Programme of the Anhalt Theatre
Puccini’s classic opera ‘La Bohème’ returns to the Anhaltisches Theater
On 16 November at 5 p.m., Giacomo Puccini’s classic opera ‘La Bohème’, directed by Christian von Treskow, will celebrate its revival at the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau. Puccini’s masterpiece will also be on the programme again on 5 December and 28 December. The touching story about love and the life of deprivation of young artists on the margins of 19th-century Parisian society is one of the most frequently performed works in the opera repertoire: ‘People die and governments change, but the arias of La Bohème will live forever,’ wrote American inventor Thomas A. Edison to Giacomo Puccini in 1920 – a sentence that sums up the timeless impact of this opera. The encounter between the poet Rodolfo and the seriously ill Mimi on a frosty Christmas Eve develops into a great love, which, however, repeatedly fails due to the harsh realities of life.
Dates at the Großes Haus:
16 November 2025 at 5 p.m.
5 December 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
28 December 2025 at 4 p.m.
Not only does the robber Hotzenplotz have to watch out for the police, but Kasperl and Seppel are also hot on his heels, trying to recover their grandmother’s coffee pot. Will they succeed? Come and see for yourself, whether you’re young or old.
Christmas fairy tale, for everyone aged 6 and above
Dates in the Main Theatre:
21.11.25 | 7 p.m. | PREMIERE
02.12.25 | 6 p.m.
07.12.25 | 10.30 a.m.
07.12.25 | 2 p.m.
08.12.25 | 6 p.m.
14 December 2025 | 10:30 a.m.
14 December 2025 | 2 p.m.
17 December 2025 | 6 p.m.
22 December 2025 | 6 p.m.
23 December 2025 | 10 a.m.
27 December 2025 | 5 p.m.
6 January 2025 | 4 p.m.
25 January 2025 | 5 p.m.
22 February 2026 | 5 p.m.
Reineke Fuchs | Saturday, 22 November 2025, 6 p.m. | Altes Theater/Studio
by Johann Wolfgang Goethe in a version by Matthias Engel & Compagnie
A not entirely apolitical, entertaining evening with music: ‘… Pentecost, the lovely festival, had arrived… the sky was festive and cheerful… Noble, the king gathered the court… Many proud fellows from the animal kingdom hurried to the festival, but Reynard the Fox was conspicuous by his absence. Why? Reynard had skipped out. He sensed that his misdeeds were about to be brought to light.’
Concert on Remembrance Sunday: Music of Remembrance and Peace
With works by Brahms, Strauss and Vaughan Williams
On 23 November at 5 p.m. | Main Auditorium
On Remembrance Sunday, 23 November at 5 p.m., the Halle University Choir will perform together with the Anhalt Philharmonic Orchestra in the Main Auditorium of the Anhalt Theatre in Dessau.
The programme opens with Johannes Brahms’ gentle lament ‘Nänie’ based on words by Friedrich Schiller. This is followed by ‘Four Last Songs’, written by the 83-year-old Richard Strauss in 1947/48 based on poems by Hermann Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff – a work of farewell full of serenity and beauty. With his cantata ‘Dona nobis pacem’ at the end of the programme, British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams warned of a new world war in 1936. In addition to the final part of the Latin mass with its urgent plea for peace, he also set English texts to music, including three poems by Walt Whitman.
In a tradition that has already become dear to our hearts, the ‘Dessau Jazz Nights’ series celebrates its comeback with Thomas Siffling’s Christmas Gala in the Great Hall.
Following its huge success in 2024, the Große Haus will once again be transformed into a jazz club for the Dessau Jazz Nights: on 3 December at 7.30 p.m., Thomas Siffling’s Christmas Gala will provide the perfect musical prelude to the most wonderful time of the year. The charismatic trumpeter invites you once again on an atmospheric pre-Christmas journey – accompanied by his band, he weaves soulful jazz sounds with soulful, warm interpretations of classic and contemporary Christmas carols.
The FAZ described him as ‘a true jazz seducer’ who knows how to inspire with his unique, lyrical style of trumpet playing. Together with the powerful voice of Menna Mulugeta, he forms a congenial front line, supported by the groovy, pulsating foundation of Thomas Bauser’s Hammond organ, Jo Ambros’ versatile guitar and Erwin Ditzner’s drums. The Badische Zeitung sums it up aptly: ‘Thomas Siffling is an entertainer who knows how to captivate his audience with his music and jokes with them between songs.’
‘Dancing on the Volcano’: The wild Mendelssohns of the 1920s at the Anhaltisches Theater
In a concert evening featuring literary texts, the Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich, conducted by Daniel Grossmann, presents an exciting, fragmentary biography of the siblings. Anja Signitzer (Ensemble Münchner Kammerspiele) recounts special encounters and events from Eleonora and Francesco’s lives in the Roaring Twenties, interwoven with music from Felix Mendelssohn to the 1920s, which the young Munich composer Josef Piras has congenially combined into a complete work. This is the Munich orchestra’s second guest performance in Dessau, having already provided a modern musical evening programme for this year’s open-air season.
The wild Mendelssohns of the 1920s
Thu, 4 December 2025 | 8 p.m. | Großes Haus
A concert evening in text and music with the JEWISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA MUNICH Composition by Josef Piras with music by Felix Mendelssohn
Text: Constanze Negwer
Source: Anhaltisches Theater Dessau
All further information and tickets can be found at Anhaltisches Theater Dessau