Staatsoper Unter den Linden: Elisabeth Sobotka becomes the new director | News and criticism | Classic B

From Bregenz to Berlin: The current director of the Bregenz Festival will go to Staatsoper Unter den Linden. From September 2024, Elisabeth Sobotka will be the artistic director of the traditional Berlin opera house, which she already knows well.

“A highly qualified, internationally experienced and passionate cultural director who has been associated with Staatsoper Unter den Linden for a long time” – this is how the Berlin Culture Senator, Klaus Lederer, praised Elizabeth Sobotka, who was born in Vienna.

Experienced opera woman

The 56-year-old is looking forward to her future in Berlin, because it is the city where she says she would like to live and do opera. It feels like homecoming for Sobotka, because she is very familiar to Lindenoper: for five years – from 2002 to 2007 – she worked there as an opera director. In addition to the Bregenz Festival, Sobotka also worked at the Leipzig Opera and the Vienna State Opera, then was the managing director of the Graz Opera until 2015.

Here is a good collaboration with Daniel Barenboim

Sobotka is especially looking forward to working again with General Director of Music Daniel Barenboim, whom she had already appreciated during her tenure as director of the opera – for her at the time it was a “very interesting and fruitful collaboration”.

Barenboim is also pleased to appoint Sobotka as the new director: “She is committed, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and extremely versatile in her artistic thinking,” praises the conductor.

The article was created with materials from dpa.

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