Komische Oper Berlin 9 January 2021 - A woman who knows what she wants! | GoComGo.com

A woman who knows what she wants!

Komische Oper Berlin, Berlin, Germany
All photos (6)
Select date and time
7:30 PM
Request for Tickets
Important Info
Type: Musical
City: Berlin, Germany
Starts at: 19:30
Acts: 2
Duration: 1h 30min
Sung in: German

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.

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).

Overview

Twenty characters, two performers. A breathless tour de force with an orchestra, conducted by Adam Benzwi, that serves up a firework display of fast-paced marches, tempestuous waltzes and incomparable chansons composed by Oscar Straus. "After just 90 minutes, one feels totally drunk on so much energy, intellect and wit." [Berliner Morgenpost] "Dazzling. Overwhelming. Astonishing." [Die Welt]

 

Dagmar Manzel and Max Hopp. She plays: Manon Cavallini, the opera diva, Raoul Severac, her suitor, as well as the father of her daughter Lucy. He plays: this very same daughter, all five of Cavallini’s lovers, and on top of that, Lucy’s family friend. In further roles – Dagmar Manzel and Max Hopp!

The Vienna-born Oscar Straus, one of the most famous operetta and film composers in the 1920s and 1930s and who enjoyed success at Arnold Schönberg's Überbrettl cabaret composer college in Berlin and also in exile in Hollywood, premièred his operetta with Fritzi Massary in the main role and featuring brisk marches, tempestuous waltzes and incomparable chansons such as "What Is This Thing Called Love" and "Why shouldn't a woman have an affair" to great acclaim in 1932 at the legendary Metropol Theater, today the Komische Oper Berlin. She should. For a woman who knows what she wants!

History
Premiere of this production: 30 November 1931

A Woman Who Knows What She Wants is a musical comedy from 1932 by Oscar Straus, viennese composer who fled to Hollywood after the Nazi annexation of Austria. He dropped the second ‘s’ from his surname so that nobody would confuse him with any of the other famous musical Strausses. Wise move.

Synopsis

The celebrated operetta star Manon Cavallini has all the men lying at her feet. Raoul Severac, who attends her performances at the theatre every evening, is also hopelessly in love with her – much to the annoyance of young Lucy Paillard, who is completely smitten with the bachelor and is determined to marry him. Therefore Lucy implores her father to arrange a meeting between herself and Cavallini, so that Lucy can plead with her to turn Raoul down and leave him to Lucy. What the young girl doesn’t know is that Manon is her mother, and that her father has used the courts to deny Manon any contact with their daughter. Out of love for her child, Manon turns Raoul down. During an intimate dinner, she shows Raoul her permissive lifestyle, and draws his attention to Lucy.

After Raoul and Lucy are married, Lucy learns of a secret meeting between her husband and Cavallini. Suspecting an affair, Lucy is hellbent on revenge, there and then deciding to betray her husband with a family friend, the tennis champion Fernand Maupreux. Yet Manon manages to foil the affair by luring Maupreux into a chambre séparée and there guiding all his amorous attentions onto herself. When Lucy appears, Manon reveals herself to be her mother, instantly dispelling all the jealousy: Lucy’s marriage is saved – and mother and daughter are finally united!

Venue Info

Komische Oper Berlin - Berlin
Location   Behrenstraße 55-57

The Komische Oper Berlin is a German opera company based in Berlin. The company produces opera, operetta and musicals.

The opera house is located on Behrenstraße, just a few steps from Unter den Linden. Since 2004, the Komische Oper Berlin, along with the Berlin State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Berlin State Ballet, and the Bühnenservice Berlin (Stage and Costume Design), has been a member of the Berlin Opera Foundation.

The theatre was built between 1891 and 1892 by architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer for a private society. It first opened on 24 September 1892 as "Theater Unter den Linden" with Adolf Ferron's operetta Daphne and Gaul and Haßreiter's ballet Die Welt in Bild und Tanz.

The theatre was primarily a vehicle for operetta, but was also used for various other events and balls. Around 800 people could be seated in the stalls, and the balconies and various en-suite dinner rooms housed about a further 1,700 seats. Its directors went bankrupt in 1896 and the theatre was forced to close its doors.

On 3 September 1898 the theatre was reopened as Metropol-Theater with Julius Freund's revue Paradies der Frauen. It then grew to become one of Berlin's most famous and successful variety theatres. During the 1920s and early 1930s, it was leased by the brothers Alfred and Fritz Rotter. Under their management, it saw the premieres of two operettas by Franz Lehár - Friederike (opera) in 1928 and Das Land des Lächelns in 1929, both starring Richard Tauber. However, due to a decline of variety and music hall entertainment the theatre was again closed in 1933.

In 1934 the theatre was nationalised and renamed Staatliches Operettentheater. It operated as part of the Nazi Kraft durch Freude entertainment and leisure programmes. During World War II, the auditorium was damaged by Allied bombing on 7 May 1944. The façade, entrance hall, and auditorium ceiling murals were destroyed by bombs on 9 March 1945.

After the war, the theatre was in East Germany, being that the building was in the eastern part of Berlin. Following repair works and provisional rebuilding, the theatre reopened on 23 December 1947, as the Komische Oper with Johann Strauss's operetta Die Fledermaus.

The 1950s saw various further alterations and extensions. The theatre was completely rebuilt in 1965/1966 by Architektenkollektiv Kunz Nierade, adding functional extensions and giving the theatre a completely new exterior. The theatre reopened again on 4 December 1966, with Mozart's Don Giovanni. The auditorium underwent further restoration in 1986, and the stage technology was further modernised by 1989. Today the theatre seats 1,270.

In 1947, Walter Felsenstein founded and led the resident opera company, the Komische Oper, until his death in 1975. Götz Friedrich was an assistant to Felsenstein at the company. Joachim Herz became general director after Felsenstein's death and served until 1981. Subsequently, Harry Kupfer directed the company for 21 seasons, until 2002. The company specializes in German language productions of opera, operetta and musicals. In 2007 the company won, jointly with Oper Bremen, the "Opera house of the year" award by the German magazine Opernwelt. From 2002 to 2012, the company's chief director and Intendant was Andreas Homoki. In June 2008, the company announced the appointment of Barrie Kosky to succeed Homoki as its next Intendant, as of the 2012/2013 season. In October 2014, his contract with the company was extended through 2022. Since 2005, the company's managing director has been Susanne Moser.

From 1966 to 2004, the theatre was also home to a resident ballet company – first as the "Tanztheater der Komischen Oper", and then from 1999 as "BerlinBallett – Komische Oper". In 2004, due to budgetary problems, the separate ballet companies of Berlin's three opera houses were merged into a single company called the Staatsballett Berlin.

Past General Music Directors (GMD) of the company have included Kurt Masur, Rolf Reuter, Yakov Kreizberg, Kirill Petrenko, Carl St.Clair, and Patrick Lange. Since 2012, the GMD of the company is Henrik Nánási. Nánási is scheduled to conclude his tenure at the end of the 2017-2018 season. In May 2017, the company announced the appointment of Ainārs Rubiķis as its next GMD, effective with the 2018-2019 season, with an initial contract of 3 seasons.

Important Info
Type: Musical
City: Berlin, Germany
Starts at: 19:30
Acts: 2
Duration: 1h 30min
Sung in: German
Top of page