Komische Oper Berlin
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at Komische Oper Berlin
A concrete hellscape, a cycle of violence, and the particular genius of a piece that got its composer exiled.
Philip Zuschke
Lifelong opera stan projecting my sociological and queer perspective onto what’s playing on Berlin‘s big and small classical stages.
Philharmonie Berlin
DSO, Ollikainen & Shaham at the Berlin Phil
A Soviet homecoming, a film theme everyone knows, a tomb for the drowned - and the modern symphony that converted me.
Deutsche Oper Berlin
Die Zauberflöte at.. Union Berlin?
I walked into a football stadium braced for confrontation, and came out converted. On community, belonging, and what opera might learn from Köpenick
Staatsballett Berlin
Giselle by Staatsballett Berlin
A story told entirely in gesture, in a room where phones no longer wait for the final bow.
Deutsche Oper Berlin
Gran Gala de Zarzuela at Deutsche Oper Berlin
A 20th-century flamenco legend on castanets, a conductor stealing a verse, a genre I'd never once encountered - and a door into Spanish opera I didn't know I'd been missing.
Deutsche Oper Berlin
Parsifal at Deutsche Oper Berlin
A curtain opening onto a cross, living tableaus, and an evening so unexpectedly moving it has stayed with me ever since.
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.
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.