Munich Opera Festival 2024
Munich Opera Festival 2024
The tradition of the Munich Opera Festival dates back to 1875, when a "Festive Summer" was organized for the first time. This tradition will continue under the directorship of Serge Dorny. The 2024 Munich Opera Festival will showcase the new productions of the season, based on the central theme of "A Fountain That Looks to Heaven."
The Munich Opera Festival's two opera premieres, Le Grand Macabre by György Ligeti and Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy, present contemporary opera and a masterpiece of musical impressionism.
One focus of the 2024 Munich Opera Festival will be on works by Giacomo Puccini and Richard Wagner. The program includes four works by the two composers, which are also among the most important operas in the repertoire: In addition to Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser and Parsifal, Giacomo Puccini's Tosca and La fanciulla del West will be presented. Puccini's Tosca will also be featured as a live audiovisual broadcast on Max-Joseph-Platz at Opera for All during the 2024 Munich Opera Festival.
Numerous chamber concerts and song recitals complete the program.
The ballet evening Sphären.02 | Preljocaj will also premiere during the Munich Opera Festival with contemporary ballets by choreographers of the younger generation and Angelin Preljocaj. The Bayerische Staatsballett also revives the two new productions of the season, Le Parc by Angelin Preljoca and an evening that will be created by Nacho Duato, Andrew Skeels and Sharon Eyal.
About the Munich Opera Festival
The Munich Opera Festival is the glamorous highlight and at the same time, the culmination of the opera year, and in June and July brings opera enthusiasts from all over the world to Munich. Opera, ballet, lieder recitals and festival concerts with an alternating topical focus point are presented over five weeks, while the season’s premieres are also brought back to the stage.
The Munich Opera Festival takes place yearly in the Bavarian capital from late June to late July. Preceding on the calendar the two nearby festivals of Bayreuth and Salzburg, which both start in late July, the festival summarizes the concluding main season's work of the Bavarian State Opera, which administers it, and offers premieres of new stage productions by the company, Germany's largest.
Venues used include the Nationaltheater, the Prinzregententheater, the Cuvilliés-Theater and the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche. Besides opera, concerts of chamber music are given to showcase the work of members of the Bavarian State Orchestra, which serves in the pit for all opera performances. The festival is formally opened each year with a choral concert performed as part of a full Roman Catholic church service at Michaelskirche; this is led by the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, with the opera company's music director overseeing the work of the musicians in the organ loft. A festival highlight is Opera for All, the live transmission of a full-length production from the theater to an outdoor audience seated in Max-Joseph-Platz.
