view even the craziest chance incidents as the characters’ inescapable destiny.

In his first opera production in Berlin, Jan Bosse too was attracted by this exploitation of musical theatre to maximum effect. In his production Bosse transforms the auditorium of the Deutsche Oper into the Court of Mantua and the under-stage trap room into the hiding place used by Gilda, the daughter of Rigoletto the jester. Rigoletto’s efforts to keep his private life separate from his job in the service of a corrupt regime are futile, however, and his world gradually collapses into its component parts. In the end, with his daughter dead and all his plans dashed, Rigoletto is left, literally, with nothing. Conducted by Michele Spotti, RIGOLETTO features Etienne Dupuis as the title character, Brenda Rae as Gilda, and Kyle Miller as the courtier Marullo.

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DEUTSCHE OPER BERLIN
JAN 26, 30, FEB 2, 5, 8, 11, 2025

According to Hugo von Hofmannsthal in a 1911 letter to Richard Strauss, in which he set out his idea for another collaboration between the two men, their next opera would be to THE MAGIC FLUTE what THE KNIGHT OF THE ROSE had been to FIGARO. And the work that premiered a full eight years later did indeed have strong echoes of Mozart’s »grand opéra«: there is the clash of different social classes, the fairytale-like, highly symbolic storyline and above all the strong feeling that ground-breaking change is underway which is challenging accepted orthodoxy and forcing issues of human interaction and values to the top of the political agenda. And in both cases enlightenment is gained only through ordeal and adversity. Here the shadow has a pivotal function as a metaphor for female fertility: the barren Empress and her nurse bargain with the dyer’s wife for her shadow. Only when the Empress rebels against achieving marital happiness and maternal contentment at someone else’s expense does a path to social harmony open up.

Tobias Kratzer has chosen this monumental fantasy opera to close his cycle of Strauss works at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Where ARABELLA explores how hard it can be to even start a relationship based on equal rights and INTERMEZZO depicts what can happen in a marriage that has gone stale, in THE WOMAN WITHOUT A SHADOW Kratzer focuses on the challenge of rekindling a bond that has weakened through years of poor nurturing – an approach that extends far beyond the domestic sphere due to the ethical issues surrounding surrogate motherhood.

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DEUTSCHE OPER BERLIN
FEB 28, MAR 2, 5, 2025

Two of the world’s most powerful men shake hands – as the world looks on. With their opera about the state visit by US President Nixon to China in 1972 composer John Adams and librettist Alice Goodman rendered a recent historical event in operatic form. They envisioned a »heroic opera« telling of modern myths and the power of images. This rapprochement between the two great powers gave rise to one of the most prodigious media spectacles of the 20th century. Nixon himself put the event on a par with the moon landing. The opera, whose composition was pushed for by Peter Sellars, the director of the eventual premiere, is a depiction of both the details of the visit and the coverage by the media. Alice Goodman’s libretto reflects the tradition of 19th-century opera, with larger-than-life characters interacting and the protagonists dealing with both affairs of state and their private lives. Staged in the style of an excessively satirical documentary, the minimal-music opera sticks close to protocols from the state visit, depicting the larger-than-life protagonists swerving between exhibitionism, helplessness and the desire to reach a mutual understanding.

36 years after the world premiere this will is the first new production of NIXON IN CHINA to be mounted by the Deutsche Oper Berlin. With his works featuring prominently on opera house programmes, John Adams is, alongside Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Terry Riley, one of the key exponents of minimal music, an art form that sprang up in the 1960s as a response to the European avant-garde. Yet the opera, arguably Adams’s best known, eludes this kind of narrow categorisation due to its hybrid character, even if it is emblematic of the minimal-music style. With its rich tonal orchestrations and trancelike repetitions, the work shows sound wizard John Adams including flurries of big-band swing and allusions to European classical music.

Hauen und Stechen, the musical-theatre collective centring on Julia Lwowski and Franziska Kronfoth, is known for its performative authorial style and its topical, genre-blending theatre evenings. Their staging of NIXON IN CHINA focuses primarily on the propaganda aspect of the summit, which pointedly avoided discussing delicate issues such as the Vietnam War and the status of Taiwan. Following on from their stage event in response to Rossini’s IL VIAGGIO A REIMS as part of the AMBUSHED FROM BEHIND series, the collective now returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin with its first production for the main stage. Conducted by Daniel Carter, NIXON IN CHINA features Thomas Lehman in the title role, Heidi Stober as Pat Nixon, and Kyle Miller as the Chinese Prime Minister, Chou En-Lai.

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DEUTSCHE OPER BERLIN
MAR 7, 15, 20, 2025

Richard Strauss’s orchestral richness and opulence coupled with the period Viennese setting of the work led to ARABELLA being falsely pigeonholed as a light-hearted comedy of errors from its 1933 premiere onwards. In the estimation of Tobias Kratzer, however, who triumphed at the Deutsche Oper with his production of Alexander von Zemlinsky’s THE DWARF, this final collaboration between Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal marks a collision of two world views: the traditional roles of men and women on the one hand – as expressed in Arabella’s famous solo “Und du sollst mein Gebieter sein” – and a modern idea of social interaction on the other – as illustrated by Zdenka with her questioning of gender-based identities. Here, Kratzer turns the spotlight on this disunity between the various character portrayals in ARABELLA and explores these role-specific tensions on a continuum stretching from 19th-century Vienna to the present day.

Conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles, ARABELLA features Jennifer Davis in the title role, Dorris Soffel, Heidi Stober, and Kyle Miller as Count Dominik.

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DEUTSCHE OPER BERLIN
MAR 31, APR 8, 2025

Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais [1732 –1799] dreamt up the character of the mischievous barber and wrote an entire comic trilogy about him, the first two instalments of which (LE BARBIER DE SÉVILLE OU LA PRÉCAUTION INUTILE [1775] and LA FOLLE JOURNÉE OU LE MARIAGE DE FIGARO [1778]) are world famous. Part 3, L’AUTRE TARTUFFE OU LA MÈRE COUPABLE [1792], was not such a hit, perhaps due to the upheavals of the Revolution. Although the revolutionary potential was especially palpable in the second part, with its brilliant soundtrack courtesy of Mozart [THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, 1786], the barber of the first part oozes disrespect, which inevitably makes him the central protagonist in this comic opera. Giovanni Paisiello had a runaway success with his musical version of BARBIERE in 1782, meaning that Rossini was up against a seemingly unassailable precursor when he resolved to compete directly with Paisiello in writing a comic opera based on the same material. And he pulled it off: 34 years after his rival’s own hit show he delivered arguably the wittiest and peppiest opera buffa in the history of the genre.

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DEUTSCHE OPER BERLIN
APR 24, MAY 2, 2025

The Antichrist makes his entrance into a godless world. Sent by Lucifer into the world, he adopts many guises. Mankind is tested and tempted by pride, lust, lies, despondency and hatred in an “all-against-all altercation”. Langgaard’s opera is suffused with fin de siècle atmosphere and pessimism, warning of catastrophe and denouncing the vices of the modern age: egotism, arrogance, frivolity. Langgaard, though, was also an optimist, convinced of the transformative, transcendental power of art and the importance of music as a thread connecting people to the godhead. So it is that the world is freed of all evil and sorrow in the culminating chorus scene in ANTIKRIST.

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OPERA THEATRE OF SAINT LOUIS
JUN 8, 12, 14, 21, 25, 27, 2025

Lifelong bachelor Don Pasquale is livid when his heir, Ernesto, falls for a penniless widow. Determined to teach him a lesson, Don Pasquale decides to disown Ernesto, marry, and produce a new heir himself. Enter Norina, Ernesto’s love, and her crafty friend Dr. Malatesta. They trick Pasquale into a fake marriage, with Norina posing as the picture-perfect bride. But before the ink on the marriage contract is even dry, Norina unleashes her inner spitfire, turning Pasquale’s tidy world riotously upside down.

In Opera Theatre of Saint Louis's 50th Festival Season, Kyle Miller stars as Dr. Malatesta in DON PASQUALE featuring Patrick Carfizzi, Sydney Mancasola, and Charles Sy conducted by Kensho Watanabe and directed by Christopher Alden.

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DALLAS OPERA
OCT 17, 19, 22, 25, 26, 2025

Meet Carmen: she’s sexy, dangerous, and seriously bad news for any man who succumbs to her charms. Soldier Don José gives up everything to be with this freedom-loving temptress, only to have her dump him for a famous matador! Obsession turns fatal in this American premiere production—a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience Carmen just as Paris audiences did at the inaugural performance in 1875—featuring re-creations of the original sets, costumes, and staging! The Habanera, the Seguidilla, the Toreador Song, and more … our celebrated Maestro and TDO Orchestra bring you the world’s most popular opera!

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KOMISCHE OPER BERLIN
DEC 19, 22, 25, 2025
JAN 2, 10, 2026

The “opera of all operas”, directed by Kirill Serebrennikov at the Schiller Theatre! After the tale of love and loss in Così fan tutte and the social disparities between servants and masters in The Marriage of Figaro, Serebrennikov now completes Mozart’s Da Ponte trilogy with arguably the most dangerous of the three operas . . .

A gentleman who’s a playboy, a servant who’s tired of serving, and a long list of cheated women: Don Giovanni takes what he wants and knows how to throw a magnificent party. The servant Leporello grumbles under his master’s seductive exploits, as he’s the one who has to clean up afterward, comforting and even enlightening the duped. But when Don Giovanni kills the Commendatore in a duel over the honour of his daughter Donna Anna, even Leporello has had enough. But his master is already onto his next victim: Zerlina. It is only his former lover Elvira who refuses to countenance his betrayal and tries to warn the other women about the philanderer—of course in vain. Seducing and deceiving, Don Giovanni simply enjoys gambling with his life, until the ghosts of the past come to haunt him . . .

With Don Giovanni, Mozart and Da Ponte successfully created a masterwork of the operatic canon. In this dramma giocoso or ‘lighthearted drama’, they achieved—through Mozart’s sophisticated psychological composition, spellbinding melodies, and brilliant instrumentation—an extraordinary study of human nature that, in Kirill Serebrennikov’s fearless hands, brings up compelling questions about sex, the power of seduction, the pursuit of individual freedom, and the right to defy societal norms. Kyle Miller sings the title role under the baton of Oleksandr Yankevych.

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DALLAS OPERA
FEB 6, 8, 11, 14, 2026

Take a flight of the imagination when a pilot stranded in the desert meets the little prince! After an action-packed galactic journey, this magical boy visits Earth, determined to find a way to save his own tiny planet and everything he cherishes. Friendship, loss, love, and finding out that what’s truly important in life “is invisible to the eye” … much is explored in this “enchanting opera that’s filled with warm wisdom and lyrical beauty.” (BOSTON HERALD)

Francesca Zambello’s iconic production brings to life one of the best-loved books ever written, and the story soars through luminous music by Academy Award-winner Rachel Portman. As the pilot, Kyle Miller, lauded for his “rich and sonorous baritone” (OPERAWIRE), leads the cast.

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LOS ANGELES OPERA
MAY 30, 2026
JUN 6, 11, 14, 17, 21, 2026

Once upon a time, a prince awakens in a mysterious land with an even more mysterious task. Armed with enchanted bells and (you guessed it) a magic flute, Prince Tamino sets off, bound and determined to rescue his lady love, the Princess Pamina—only to find that things aren’t what they seem, and the Queen of the Night who sent him on his quest just might be plotting his doom instead.

James Conlon ends his legendary tenure as LA Opera Music Director with the world's most popular opera in one of our most emblematic productions. Mozart's catchy melodies meet astonishing projected animations in our perennial crowd pleaser. Miles Mykkanen makes his LA Opera debut as Prince Tamino opposite Sydney Mancasola as the beautiful Pamina. Kyle Miller might just steal the show as the lovable sidekick Papageno, while Aigul Khismatullina and Kwangchul Youn face off as the Queen of the Night and Sarastro.

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