The week at the Anhalt Theatre
20.06. | 19.00 | Dearest Sister | Altes Theater/Studio
Puppet show by Karin Eppler. For everyone aged 15 and over.
Loosely based on the correspondence between Elizabeth Tudor and Mary Stuart and ‘Mary Stuart’ by Stefan Zweig: A royal duel breaks out between the monarchs Mary Stuart and Elizabeth Tudor. Both lay claim to the English throne, both feel they are in the right, both come up with plausible arguments to legitimise their claim. The Scottish-Catholic Mary, widowed and returned from France, and the English-Protestant Elizabeth, an illegitimate child of Henry VIII, conduct their power struggle in a strategically skilful manner. A clever game of chess for power begins. Each monarch uses her means: wars and love affairs … Alliances are formed and dissolve, but the battle rages on year after year with no solution in sight.
An insoluble conflict: there can only be one … In the political arena, a question of power is posed that can only have one answer, because only one of the two protagonists can be the sole ruler. Shared power, dual leadership is not possible in the royal system. How do the two women position themselves in this power struggle? How finely do they use their resources? How do they use their skills against each other? Are the women really bitter rivals? Or is it just the facts that make them hostile?
How close are they to each other? How do they feel about their loneliness at the pinnacle of power? Both queens feel that they are closer than they thought and that no one in the world can understand them like the ‘Dearest Sister’, their beloved enemy. No political advisor, no lover, no man and no other woman can understand their position in the world. So the queens begin to write letters to each other: Sometimes coolly referring to the facts, sometimes warmly … but they can never be sure that the Dearest Sister is not putting words to paper with calculation. For as long as one lives, the other must distrust her …
Based on the historical letters and Stefan Zweig’s novel ‘Maria Stuart’, Karin Eppler created the theatre version of ‘Dearest Sister’, which brings the exciting, timeless duel to the stage in a concentrated form.
Stage rights Harlekin Theaterverlag A production of THEATERLANDSCHAFFT e. V. in cooperation with the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau.
Production: Karin Eppler Set design: Nancy Ungurean Puppet design and performance: Kerstin Dathe
Ticket price: from €9.00
OPEN AIR 20 and 22.06.25 | 7.30 pm | Along the Vltava River | Mausoleum in the zoo
With Smetana through Bohemia’s groves and meadows
Every music lover knows and loves Bedřich Smetana’s ‘The Vltava’. Most people have been familiar with this composition, which so vividly depicts the course of the River Vltava, since childhood as a prime example of a symphonic poem. Accordingly, the work is often played in concerts. In contrast, the entire cycle ‘My Fatherland’, of which ‘The Vltava’ is a part, is very rarely heard outside the Czech Republic. The complete cycle ‘My Fatherland’ (Czech: ‘Má vlast’) will now be performed in Dessau for the first time in 42 years at the summer open air at the Mausoleum.
This masterpiece of Czech music was composed intermittently between 1874 and 1879 and was performed for the first time in its entirety in Prague on 5 November 1882, a year and a half before the composer’s death, by which time he was already seriously ill and had been completely deaf for years. The six parts of the cycle create a sonorous panorama of the nature and history of the Czech Republic. The first part, ‘Vyšehrad’, evokes the glorious past of the old royal castle near Prague. The musical Vyšehrad theme crowns the second part of the cycle ‘The Vltava’, before the river disappears from view towards the Elbe. In the third part, ‘Šárka’, Smetana tells the tale of a girl who, out of anger at her lover’s infidelity, swears revenge on all men and causes a bloodbath among them. The fourth symphonic poem ‘From Bohemia’s Grove and Field’ expresses ‘general feelings at the sight of the Bohemian landscape’.
The last two parts, ‘Tábor’ and ‘Blaník’, are closely related in terms of content and music. Here, Smetana links the historical event of the Hussite Wars at the beginning of the 15th century with the legend of the mountain ‘Blaník’, into whose interior the Hussite fighters have retreated until the fatherland needs their help again. The triumphant conclusion symbolises the coming greatness of the Czech nation.
Conductor: Elisa Gogou
21.06.25 | 14.00 h | Wandelkonzert | Garden of Princess Wörlitz
Consortio Anhaltino
For visitors who not only want to experience music in the Garden Kingdom, but would also like to learn interesting facts about the places during a short walk, the walking concerts are ideal. They will take place this summer in the three parks of Wörlitz, Oranienbaum and Luisium. Employees of the Dessau-Wörlitz Cultural Foundation will guide guests through the park in small groups. Musicians will perform a short programme at suitable locations. The afternoon concludes with a coffee and concert in Oranienbaum and Luisium in front of the orangeries and in Wörlitz in the garden of the Princess.
Meeting point: Amtsfähre
21.06.25 | 19.00 | 3 minutes | Old Theatre/Studio
Fallout with cat and song Rural idyll.
A small house. Two people sitting at dinner. They listen to the news. They go to sleep and get up again.
The emergency. The before. The after. Two people, completely on their own. Between shock and repression, powerless in the midst of political world events.
“This is not a joke. You have three minutes left. Stay in the house. Close the windows and doors. Lie down on the floor. Tell your loved ones that you love them.”
How quickly conditions that have long seemed anachronistic come to the fore again. We are trying to confront the horror of this time. ‘3 Minutes’ is an interdisciplinary evening about the nuclear emergency. With puppets, radio plays, live music and video art.
The cat dances. Meow.
Interdisciplinary approach by MindTheGap feat. Rike SchubertySupported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR/Prozeßförderung and with the kind support of Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte and T-Werk Potsdam
Produktion und Spiel: Susi Claus (MindTheGap) Live music and performance: Rike Schuberty Director: Tilla Kratochwil Puppets, stage and costume: Judith Mähler Projection: Florian Sebald and Yuna Fleig/PFA Studios Berlin Radio play: Anouschka Trocker
Ticket price: from €9.00
21.06.25 | 19.30 | Macbeth under the stars | Mausoleum im Tierpark
Verdi’s great opera in concert
Witches prophesise to the generals Macbeth and Banco that Macbeth will first become Thane of Cawdor and then King of Scotland, while Banco will become the father of kings. Shortly afterwards, the first prophecy is fulfilled: Macbeth is elevated to Thane of Cawdor. When King Duncan announces his visit to Macbeth’s castle, Macbeth, goaded by his wife, seizes the opportunity and murders his guest. Banco falls victim to an assassin hired by Macbeth shortly afterwards, but his son manages to escape. In the end, Lady Macbeth goes mad and Macbeth is killed in a duel.
For his tenth opera, Giuseppe Verdi turned for the first time to material from the pen of the great English playwright William Shakespeare. An opera with such a dark plot involving supernatural forces, with a power-hungry murderer as the title hero and without the typical operatic love story was a great risk for the Italian opera business at the time and a challenge for the audience. The opera premiered in Florence in 1847 with moderate success and was carefully reworked by the composer for its premiere at the Paris Opera in 1865. Macbeth represents a decisive turning point in Verdi’s oeuvre, because here the composer for the first time found a musical form appropriate to the original and radically broke with Italian operatic conventions – an important step from the romantic bel canto opera to a realistic music drama. The role of Lady Macbeth, in particular, is musically characterised with great urgency, making the emotional abysses just as audible as it explores the tragedy of the character – a parade role for our Dessau Kammersängerin Iordanka Derilova.
Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave based on the tragedy by William Shakespeare Texts by Dr Luise Vollprecht Musical direction: Markus L. Frank Conductor Opera and Extra Choir: Sebastian Kennerknecht and others Macbeth: Martin Bárta Banco: Michael Tews Lady Macbeth: KS Iordanka Derilova
Ticket price: from € 18.00
22.06.25 | 12.30 p.m. | Elbtour 2025 | Mausoleum in the zoo
Concert tour of the Elbkinderland e.V. together with its patron and initiator Rolf Zuckowski.
22.06.25 | 18.00 | The Servant of Two Masters | ‘Insel Stein’ Wörlitz
Comedy by Carlo Goldoni | REVIEW
‘No one can serve two masters.’ It says so in the Bible. But the shortage of skilled labour in the catering industry has also reached the tourist hotspot of Venice. And valet Truffaldino, who is paid far below minimum wage by his master Federico Rasponi, needs a second source of income. So he takes on a second job outside Brigetta’s inn, where Federico has taken up residence, with Florindo Aretusi, whom he also lodges with Brigetta. Without informing his employer. And without realising that his two masters know each other and … love each other. Florindo has travelled to Venice because he killed Federico Rasponi in a duel and had to flee from his family, who are thirsting for revenge. In reality, Federico Rasponi is actually Beatrice Rasponi, his sister, who is pretending to be her brother and loves no one other than this very Florindo.
Sounds complicated? It gets even more colourful. Because Federico was promised to Clarice. But she loves Silvio. Their fathers had already agreed on the wedding. But now the old groom is suddenly alive again …
You can already guess: at some point, the young lovers’ troubles will come to an end. And Truffaldino, who has got himself into a real mess, will also come out of this story in one piece. But until then, everyone will suffer a lot. For our amusement!
With his servant, Carlo Goldoni has transformed the Venetian commedia dell’arte into a human comedy and created the first sitcom in world literature. Types become characters, the round lawn becomes a piazza, and the ‘Insel Stein’ in Wörlitz Park becomes a lagoon city for an evening.
Performance rights ‘henschel SCHAUSPIEL Theaterverlag Berlin’. The production was generously supported by the Friends of the Dessau Theatre Licensor: Gallissas Theaterverlag und Mediaagentur GmbH
Production: Herbert Olschok Stage and costume: Sabine Pommerening Music: Leonhard Steinhoff Musical direction: Wolfgang Kluge Dramaturgy: Mahsa Asgari
Ticket price: from €17.00