For a moving premiere evening that takes a new look at Puccini’s opera classic, the curtain of the Großes Haus will rise on April 28. In her production of “Madama Butterfly,” Angelika Zacek questions the treatment of women and their position in the world. For all ages 4 and up, the premiere of the puppet theater play “Kalif Storch” after Wilhelm Hauff is already on the program at the Altes Theater on April 23. In it, Karin Eppler and Kerstin Dathe create an enchanting tableau of puppet and shadow play art, in which even today’s topics are made tangible for children.

According to the Neue Musikzeitung, the last two performances of “The Barber of Seville” on April 8 and 30 in the Großes Haus will be a “Rossini star hour” full of “overrunning events, hair-raising disguises and confusion that bends the beams”. The program of the 6th symphony concert in Holy Week on April 6 and 7 revolves around faith, love, redemption and the awakening of nature in spring with works by Messiaen, Wagner and Schumann. On Saturdays, April 15, 22, and 29, Stefano Giannetti will choreograph not only the ballet ensemble but also the opera choir and opera ensemble on the stage in the Great House to the rousing music of Rossini’s “Petite messe solenelle” with a wink of the eye. Only twice more, on April 2 and for the last time on May 6, the critically acclaimed opera production “Der König Kandaules” by director Jakob Peters-Messer can be seen as “truly great opera cinema in Brechtian garb!” (MDR KULTUR) at the Großes Haus.

Dark, abysmal, modern: In the musical “The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets” with the inimitable music of rock legend Tom Waits, promising magic bullets lead the amorous protagonist into a treacherous addiction on April 1, 9, 16 and 23 in the Großes Haus. In the drama productions “The Lonely West” on April 7, 21 and 29 and “Jurassic Park (… or Life Finds Its Way)” on April 2 and 16, pop culture is celebrated with a zombie apocalypse and memories of Dinopark in the Old Theater. The Anhaltische Theater invites you to a special kind of time travel to the dazzling figure Ronald M. Schernikau on April 30 with the play “der himmel ist ja da. der himmel fängt hier unten an.” in the studio. For this evening, two special guests have announced themselves for the subsequent audience discussion: the author’s mother Ellen Schernikau and director Christian Franke.