Metropolitan Opera
La Bohème at the Metropolitan Opera
World-building in the largest opera house on earth—and a Puccini farewell that hit closer to home than expected.
Philip Zuschke
Lifelong opera stan projecting my sociological and queer perspective onto what’s playing on Berlin‘s big and small classical stages.
Deutsche Oper Berlin
L'Italiana in Algeri at Deutsche Oper Berlin
A lucha libre mask on the curtain, two gyms, one wrestling ring, and Rossini completely dismantled—then rebuilt into something that actually works today.
New York City Ballet
All Balanchine III at the New York City Ballet
Balanchine in New York, Berlin in the audience—and a reminder not to take any of it for granted.
Staatsballett Berlin
Nurejew at Staatsballett Berlin
A gay Soviet defector, a ballet banned in Russia, a director now based in Berlin—and a premiere that felt like the most important cultural event of the season.
Staatsoper Berlin
Les Contes d'Hoffmann at Staatsoper Berlin
A man collapses outside a peep show, and spends the rest of the evening learning why. On shame, desire, and the particular wreckage of a man who never healed his inner child.
Neuköllner Oper
Selemo at Neuköllner Oper
Two traditions, one stage, and the quiet insistence that spring, contradiction, and simultaneity don't need your permission.
Staatsoper Berlin
Don Giovanni at Staatsoper Berlin
A rotating enchanted forest, a Giovanni who bleeds through the whole opera, and the production that knocked the wind back into my opera-tired lungs.
Komische Oper Berlin
Jewgeni Onegin at Komische Oper Berlin
An opera about not getting over a crush—and a production so gorgeous it makes 150-year-old heartbreak feel like yesterday.
Deutsche Oper Berlin
Violanta at Deutsche Oper Berlin
Psychoanalysis as science fiction: rooms within rooms, each one a door into what you've buried—some doors you open, and some you don't.
Staatsoper Berlin
Falstaff at Staatsoper Berlin
Berlin’s queer aesthetics, stripped of queerness—a glossy appropriation where underground culture becomes set dressing for straight comfort.
Staatsballett Berlin
Wunderkammer by Staatsballett Berlin and Marcos Morau
A hypnotic descent into Berlin’s queer club culture—where wonder carries the weight of otherness, and belonging is never guaranteed.
Deutsche Oper Berlin
Tristan und Isolde at Deutsche Oper Berlin (2025)
Between night and light, between longing and annihilation, lies a space where love becomes both wound and salvation.