Königskinder

Originally conceived as a melodrama, he reworked the story into a large-scale opera that had its successful premiere at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in late 1910 and just a few weeks later was performed at the Berlin opera house Unter den Linden.

Various fairy tale motifs flowed into the otherwise freely invented plot, with high symbolic value and poetic magic. The characters who appear on stage are profoundly human, free in their thinking and still caught in constraints, while at the same time included in a play of profound emotions. Using the wide range of sound timbres provided by the late romantic orchestra and an immense intensity of expression, the score of Königskinder possesses special musical qualities that will be brought to life by Staatskapelle Berlin and its general music director Christian Thielemann.


(In German with German and English surtitles)