The great summer opera 2026
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In summer 2026, The Magic Flute, one of the most fascinating works in opera history, returns to the Forum of the Hamburg University of Music and Drama. With their magic opera, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder created a work that still hovers between fairy tale, philosophy and profound questions about humanity - and has lost none of its appeal. At the center are Tamino and Pamina, two young people searching for orientation in a world full of contrasts. Light and darkness, emotion and reason, order and chaos collide - embodied in the tension between the Queen of the Night and Sarastro. But the further the journey progresses, the more the boundaries become blurred. What at first seems clear becomes ambiguous. The opera poses questions without providing simple answers - and this is precisely where its timeless appeal lies. Musically, too, a multi-layered cosmos unfolds: Mozart seemingly effortlessly combines folk melodies with the ornate language of Viennese classical music. The result is a sound space that is both immediately moving and profoundly thoughtful.
Christian Poewe's production deliberately focuses on lightness and playfulness. Instead of anchoring the opera in interpretative heaviness, it sees the stage as an open space of transformation: Identities are tried out, roles are changed, perspectives are shifted. The multilingualism of the international ensemble of the Master Opera course is particularly formative: it creates new approaches and makes the search for identity directly tangible.
Under the musical direction of Willem Wentzel, a lively synthesis of the arts is created together with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and up-and-coming creatives from the HAW and HFBK universities, which cooperate closely with the HfMT. For many of the participants, the production of the Great Summer Opera is also a departure - a last big stop before entering the professional opera world. Hamburg's new Magic Flute combines tradition and the present: sensual, polyphonic and full of discoveries. An invitation to be enchanted - and to hear and see the familiar in a new way.
Performers
Musical director: Willem Wentzel
Director: Christian Poewe
Stage: Sina Eichhorst
Video: David Scheffler
Costume: Julian Philip Hirsch and Louisa von Ohlen
Singers from the opera class
Symphoniker Hamburg
Eintritt: 30,00 EUR
Ermäßigt: 10,00 EUR
Tickets are available at the Gerdes box office online or by telephone on 040-45 33 26 and 040-44 02 98.
Dates at a glance
24.05.2026, 6 p.m., A premiere
26.05.2026, 7 pm, B premiere
30.05.2026, 7 pm
03.06.2026, 7 pm
06.06.2026, 7 pm
12.06.2026, 7 pm
14.06.2026, 6 pm
16.06.2026, 7 pm
23.06.2026, 7 pm