The world premiere of »Die Jüdin von Toledo« (The Jewish Woman of Toledo) by German composer Detlev Glanert will be a unique experience in the final season of the Semperoper’s intendant, Peter Theiler. Having already written more than a dozen operas, Detlev Glanert has made a huge contribution to recent music-theatre history.

The production is by the internationally renowned Canadian director Robert Carsen, here making his Semperoper debut.

In the five-act opera »Die Jüdin von Toledo«, the two men explore a tale of forbidden love between the Spanish King Alfonso VIII and his Jewish mistress Rahel – a drama of private passion and public duty. The work is based on the five-act play of the same name by Austrian playwright Franz Grillparzer. From this historical tragedy, Glanert has combined late Romantic sounds with traditions of the 20th century to create a singular and highly differentiated tonal language.


World premiere. Opera in five acts
Libretto by Hans-Ulrich Treichel

Performed in German with German and English supertitles

Premiere
10. February 2024,

No further performances in the current season.

Premiere cast

Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

Commissioned by the Staatsoper Dresden

Generously supported by the Semperoper Foundation

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The Jewish Woman of Toledo

Stücktrailer

The Jewish Woman of Toledo

The Jewish Woman of Toledo – Making-of (4)

Making-of

The Jewish Woman of Toledo – Making-of (2)

Equipped with numerous sketchbooks, composer Detlev Glanert creates fantastic musical worlds for the grand opera stage. Most recently for Oceane (2019) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and now for The Jewish Woman of Toledo based on the tragedy of the same name by Franz Grillparzer. In this Making-of, Detlev Glanert talks about his working methods and the process of creating his operas.
Making-of

The Jewish Woman of Toledo – Making-of (1)

We visited composer Detlev Glanert at his home in Berlin and take you back to the beginnings of the opera composition of the commissioned work The Jewish Woman of Toledo. The starting point is Franz Grillparzer's historical tragedy of the same name, which tells the forbidden love story between the Spanish King Alfonso VIII and his Jewish lover Rahel.