For 200 years, there has been a permanent choral ensemble at the Leipzig Opera. The theatre ambitious lawyer, Karl Theodor Küstner, was not only the person, who on August 26, 1817 opened the new "Theatre of the City of Leipzig", but also established a permanent operatic choir. Previously, Leipzig students, such as Georg Philipp Telemann (1693), had to participate as choristers and orchestral musicians, also the St. Thomas Boys Choir performed their duties in the opera from time to time, the directors were first able at the beginning of the 19th Century to resort to professional singers.
Leipzig was then a stronghold of romantic opera, and the choir played a major role in the development of the art of opera in Germany. With the opening of the new opera in 1960, the choir was formed in its current structure. Today, the ensemble has 70 members in total. The choir has influenced many great directors and conductors like Joachim Herz, Johannes Felsenstein, Franz Konwitschny, Vaclav Neumann, and Kurt Masur, just to name a few. Since 2011/12, the choir has been directed by the Italian Allesandro Zuppardo, who together with Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Ulf Schirmer, also designed the jubilee year with great chorus operas and a gala concert.
Opera highlights and celebrations
Opera lovers can therefore look forward to the premiere of Carl Maria von Weber's "Der Freischütz", directed by Christian von Götz on the 4th of March at the Opera. During the festival from the 17th to 19th of March, "Der Freischütz" will be performed again on the 18th of March. In addition, the Opera invites you to a big gala concert on the 17th of March. Here, singers will perform as a concert choir together with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, and will be conducted by Ulf Schirmer. The programme will offer a review of 200 years of Opera history, and will bring out the best of choral literature classics.
For all those interested in music research and history, you can look forward to the presentation of the "Festschrift" (on March 17, 2017, at 17.00 in the concert foyer of the Opera House), a book published by Hagen Kunze and Stephan Wünsche with the Klaus-Jürgen Kamprad Publishing House.
The celebrations will end with the Puccini opera "Turandot" (March 19, 2017), which celebrated its premiere in the autumn of 2016. And because the festival year does not end in March, opera fans will experience even more great choral operas: for example, on the 6th of May 2017, Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor", and on the 27th of May, the premiere of Charles Gounod's "The Rebel Of The King".