The Saxon State Opera Chorus
The State Opera Chorus is closely involved in all the various activities of Saxon State Opera, helping us maintain our musical heritage while meeting current artistic responsibilities and facing the challenges of the future.
Jan Hoffmann has directed the chorus since the 2024/25 season.
Between 2013 and 2021, the Saxon State Opera Chorus was, together with the Staatskapelle Dresden, a permanent guest at the Salzburg Easter, whose artistic director was Christian Thielemann.
The chorus was particularly shaped by its collaboration with conductor Giuseppe Sinopoli, who considered the artistic potential of the vocal ensemble to be far from exhausted. The State Opera Chorus went from strength to strength, as documented in its numerous CD productions. In the years following Sinopoli’s sudden death, the ensemble worked continuously to successfully consolidate this artistic flowering.
Over the centuries, outstanding figures have carefully developed the State Opera Chorus’s unique tonal quality, always with an eye to the ensemble’s venerable artistic traditions. Vocal homogeneity, tonal elegance, masterful piano singing with simultaneous density and fullness of sound are the basic characteristics of the Saxon State Opera Chorus.
The foundation of the Dresden Opera Chorus on 8 October 1817 by the royal decree of Friedrich August I was largely due to the efforts of Carl Maria von Weber. On his appointment as Royal Kapellmeister in 1817, he was charged with establishing a German-language opera department to complement the Italian opera traditionally performed in Dresden. Weber called for the establishment of a ”permanent theatre chorus“ to meet the considerable demands of the new opera repertoire which was now to be created.
Master’s degree in choral performance
In cooperation with the Semperoper, the Master’s degree programme “Choir” at Dresden’s College of Music gives participants the chance of a paid internship at the Saxon State Opera Chorus during their studies.
Inform
Contact
Sächsische Staatstheater – Semperoper Dresden
Vorstand Staatsopernchor
Theaterplatz 2
01067 Dresden
Chorvorstand Gabriele Berke (Vorsitzende),
Heike Wommelsdorff, Holger Steinert
E-Mail chorvorstand@semperoper.de
Application
Sächsische Staatstheater – Semperoper Dresden
Chordirektion
Theaterplatz 2
01067 Dresden
Tel +49 351 4911 621
E-Mail ingolf.stollberg@semperoper.de