THE FLYING DUTCHMAN to Premiere Directed by Milo Rau
Director Milo Rau transforms Wagner's opera into an exploration of historical guilt and contemporary conflict.
Milo Rau's production of Richard Wagner's THE FLYING DUTCHMAN will premiere at Deutsche Oper Berlin on 24 October. Rau frames the opera as a road movie through the history of German guilt, from World War II to the current war in Gaza.
Wagner's Flying Dutchman is cursed to sail forever, never landing, never absolved. Milo Rau puts an entire nation on that ship: Germany. The result is a road movie through what is described as the most charged relationship in world history: the relationship between Germany and Israel.
Before a single note was rehearsed, Rau went on a research journey through Israel and the occupied territories, talking to the people this history has shaped.
The production moves from the Holocaust to the antisemitism debates that divide Germany's cultural life, asking whether German guilt is a duty, an alibi, or a weapon, and whether it can become responsibility. It plays out inside the most iconic of German operas, on the stage of one of its most iconic houses, arriving as the far right surges back in Germany and anger at Israeli politics spreads across the globe.
Event Details
Date: 24 October 2026
Time: 18:00
Venue: Deutsche Oper Berlin
The production stars Aušrinė Stundytė and Tomasz Konieczny, conducted by Giedrė Šlekytė.
Photo Credit: Moritz von Dungern
Photo Credit: Moritz von Dungern
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