Die tote Stadt Tickets

Zurich Opera House, Zurich, Switzerland

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Available Dates: 21 Apr - 1 Jun, 2025 (9 events)

Important Info

Type: Opera

City: Zurich, Switzerland

Acts: 3

Sung in: German

Titles in: German,English

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Cast

Performers

Choose the date to see the peformers

Creators

Composer: Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Director: Dmitri Tcherniakov

Author: Georges Rodenbach

Librettist: Paul Schott (Julius Korngold)

Overview

«Wie weit soll unsere Trauer gehen, ohne uns zu entwurzeln?» («How far should our grief go without uprooting us?»)

This sentence, spoken by the main character Paul, could be the motto for Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s opera Die tote Stadt. After all, it is about a young man whose beloved wife Maria has died young. Paul gives in completely to his grief over his loss, until one day the dancer Marietta – who looks very much like Marie – appears. Paul falls for Marietta, who awakens long-forgotten longings in him, and becomes obsessed. At the same time, however, he struggles with the feeling that he is being unfaithful to his late wife. As Marietta takes up more and more space in his life and increasingly rebels against the constant presence of the dead, Paul kills Marietta. But suddenly she is back in his room, alive and kicking. So was it all just a dream? World premiered in 1920, Korngold’s Tote Stadt is unmistakably influenced by Sigmund Freud’s Traumdeutung, or The Interpretation of Dreams, which was published some 20 years prior and described how repressed longings and unconscious fears can enter our consciousness through dreams. Of course, the importance of letting go of the past in order to face the future and continue living was also a central theme of the period after the First World War. The sensational success of the world premiere, which took place simultaneously in Cologne and Hamburg, proved that Korngold touched a raw nerve with the topic. This production marks the return of Dmitri Tcherniakov to the Opernhaus Zürich. A stage director who opened the first season of Andreas Homoki’s artistic direction, he returned to Zurich for Pelléas et Mélisande and Die Sache Makropulos after directing Jenůfa in 2012. Now he will take on Die Tote Stadt with a subtle touch and psychological precision that are characteristic of his directorial style. Swiss conductor Lorenzo Viotti, currently General Music Director at the National Opera in Amsterdam, will unleash the colorful orchestral frenzy contained in Korngold's score. Vida Miknevičiũte und Eric Cutler can be heard in the vocally demanding yet rewarding lead roles.

History

Premiere of this production: 04 December 1920, Hamburg State Opera Cologne Opera

Die tote Stadt (German for The Dead City) is an opera in three acts by Erich Wolfgang Korngold set to a libretto by Paul Schott, a collective pseudonym for the composer and his father, Julius Korngold. It is based on the 1892 novel Bruges-la-Morte by Georges Rodenbach.

Synopsis

Act 1

When the opera opens, Paul, a younger middle-class man whose young wife, Marie, has recently died, cannot come to terms with the sad reality of her death. He keeps a "Temple of Memories" in her honour, including paintings, photographs and a lock of her hair. When his friend Frank pays him a visit at his house and urges him to honour Marie by moving on with his life, Paul flies into a rage and insists that Marie "still lives." He tells Frank that he has met a woman on the streets of Bruges who exactly resembles Marie (indeed, Paul thinks that she is Marie) and invited her back to his home.

Soon the woman, Marietta, a young and beautiful dancer, appears for her rendezvous with Paul. They talk, she is put off by his odd behaviour, but persists in trying to interest him with her charms—she sings (Lute Song, "Glück das mir verblieb") and dances seductively, but eventually gets bored and leaves. Paul meanwhile is driven into a state of extreme anxiety.

Torn between his loyalty to Marie and his interest in Marietta he collapses into a chair and begins to hallucinate. He sees Marie's ghost step out of her portrait and urge him not to forget her, but then the vision of Marie changes and tells Paul to move on with his life.

Act 2

After a series of visions in which his pursuit of Marietta alienates him from all his remaining friends, the act ends with Marietta finally overcoming Paul's resistance and leading him offstage locked in a passionate embrace. All this takes place in Paul's imagination.

Act 3

Paul's vision continues. Back in his house, living with Marietta, he quarrels with her. She gets fed up with his quirks and obsession with Marie and starts to taunt him by dancing seductively while stroking his dead wife's hair. In a rage, Paul grabs the lock of hair and strangles Marietta. Holding her dead body he exclaims "Now she is exactly like Marie." Then he snaps out of his dream. Astonished that Marietta's body is nowhere to be found, he has barely had time to collect his thoughts when his maid informs him that Marietta has come back to pick up her umbrella which she left at the house when she departed a few minutes ago. With the shock of the traumatic dream still fresh in his mind, Paul is met by his friends Brigitta and Frank who note that though Paul's vision is there, his desire is dead. Frank begins to leave and asks if Paul will leave, to which he replies, "I will try". The opera ends with a reprise of "Glück, das mir verblieb" sung by Paul in what is apparently his last time in his "Temple of Memories".

Venue Info

Zurich Opera House - Zurich
Sechseläutenplatz 1

Zürich Opera House is a main opera house in Zürich and Switzerland. Located at the Sechseläutenplatz, it has been the home of the Zürich Opera since 1891, and also houses the Bernhard-Theater Zürich. It is also home to the Zürich Ballet. The Opera House also holds concerts by its Philharmonia orchestra, matinees, Lieder evenings and events for children. The Zürich Opera Ball is organised every year in March, and is usually attended by prominent names.

The first permanent theatre, the Aktientheater, was built in 1834 and it became the focus of Richard Wagner’s activities during his period of exile from Germany.

The Aktientheater burnt down in 1890. The new Stadttheater Zürich (municipal theatre) was built by the Viennese architects Fellner & Helmer, who changed their previous design for the theatre in Wiesbaden only slightly. It was opened in 1891. It was the city's main performance space for drama, opera, and musical events until 1925, when it was renamed Opernhaus Zürich and a separate theatre for plays was built: The Bernhard Theater opened in 1941, in May 1981 the Esplanada building was demolished, and the present adjoint building opened on 27/28 December 1984 after three years of transition in the Kaufhaus building nearby Schanzengraben.

By the 1970s, the opera house was badly in need of major renovations; when some considered it not worth restoring, a new theatre was proposed for the site. However, between 1982 and 1984, rebuilding took place but not without huge local opposition which was expressed in street riots. The rebuilt theatre was inaugurated with Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the world première of Rudolf Kelterborn’s Chekhov opera Der Kirschgarten.

As restored, the theatre is an ornate building with a neo-classical façade of white and grey stone adorned with busts of Weber, Wagner, and Mozart. Additionally, busts of Schiller, Shakespeare, and Goethe are to be found. The auditorium is built in the neo-rococo style and seats approximately 1200 people. During the refurbishment, the issue of sightlines was not adequately addressed. As a result, the theatre has a high number of seats with a limited view, or no view, of the stage. This is unusual in international comparison, where sightlines in historic opera houses have been typically enhanced over time.

Corporate archives and historical library collections are held at the music department of the Predigerkirche Zürich.

The Zürich Opera House is also home of the International Opera Studio (in German: Internationales Opernstudio IOS) which is a educational program for young singers and pianists. The studio was created in 1961 and has renowned artists currently teaching such as Brigitte Fassbaender, Hedwig Fassbender, Andreas Homocki, Rosemary Joshua, Adrian Kelly, Fabio Luisi, Jetske Mijnssen, Ann Murray, Eytan Pessen or Edith Wiens.