
“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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