Opera & Music Theatre

Oper L'Incoronazione Di Poppea | © Judith Buss

The Department of Opera & Musical Theatre is a beacon with special charisma and appeal. Every year, two opera classes consisting of up to 15 highly talented students are prepared by renowned theatre makers for the high demands of an international opera career. Four staged opera productions with orchestra are performed annually in a theatre equipped to the highest technical standards.

Opera
23.6.2023 - 27.6.2023

Dido & Aeneas / Elissa (world premiere)

More than 330 years after the premiere of Henry Purcell's only complete opera, the French composer Henry Fourès composed a setting for Dido and Aeneas and called it "Elissa". A second name for the queen that allows the character to exist on her own, without a direct link to Aeneas. Fourès develops her from questioning voices and sounds that revolve around themes from today. They interweave with the myth, which comes to the surface piece by piece. Elissa becomes Dido and takes on her destiny. With a libretto by Elisabeth Gutjahr.

At a glance

Studies

News & Productions

  • Elissa / Dido & Aeneas | © Fabian Helmich
    28.8.2023
    With Baroque Summer Academy as guest in Siena 

    Numerous master classes, a contemporary BaroqueLab, concerts and an opera production: The Baroque Summer Academy of the Department of Early Music of the Mozarteum University will take place for the third time in 2023 within the framework of the renowned Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. A highlight in 2023 is the performance of the baroque opera "Dido & Aeneas" by H. Purcell with contemporary prologue and epilogue "Elissa" by Henry Fourès and Rector Elisabeth Gutjahr. "Elissa" was successfully premiered at the Mozarteum University in June 2023.

    News
  • Elissa / Dido & Aeneas | © Fabian Helmich
    30.6.2023

    More than 330 years after the premiere of the only complete opera by Henry Purcell, the French composer Henry Fourès composes a setting for Dido and Aeneas and calls it "Elissa". A second name for the queen that allows the character to exist on its own, without direct ties to Aeneas.

    Opera production
  • Sitzende Steinfigur unter Wasser | © Jason deCaires Taylor
    13.6.2023
    Who am I? 

    More than 330 years after the premiere of the only complete opera by Henry Purcell, the French composer Henry Fourès composes a musical setting for Dido and Aeneas and calls it Elissa. A conversation with Rector Elisabeth Gutjahr, who wrote the libretto for it.

    Interview

Media library

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Oper Il Campiello | © Christian Schneider
Video
Opera
13.5.2022
Oper Faust | © Judith Buss
Video
Opera
31.1.2022
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Events

  • 7.12.—12.12.2023
    Max Schlereth Saal
    Hansel and Gretel
    Rosamund Gilmore's production takes us on a journey into the subconscious, combining the deep psychological layers of the fairy tale with the cinematically visualized works of Claudia Lehmann's students. The score is performed in an arrangement for chamber orchestra.
  • 26.1.—30.1.2024
    Max Schlereth Saal
    Elegie für junge Liebende
    In the solitude of a mountain hotel, in the face of deadly glacial ice, everything revolves around a poet prince who - morbidly worried about his inspiration - writes an "Elegy of Lovers".
  • 27.1.—4.2.2024
    Marionettentheater
    Mozart & Salieri - The opera (as part of the Mozart Week 2024)
    Opera in one act by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov based on a drama by Alexander Pushkin: Driven by the agonizing realization that he is hopelessly inferior to Mozart's genius, Salieri, obsessed with his art, sees only one way out: to poison his opponent.
  • 15.5.—18.5.2024
    Max Schlereth Saal
    Falstaff
    Students from the Mozarteum University perform Verdi's late comedy - his legacy about the vices and weaknesses of mankind, at the end of which the old composer takes a step back, doffs his black hat and watches the floundering characters struggle for the last remnants of their dignity.
People
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Kai Röhrig | © Elsa Okazaki
Kai Röhrig

Univ..Prof. for Musical Dramatic Representation (musical)

Deputy Department Head
Teacher
Curricularcommission
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