Overview of all festivals 2025/2026

Since The Snow Queen was premiered in 2015, the ballet ensemble of the National Opera of Ukraine in Kiev has repeatedly presented the work in Ukraine and abroad, in recent years increasingly as a sign of resistance and self-empowerment. Despite the difficult living and working conditions, the company pursues their artistic passion and works on maintaining something like a day-to-day life, in this way acting as a perfect ambassador for their home country. 

At Takeover, it is all about dreaming, inventing, dancing, and above all trying things out. For the future. For the spirit of togetherness. For music. With stunning acts and exciting workshops in a stylish atmosphere. Give it a try at Takeover!

In 2026, the Easter Festival Baden-Baden will welcome Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and the National Youth Orchestra of Germany. Baden-Baden looks back on a long tradition of "music of the world" and of proactively fostering cultural heritage. With Richard Wagner's Lohengrin, Bach's St. Matthew Passion, and Britten's War Requiem, a new generation of exciting artists interprets masterpieces of European music history. We can look forward to conductor Joana Mallwitz, conductor Klaus Mäkelä, and soloists Hélène Grimaud (piano), mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča, Piotr Beczała as Lohengrin, Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Elsa, and young violin virtuoso Daniel Lozakovich. When spring awakens in Baden-Baden and the Easter holidays promise a festive mood and enjoyment, the music world comes together to experience hot springs and the Festspielhaus featuring operas, oratorios, exquisite chamber music, and monuments of the symphonic literature. We look forward to welcoming you! Once again, we are committed to world-class artists and the future of classical music!

Der Rosenkavalier is a waltz opera! It doesn't matter that during the Rococo period the Viennese danced to minuets. Or that the Viennese element in Der Rosenkavalier is an artistic language invented by Hugo von Hofmannsthal – the poet's libretto is already a work of art in itself. And then the music! Contemporary audiences were so enthusiastic that special trains were arranged to take them to the first performances. The opera inaugurates the Whitsun Festival, sung by dream voices down to the smallest role. In this concert-version performance, the SWR Symphonieorchester shines under chief conductor François-Xavier Roth. And after Der Rosenkavalier? Music from the fin de siècle and Rococo eras. In addition, between minuets and waltzes we will be hearing swinging jazz arrangements. Strauss, we’re sure, would be delighted by this rose bouquet. 

The Enlightenment celebrated the "aha moment." A whispered "ah!" sufficed for the Romantics. A loving gaze, sunlight in the morning dew – an expression of wonder when the world shows itself from an unexpected side. Immortalized in notes: the horn call in Schubert's “Great” Symphony in C major or the pedal solo of the invisible organ that opens the "Unfinished." Yannick Nézet-Séguin is devoting the first half of the Summer Festival to this kind of Romantic magic – together with renowned soloists and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. The artists will present music by Weber, Mendelssohn, and Schubert in its truest light – sometimes dazzling, more often muted. For lovers of grand musical cathedrals, the London Symphony Orchestra performs music by Wagner and Rachmaninoff. And finally a joyous "ah!" and "oh!" – at the meeting of the starsfeaturing Zubin Mehta, Daniel Hope, and Pinchas Zukerman. 

A ruler who loses himself in illusions – to sounds by a king of ballet music who was himself often unhappily in love. Tchaikovsky's brilliant score of Swan Lake, together with the work of imperial choreographer Marius Petipa, paved the way for ballet to reach the hearts of a wide audience. John Neumeiers in-depth study of the classics by both masters thus turned into a tribute to ballet as such. Even The Nutcracker is more than a children's fairy tale, as we see in the literary original by E. T. A. Hoffmann. Being young was never idyllic. And his choreographic narrative is also about the transition from youth to adulthood. Experience new stories choreographed by young dancers in this year’s edition of Absprung. And the Bundesjugendballett is also back – as well as an evening featuring WINNDance. WINNDance was co-founded by the wonderful Marijn Rademaker, the Stuttgart Iago from Neumeiers Othello ballet. These kinds of formats are the future of our craft. Come and enjoy our ballet festival.

“O friends, no more of these sounds! Let us sing more cheerful songs, more full of joy!” These words open the vocal part in the finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Did similar thoughts cross the mind of French composer Gabriel Fauré? In any case, in his Requiem he refrains from strongly dramatic passages, interpreting the traditional mass of the dead in a different way: lyrically, melodically, comfortingly. It is an immensely popular work – people appreciate music that approaches them in a human way. Things turn superhuman, as always, with Johann Sebastian Bach and his Brandenburg Concertos, archaic in Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, moving in Shostakovich's Violin Concerto. Here at the Festspielhaus, Autumn dazzles with many colors – along with the Balthasar Neumann ensembles, the Utopia Orchestra and Teodor Currentzis will also be joining us for this year’s festival.  

A triad for Christmas: with Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Mozart's Magic Flute, and Bach's Christmas Oratorio, we truly can’t wait for the big holiday. The Winter Festival invites us to stop and reflect – and awakens collective memories: of our first Magic Flute with our grandparents, of the "ahs" and "ohs" on seeing the White Act in Swan Lake, of going to church to hear Bach's festive oratorio. Create new and fresh memories with your friends, children, and grandchildren! We are supplying the very best artists: the National Ballet Bratislava with Nureyev's virtuoso version of Swan Lake in a magnificent staging. It will be followed by Iván Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra, ensuring the highest quality and a musical voice all their own. All splendid gift ideas – help yourself!