Komische Oper Berlin

The house, considered the cradle of modern musical theater, is currently performing in Charlottenburg from the Schiller Theater — with a program that places Strauss premieres alongside rock operas at Tempelhof Airport and consistently sees opera as a matter for everyone.

Komische Oper Berlin: Musical Theater Without Categories

In 1947, Austrian director Walter Felsenstein founded the Komische Oper Berlin — setting a standard that the house still follows today: opera should touch, surprise, and sometimes provoke. Alongside the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and the Deutsche Oper, the Komische Oper is the smallest of Berlin’s three opera houses, but the programmatic chutzpah it brings more than compensates for this size difference. While the main building on Behrenstraße is being renovated, most performances take place in the elegant Schiller Theater in Charlottenburg. The house has long since turned the situation into a strength of its own: the motto is „We keep playing” — and temporary homelessness has become a virtue of diversity, both in terms of the repertoire and the venues.

Program 2025/26: From Mahler in the Hangar to Strauss in the Schiller Theater

The 2025/26 season shows what classical music and opera in Berlin can be today. The Komische Oper kicked off once again in Hangar 4 in Tempelhof — for the first time with an opera. A rock opera! With an international cast and over 250 dancers, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar was the first major spectacle of the season. This was immediately followed by another major event: Gustav Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, together with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Rundfunkchor Berlin, and the Vocalconsort Berlin, under General Music Director James Gaffigan. In addition, the program focuses on important repertoire pillars: at the end of November, Richard Strauss’ Salome followed, staged by opera scene’s shooting star, Evgeny Titov. Despite minimal “matte spots”, a disturbing and highly exciting Salome evening was achieved at the Schiller Theater — General Music Director James Gaffigan opted for a brilliantly surging sound texture of the revolutionary score. Those looking for concerts in Berlin that go far beyond the expected will reliably find exactly that at the Komische Oper Berlin. As an opera house for the entire urban society, the Operndolmuş has been rolling into Berlin’s neighborhoods for over ten years as part of the “Selam Opera” program, packed with musical theater — opera as an attitude, not as a high culture obligation.