On Wednesday, 24 May, General Director Johannes Weigand and the heads of the divisions presented the premieres, concerts, revivals, guest performances and events of the 229th season of the Anhaltisches Theater.

“The current season, which has been very well received by audiences and the press, encourages us to start an equally colourful and exciting 229th season. So the arc is wide across our five divisions. From Viennese operetta in the musical theatre to current play developments in the drama, from ballet classics to a host of new plays in the puppet theatre, from the great Mahler symphony to chamber music premieres in the Bauhaus Museum, the range is wide. In addition, there are formats that are as tried and tested as they are popular, from the opening of the season together with the city and the Bauhaus to the Kurt Weill Festival and the open-air concerts in front of the Mausoleum in the Tierpark to the Garden Kingdom Summer 2024,” says General Director Johannes Weig. – says General Director Johannes Weigand.

A total of 20 premieres and almost as many symphonic concert programmes are on the new programme. After “The Magic Flute”, another opera classic by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, “Don Giovanni”, will be presented in the Great House of the Anhaltisches Theater, and with “Tristan and Isolde”, a work by Richard Wagner can finally be experienced again in the “Bayreuth of the North”. In addition, Karol Szymanowski’s opera “King Roger” will celebrate its premiere at the Kurt Weill Festival 2024. The ballet aims to shine with Tchaikovsky’s wintry dream story “The Nutcracker”. The “Young Choreographers” series is already in its fifth round at the Altes Theater. The members of the ballet ensemble are given a “carte blache” for their artistic development, so that one can be curious about the different dance approaches and ideas.

Theresia Walser’s “Ein bisschen Ruhe vor dem Sturm” (A Little Calm Before the Storm), a comedy that skilfully chargés between satire, grotesque and boulevard, opens the season for the Schauspiel im Großen Haus. The programme includes a masterpiece by William Shakespeare, “Was ihr wollt”, which plays with gender roles and the greatest of all feelings in a lusty and exhilarating way. Based on a prose booklet text by Nora Deetje Leggemann, the new director of the theatre Sahar Rezaei develops “Am Rande des Orbits”, an evening of theatre about the desire for sexual and reproductive self-determination. The new play by Norwegian playwright Fredrik Brattberg, “Break of Day”, is about family life and how fragile the seemingly safe haven of the family can be.

Cinderella”, one of the most popular fairy tales, is this year’s family play for the Christmas season. Fairy tale expert Jan Radermacher guarantees a contemporary view of the Grimm brothers’ fantastic story. With the play “Sparks” there is a modern play for everyone from the age of 10 that celebrates the irrepressible power of solidarity.

Wassily Kandinsky’s examination of his theory of the Gesamtkunstwerk in “Over the Wall” will be performed by the Violett group on the Bauhaus stage as part of the “staging the bauhaus” series. And with “Walden: Life in the woods”, a piece is planned that invites the audience to a shared escapism and the associated rethinking of the world. In June 2024, on the idyllic “Insel Stein” in Wörlitz Park, one can look forward to Carlo Goldoni’s “Servants of Two Masters”, the first sitcom in world literature.