News from the Opernhaus Zürich

20 March 2024

The Opernhaus Zürich is delighted to receive the Operetten-Frosch award from BR-Klassik for the production of Die Lustige Witwe. «Congratulations on this unusual and loving version of a repertoire classic in a visually stunning setting», writes Bayerischer Rundfunk, «on the courage to entrust it to such a young conductor and on the successful, unusual casting of not only the two main roles». Thank you very much, BR-Klassik.

14 December 2023

Exceptional good

Results of the 2022/23 Season

The 2022/23 season had the feeling of being «back to normal» after surviving the coronavirus pandemic. But that feeling of normal left cultural institutions here in Switzerland and abroad asking themselves if it meant a return to how things were before, or if three years of crisis would result in substantial changes.

In the 2022/23 season, the Opernhaus Zürich was able to resume the artistic and economic stability that was abruptly interrupted in the 2019/20 season. This is also reflected in attendance numbers, which very nearly reached the record set before the corona pandemic. The loyalty that Zurich audiences have to the Opernhaus and their trust in the work done under Homoki’s direction have once again reaped rewards. The Opernhaus Zürich had an overall occupancy rate of 89.2% for 326 performances and 241 507 visitors, an exceptional showing by international standards.

The opera division thrilled 146 963 people at 161 performances, reaching an occupancy rate of 87.5%. Eight productions reached 99% capacity. The most successful production was Tchaikovsky’s «Jewgeni Onegin» with a 100% occupancy rate for its five performances. The large-scale «Der Ring des Nibelungen» project, which runs over multiple seasons, was exceptionally well-attended, holding at 97.1% for «Die Walküre» and 98.9% for «Siegfried». The 62 performances put on by the Ballett Zürich delighted 61 631 individuals and reached an occupancy rate of 95.4%. The most successful production in this division was Christian Spuck’s production of the ballet «Anna Karenina», which had a total of 99.4% capacity for its eight performances. Our 46 offers for children and families were seen by 14 808 people.

In addition to many artistic successes, the Opernhaus can also boast of a healthy financial year. In terms of sponsorship, the Opernhaus was once again able to exceed the CHF 10 million mark. Performance receipts from the 2022/23 season amounted to CHF 24.5 million. To cushion the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, a provision of CHF 2.49 million was set aside for the 2022/23 season, which was written down in full. The Opernhaus can therefore report a net profit for the year of CHF 954 569. However, this profit fully offsets the losses of the three preceding coronavirus seasons, and the Opernhaus Zürich has weathered the pandemic with no lasting impact on earnings.

Markus Notter (Chairman of the Board of Directors):

«In addition to a good artistic and financial balance sheet for 2022/23, there were several milestones that were important to the 2022/23 season and which will shape the coming years. First and foremost was the publication of our «Zukunft Oper» project, which deals with the urgently needed renovation of our historic main Opernhaus building and the adjacent extension in the first half of the 2030s. To this end, we launched a wide-ranging dialog process in April 2023, the results of which will help determine the future of the Opernhaus. We also said goodbye to our ballet director Christian Spuck, who left the Ballett Zürich after 11 extraordinarily successful years to become artistic director of the Staatsballett Berlin. Spuck’s era was marked by many sold-out performances, strong international recognition, television broadcasts, prestigious invitations for guest performances, and numerous awards. In the opera sector, the central focus was the new «Ring des Nibelungen» by Richard Wagner, for which Andreas Homoki was artistically responsible as stage director and General Music Director Gianandrea Noseda as conductor. This project was continued in the 2022/23 season with the works «Walküre» and «Siegfried». Gianandrea Noseda received the «Conductor of the Year 2023» award for his highly acclaimed Zurich «Ring» conducting from the journal «Oper!». All of this would have been impossible without the tireless efforts of the staff, as well as the constant support of the audience, sponsors, patrons of the house and, above all, of course, the support of the Canton of Zurich.»

Our production of Prokofiev's opera Der Feurige Engel directed by Calixto Bieito, which was also shown at the Teatro Real in Madrid, has been awarded the Premios Talía as the best opera production of 2022. This prize, which is very prestigious in the Spanish opera landscape, is awarded by the Academia de las Artes Escénicas de España. We are delighted!

Press Release, 28 February 2023

Gianandrea Noseda named Best Conductor 2023

OPER! AWARD goes to the General Music Director of the Opernhaus Zürich

This year’s OPER! AWARDS ceremony took place yesterday, Monday, 27 February 2023, at a gala event held at the Theater Dortmund. During the ceremony, Gianandrea Noseda, General Music Director of the Opernhaus Zürich, was named «Best Conductor» in the international opera industry. His conducting of the first two parts of the new «Ring des Nibelungen», which he and Intendant Andreas Homoki have been forging together since April 2022, was a deciding factor in his selection.      

The jury noted:
«Noseda thrills audiences and critics alike with his fresh take on this monumental score. Wagner’s ´vaterländischer Belcanto´ isn’t just an aspiration, here it becomes luminous sound and outright sung narration. It’s long been known that Noseda has mastered Italian operatic repertoire. Likewise, he is also known for his knack for French and Russian opera. Now, at the Opernhaus Zürich, he’s proven himself to be a true Wagnerian».

The OPER! AWARDS are an international opera prize awarded annually to the best artists and performers both on stage and off. A jury of journalists and opera experts choose the winners in a total of 20 categories.

In 2019, the Opernhaus Zürich was named «Best Opera House» in the international opera industry.

For more information, please visit https://www.oper-awards.com/en/.

January 31st 2023

Last Friday the competition «Tenor Viñas» took place at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. We warmly congratulate Yewon Han for 1st place, Ann-Kathrin Niemczyk for 3rd place and Freya Apffelstaedt for qualifying for the final of the competition! All three singers are up-and-coming artists from the International Opera Studio of the Zurich Opera House.

The competition, founded in 1963 by Jacint Vilardell in memory of the Catalan tenor Francisco Viñas, has developed into one of the most important competitions in the world of opera, oratorio and song, in which young singers from all over the world participate every year.

14 December 2022

Normal Is Something Else

Financial Report for the 2021/22 Season

For the third time in a row, the season was marked by the effects of the Corona pandemic. Once again, the Opernhaus had to face enormous challenges. The first part of the season brought the continuation of certification and mandatory masking, which officially ended on February 16, 2022. The Opernhaus extended optional masking through March 31, 2022 and returned to «normal operations» on April 1, 2022. Nevertheless, it has not been a «normal» season. The entire house was under great strain. Countless casting changes were necessary, and substitutes or still-healthy colleagues filled in for illness-caused absences. As a result of these joint efforts, not a single performance was cancelled.

While only 72 performances were allowed to take place on the main stage in the previous season, in the 2021/22 season all 248 planned performances were seen by a total of 202,518 visitors. The overall audience capacity was 83.3%. The opera division saw an audience capacity of 81.6% and the Ballett Zürich reached 93.6%. The total revenue from performances was CHF 21.296 million.

The most successful opera production was Wagner’s «Rheingold» in the interpretation of Intendant Andreas Homoki, with an audience capacity of 95.9% for nine performances. It was followed by Verdi’s «Il trovatore», the inaugural production by new General Music Director Gianandrea Noseda, with 94.8% for nine performances. The eight performances of the ballet «Dornröschen» by Christian Spuck reached 98.5%. Although this is not yet a return to a pre-pandemic state, we consider ourselves very fortunate that audiences and sponsors, patrons and friends continue to place a great amount of trust in the Opernhaus Zürich. In sponsoring, this trust was reflected at a record level: with a total of CHF 10.727 million, CHF 300,000 more revenue was generated than in the previous year.

The «pandemic» provision established in the previous season, in the amount of CHF 5.93 Mio., was used as planned in the 2021/22 season and was fully utilized. Although the Opernhaus is on a steady course, the effects of the Corona pandemic will likely still be felt in the 2022/23 season. To mitigate this, a new provision of CHF 2.49 million was established. As a result, a loss of CHF 357,588 will be posted for the 2021/22 financial year.

Chairman of the board Markus Notter:
«The 2021/22 season was a major effort, one that was rewarded in the end. We are especially proud of a feat that very few operatic stages managed to pull off: the realization of a season program without cancelling a single performance. In addition, the Opernhaus further increased its high productivity by making up for productions and events from previous seasons that were cancelled due to the Corona pandemic. The open air event «Oper für alle» took place twice in the 2021/22 season, once at the beginning of the season with «Salome» – still under Corona restrictions – and again at the end, with a performance of the ballet «Dornröschen» attended by 12,000 individuals. Two particularly important artistic milestones for Opernhaus Zürich were the successful inauguration of Gianandrea Noseda as new General Music Director and the birth of a new Zurich «Ring des Nibelungen». This is a major project for any opera house, one that ties up all its resources and requires maximum effort.
In addition, we can be delighted about several awards. Our commissioned composition «Girl with a Pearl Earring» was named «World Premiere of the Year 2022» by the Opernwelt magazine. Furthermore, the Ballett Zürich was named «Highlight of the Year» by tanz magazine, and «Company of the Year» by Dance Europe, which also named Christian Spuck «Director of the Year».
All this would have been impossible without the tireless efforts of the staff and the constant support of audiences, sponsors and patrons of the house».

The results for the 2021/22 season can be summarized as follows:

(All figures in 1,000 CHF)