Dear Readers, Dear Basel
Experience opera from its dawn to the post-apocalypse. This season’s repertoire includes great classics, rarities and new creations with a strong artistic identity. The artistic director of the opera is Benedikt von Peter. Discover our programme.
Opera premieres 20/21
Opera calendar
Opera subscription
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Over the summer of 2020 we will only be selling subscriptions. This allows forward-thinking theatre-goers to secure their seats and tickets for the 20/21 season. To see an overview of all subscriptions, click here
Oper Ensemble
Klassikermaschine
1 hour, 1 artist, 1 classic
«Limitations reveal the master.» Goethe
Hamlet, Käthchen, Othello, Medea. The theatre department is taking its educational mission seriously. Every month we will be performing a different work of the classical canon. Reworked as a solo performance. On a specially designed small stage in the foyer. The run time is one hour. Budget-friendly admission. The ballet and opera departments are also involved in this cross-disciplinary project within the framework of ‹Klassikermaschine spezial›. Revolving around the most fundamental of all theatre questions: What has it got to do with me?
Night café
The night café is legendary. Its new home after 14 November 2020 will be in the recently opened theatre café. Surprise formats of all kinds perform on the newly installed café stage. Every 3rd Friday of the month. At eleven in the evening. Dance, performance, music or show.
Sinfonieorchester Basel
The daily Süddeutsche Zeitung puts it in a nutshell: «Once you have experienced the Sinfonieorchester Basel together with its principal conductor Ivor Bolton, you realise what this fabulous orchestra is capable of.» During its own concert series at Theater Basel as well as in guest performances at home and abroad, the innovative ensemble proves its sound qualities time and time again.
The orchestra’s principal conductor since the 2016/2017 season has been the British conductor Ivor Bolton. Famed conductors who were or still are closely associated with the Sinfonieorchester Basel include Johannes Brahms, Felix Weingartner, Gustav Mahler, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Gary Bertini, Walter Weller, Armin Jordan, Horst Stein, Otto Klemperer, Nello Santi, Pierre Boulez, Mario Venzago and Dennis Russell Davies.
For some years now, the Sinfonieorchester Basel has also benefited from an increased international presence, for example with tours of the UK in 2014, 2015 and 2017, the ‹Far East Tour› in the spring of 2015, a European tour with David Garrett in March 2017, a tour of Germany with Jonas Kaufmann in January 2019 and, to mark Beethoven's anniversary, the ‹Prometheus Tour› with Peter Simonischek in the spring of 2020.
Opera choir
The Theater Basel Choir was named Choir of the Year 2013 by critics in Opernwelt magazine. Thanks to the choir's continuous, disciplined, and diligent effort under the guidance of long-standing choirmaster Henryk Polus, it has been possible to form an ensemble of 38 professional singers from 11 countries. The characteristics that have made this choir famous include homogeneity and precision, vigour and beauty of sound, expressiveness and passion for playing, assured style and flexibility. The choir has also excelled in the field of oratorio and concert literature, which has earned it numerous excellent reviews and the Bavarian Theatre Prize 2001 for its production ‹Actus tragicus›. In the 07/08 season, the choir was nominated several times in Opernwelt magazine as Opera Choir of the Year for its productions ‹On the town› and ‹Don Carlos› by Calixto Bieito. In the 16/17 season, the productions ‹Donnerstag aus Licht› by Karlheinz Stockhausen and ‹Chowanschtschina› by Modest Mussorgski saw the choir nominated as the second most important opera choir in German-speaking countries. The extraordinarily varied repertoire ranges from baroque works, romantic operas and operettas to modern-day favourites. Michael Clark has been the director of the Theater Basel Choir since the 17/18 season.
OperAvenir
Initial practical experience for young singers
Since 2006, the Basel opera studio OperAvenir has been accompanying young singers taking their first steps in professional theatre productions after their studies. The members of the opera studio appear on stage in various roles. Further, they also create a varied programme through their own projects, concerts and performances.
Diverse advanced training
The advanced training in the opera studio lasts about two years. The applicants come from all over the world.
The focus is on weekly singing and speech, movement and acting lessons; supplemented by workshops and master classes. As from the 20/21 season, Hélio Vida is the director of the opera studio OperAvenir.
Members of OperAvenir 20/21:
- Alex Banfield
- Kali Hardwick (OperAvenir Plus)
- Paull-Anthony Keightley
- Stefanie Knorr
Applications and further information will be available from October 2020
With support from
HEIVISCH
HIAG
Julius Bär
Team Oper
Künstlerische Direktion
- Benedikt von Peter (Künstlerischer Leiter)
- Jean Denes (Operndirektor)
- Michael Clark (Chordirektor)
Dramaturgie
- Roman Reeger (Leitender Dramaturg Oper)
- Meret Kündig
- Niels Nuijten
Musikalische Einstudierung
- Hélio Vida (Leiter OperAvenir)
- Thomas Wise (Studienleiter und Dirigent)
- Nadejda Belneeva (Pianistin für den Chor)
- Leonid Maximov (Solorepetitor)
- Iryna Krasnovska (Solorepetitorin)
Regieassistenz
- Karsten Barthold
- Caterina Cianfarini
- Ulrike Jühe
- Maria-Magdalena Kwaschik
Musikalische Leitung
- Ivor Bolton
- Tito Ceccherini
- Clemens Heil
- Johannes Keller
- Francesc Prat
- Jonathan Stockhammer
- Hélio Vida
- Thomas Wise
Gastensemble/Musik
- Knabenkantorei Basel
- I Musici de la Cetra
- Les Reines Prochaines & Friends
Regie
- Romeo Castellucci
- Caterina Cianfarini
- Herbert Fritsch
- Krystian Lada
- Simon McBurney
- Wolfgang Nägele
- Benedikt von Peter
Mitarbeit Regie
- Silvia Costa
- Josie Daxter
- Ruth Sullivan
Bühne/Kostüme
- Márton Ágh
- Geraldine Arnold
- Victoria Behr
- Romeo Castellucci
- Silvia Costa
- Nicky Gillibrand
- Didzis Jaunzems
- Michael Levine
- Marion Andrea Menziger
- Bente Rolandsdotter
- Katrin Wittig
Lichtdesign
- Tamás Bányai
- Stefan Bolliger
- Romeo Castellucci
- Mike Gunning
- Jean Kalman
- Susanne Reinhardt
Video
- Jane Michelmore
- Finn Ross
Sounddesign
- Gareth Fry
- Matthew Herbert
- Mathieu Maurice
Choreographie
- Evelin Facchini
Sängerinnen und Sänger
- Nathan Berg
- Rebecca Bottone
- Noel Bouley
- Katarina Bradić
- Karl-Heinz Brandt
- Nicole Chevalier
- Raphael Clamer
- Jason Cox
- James Creswell
- Paul Curievici
- Arthur Espiritu
- Jasmin Etezadzadeh
- Rachel Harnisch
- Meike Hartmann
- Théo Imart
- Kai Kluge
- Rainelle Krause
- Michael Laurenz
- Jamez McCorkle
- André Morsch
- Regula Mühlemann
- Andrew Murphy
- Günter Papendell
- Ena Pongrac
- Rolf Romei
- Alex Rosen
- Judith van Wanroij
- Hubert Wild
- Patrick Zielke
OperAvenir
- Alex Banfield
- Kali Hardwick (OperAvenir Plus)
- Paull-Anthony Keightley
- Stefanie Knorr
- N.N.
Chor
- Monika Anderhuber-Lichtenberg
- Ingo Anders
- Victor Andrés Barbagelata Contreras
- Martin Baumeister
- Boguslaw Bidzinski
- Eva Buffoni
- Carmela Calvano Forte
- Nadia Catania
- Krzysztof Debicki
- Giulia Gautschi-Del Re
- Sonja Ilona Goltz
- Karin Hellmich
- Piotr Jan Hoeder
- Antoni Kasprzak
- Georgia Knower
- Hendrik Köhler
- Svetlana Korneeva
- Martin Krämer
- Jacek Krosnicki
- Ewa Leska-Burska
- Flavio Fernando Mathias
- Evelyn Meier
- Mkhanyiseli Mlombi
- Doris Monnerat
- Markus Moritz
- Monika Noll-Talenta
- Eckhard Otto
- Elisabeth Picello
- Marco Pobuda
- Esther Randegger
- Heike Roggenkamp
- Constantin Rupp
- André Nicolas Schann
- Donovan Elliot Smith
- Vladimir Vassilev
- Lisa Westermann
- Frauke Cornelia Willimczik-Mäder
- Vivian Zatta
- Xiaohui Zhang
Opernchorakademie
- Stephanie Denzel-Hoffman
- Emily Jane Dilewski
- Cécilia Roumi
Extrachor
- Rahel Bänziger
- Patrice Battistelli
- Tarik Benchekmoumou
- Margrit Bietenholz
- Roman Blazejewski
- Cornelia Bühler
- Karin Diacon
- Manuela Gaggiotti
- Beat Hediger
- Pamela Herzog
- Ursula Küpfer
- Andreas Laue
- Sylvia Marian
- Claudia Marugg
- Erika Nuber
- Dominik Nüscheler
- Maurus Quinter
- Karl Rillig
- Alfredo Robles
- Edith Röthlisberger
- Antonie Santschi
- Volker Scheuber
- Renata Simon
- Dorothea Steiner
- Kurt Stöcklin
- Mirjam Stritt
- René Tena
- Roger Wirz
- Manfred Zanger
Inspizienz
- Jean-Pierre Bitterli
- Martin Buck
- Arthur Kimmerle
- Thomas Kolbe
- N.N.