In principle, the season in the three big opera houses in Vienna runs from September to June, with (obviously) a two-month summer break in July and August.
- See also: Opera in Vienna
Inevitably, ongoing public health measures and temporary lockdowns have affected the planned programme highlights mentioned below and/or ticket availability (particularly standing tickets). And they may continue to do so; check for updates from the house’s directly.
At the Staatsoper
The State Opera House 2020/2021 season began on September 7th, 2020, with Anthony Minghella’s production of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. It ends with Wagner’s Lohengrin on June 30th, 2021.
The planned season highlights included premières (for the Staatsoper) of ten productions. Apart from Minghella’s Madame Butterfly, these were:
- Hans Neuenfels’s production of The Abduction from the Seraglio by Mozart (première October 12th, 2020). The opera itself has graced the Staatsoper stage over 650 times
- Tcherniakov’s production of Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky, first performed at the Bolshoi Theater in 2006 (première October 25th, 2020)
- Jossi Wieler & Sergio Morabito’s production of The Betrayed Sea by Hans Werner Henze (première December 13th, 2020).
- Calixto Bieito’s production of Carmen by Bizet (première February 6th, 2021). Another popular opera at the Staatsoper, with over 1,000 performances to its credit
- Simon Stone’s production of La Traviata by Verdi (première March 4th, 2021)
- Kirill Serebrennikov’s production of Parsifal by Wagner (première April 1st, 2021). I’m particularly looking forward to seeing Jonas Kaufmann and Elīna Garanča in this
- Frank Castorf’s production of Faust by Charles Gounod (première April 23rd, 2021)
- Jan Lauwers’s production of Monteverdi’s last opera, L’incoronazione di Poppea (première May 22nd, 2021)
- Barrie Kosky’s production of Macbeth by Verdi (première June 10th, 2021)
Other planned highlights included:
- Revivals of Elektra, Don Carlos, and the Marriage of Figaro
- A musical reworking of Der Rosenkavalier
At the Volksoper
The Volksoper 2020/2021 opera season began with Die Fledermaus on September 1st and ends with the same operetta on June 30th.
Planned new operatic productions for the season were:
- Henry Mason’s production of The Magic Flute by Mozart, which has its première on October 17th, 2020
- A historic German version of Verdi’s La forza del destino (The Power of Fate), with a première on November 7th, 2020
- Hinrich Horstkotte’s production of Der Teufel auf Erden, an operetta by Franz von Suppé (première on December 5th, 2020)
- David McVicar’s production of Death in Venice by Benjamin Britten (première on April 17, 2021)
- Ruth Brauer-Kvam’s production of Leyla und Medjnun by Detlev Glanert, which plays for the first time ever in Austria on June 14th, 2021, at the Volksoper’s Kasino am Schwarzenbergplatz location
Other planned highlights included the return of Renaud Doucet and André Barbe’s interpretation of Puccini’s Turandot, the first opera I ever saw (coincidentally this production on a previous visit to Vienna).
At the Theater an der Wien
The Theater an der Wien 2020/2021 season began on September 16th with the première of the theatre’s new production of Roggero Leoncavallo’s Zazà.
Other planned highlights included, for example, new productions of:
- Vivaldi’s 1735 Bajazet (première on September 26th in the Kammeroper)
- Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (première October 14th)
- Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (première November 12th). A new production by Alfred Dorfer which should cause some excitement; Dorfer is better known locally as a comedian and actor
- Cavalli’s Giasone (première November 29th in the Kammeroper)
- Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Platée (a new revival of an existing Vienna production; première on December 14th)
- Massenet’s Thaïs (première January 19th, 2021)
- Donizetti’s Belisario (première February 16th, 2021)
- Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (première March 5th, 2021 in the Kammeroper)
- Sergei Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel (première March 17th, 2021)
- Handel’s Saul (a new revival of a previous Vienna production; première April 16th, 2021)