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“The ingenuities of the Basel production would count for little were it not so well conducted… Thomas Wise’s musical direction was idiomatic and pointed; he knew how to keep orchestra and chorus coordinated and precise…”

-David Savran, Kurt Weill Newsletter, Spring 2023, writing about Kurt Weill’s “Lady in the Dark” at Theater Basel

Conductor and Musical Director of the Opera Department, Theater Basel

Recent highlights include the world premiere of Jerrick Bischoff’s Andersen’s Erzählungen (book and lyrics by Jan Dvorak, directed by Philipp Stölzl) with the Basel Sinfonietta at Theater Basel, performances of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in Basel and Andermatt, and a gala concert honoring Edda Moser at Teatro Poliziano in Montepulciano.

The 2023–24 season featured engagements such as the world premiere of Herbert Grönemeyer’s musical comedy Pferd Frisst Hut with the Basel Symphony Orchestra (staged by Herbert Fritsch), the revival of Verdi’s Rigoletto (staged by Vincent Huguet), and repertoire performances of Bizet’s Carmen (directed by Constanza Macras), all at Theater Basel. Additionally, the season included a performance at the Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau.

In the 2024–25 season, performances included Pferd Frisst Hut at the Ruhrtriennale festival, a new production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods (directed by Martin G. Berger), a revival of Carmen (directed by Constanza Macras) at Theater Basel, and Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion at Klavierissimo 2025.

The upcoming 2025–26 season will feature the world premiere of Grand Finale (music by Christoph Israel, book by Jan Dvorak, directed by Philipp Stölzl), along with performances of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (directed by Simon McBurney) and Kurt Weill’s Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny in a production by Benedikt von Peter. This season also introduces a new production of Georg Kreisler’s one‑woman cabaret‑musical Heute Abend: Lola Blau, featuring Delia Mayer under the scenic direction of Tilman aus dem Siepen.

Opera repertoire

Ades – Powder Her Face

Beethoven – Fidelio

Bellini – La Sonnambula

Benatzky – Im Weißen Rössl

Berg – Lulu, Wozzeck

Berio – La Vera Storia

Bernstein – Candide

Bizet – Carmen

Bizet – Les Pecheurs des Perles

Bock – Fiddler on the Roof

Britten – A Midsummernight´s Dream

Delibes – Lakmé

Donizetti – Don Pasquale, L´Elisir d´Amore, Lucia di Lammermoor

Dvorak – Rusalka

Gluck – Orfée et Euridice

Gounod – Faust

Händel – Alcina, Belshazzar, Jephtha

Händel – Rinaldo

Hartmann – Simplicius Simplicissimus

Henze – We come to the River

Hindemith – Cardillac, Trilogie* (Mord, Hoffnung der Frauen, Sancta Susanna,Das Nusch-Nuschi)

Humperdinck – Hänsel und Gretel

J. Strauss – Die Fledermaus

Janacek – Katja Kabanová

Kagel – Der Mündliche Verrat

Lortzing – Der Wildschütz

Massenet – Thaiis

Milhaud – À propos de bottes, Un peu d’exercice

Mozart – Cosí fan tutte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Don Giovanni, Idomeneo

La Finta Giardiniera, Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte

Poulenc – Dialogues des Carmelites

Prokofiev – Die Liebe zu den Drei Orangen

Puccini – La Bohème, Madame Butterfly, Tosca

Puccini – Manon Lescaut, Turandot

Rossini – Il Barbiere di Seviglia*, L´Italiana in Algeri

R. Strauss – Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, Salome

Schleiermacher – Kokain

Schreker – Der Ferne Klang

Strawinsky – The Rake´s Progress

Tschaikowsky – Evgeny Onegin, Pique Dame

Verdi – Giovanna d´Arco

Verdi- Un Ballo in Maschera, Don Carlo, La Forza del

Destino, Otello, La Traviata, Rigoletto, Jerusalem

Vivaldi: Orlando

Wagner – Lohengrin, Parsifal,Tannhäuser

Wagner – Tristan und Isolde

Weber – Der Freischütz

Weill – Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny

Weill - Lady in the Dark

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