As a physical place that harbors human feelings, longings and pain, the heart is a particularly coveted symbol. A man wants to live without the painful feelings in his heart, his lover wants to connect with him, supernatural powers want to win him over. The composer Matthias Pintscher invents overwhelming and poignant sounds for the mysterious and strange events in his opera Das kalte Herz.
The pianist and lyricist Daniel Arkadij Gerzenberg wrote the libretto based on Wilhelm Hauff's fairy tale of the same name from 1827. In his newly created poetic text, the forest also serves as a dark, fascinating backdrop for the diverse human emotional worlds and uncanny processes of human existence. The US-American director James Darrah, who works for opera, drama and film, and his team open up mysterious stage spaces for the special soundscapes of this newly created opera.
World premiere: January 11, 2026
Further performances: January 14, 16, 20 and 23, 2026
