Tsar power
Zany gags keep Zar und Zimmermann zipping along at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Madison Schindele
Maddie Schindele is based between NYC and Berlin and is a Ph.D. candidate in musicology. She enjoys writing about modernist German opera, disability, and feminist musings!
The Berlin stories
Madison Schindele surveys the endlessly diverse offerings of Berlin’s 2026-27 opera season.
Were you silent or were you silenced
A new production of Die schweigsame Frau at the Berlin Staatsoper has precious little to say.
They don’t stoop to conquer
The countertenors conquer the day in Handel‘s Giulio Cesare in Egitto at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Hit me with your best Shoshty
Barrie Kosky’s zany production of The Nose time-steps back onto the Komische Oper Berlin stage.
Agent orange
That Trump opera at the Staatsoper Hamburg is lazy activism at its finest, we fear.
Uncovered gems
Despite some complications, the Deutsche Oper exhumes buried treasure in Franz Schreker’s Der Schatzgräber.
No shrinking Violanta
A chic production of Violanta at the Deutshce Oper Berlin continues the Korngold craze on the other side of the Atlantic.
You’re as cold as ice
A classic German fairytale gets a modern update at the Staatsoper Berlin.
The offal truth
“Call me traditional, but I want to see a silver platter!”
Capital punishment
A patchy production and musical performance can’t dull the edge of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at the Komische Oper Berlin
Alien encounter
“Protect the dolls, they say, but who really cares for them?” This question, posed by performer Mara Snip during the postlude of Neuköllner Oper’s 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, had a clear answer: Aliens.
Scarcity mindset
Michael Thalmeier‘s Tristan und Isolde in Berlin asks, how much minimalism is too much minimalism?
Undoing of woman
Anthony Hüseyin‘s eclectic recital in Berlin explores femicide in opera through a queer, nonbinary lens.
The unkindest Kind
Madison Schindele on loving Die Frau ohne Schatten as a “woman of childbearing age”
I’ll take the fall
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).