Komische Oper Berlin Turns ‘Don Giovanni’ Into a Requiem

The comic operation, based on all repertoire companies in the awkward relationship between the living and the dead, is on the way to selling 92 percent of their tickets this season, an enviable figure for any house. In 2024, it was appointed Opera House of the Year in the International Opera Awards in Munich.

But the state of Berlin, which is the largest founder in the house, is abruptly reducing cultural spending, threatening the continuous renewal of the company’s house and its annual operational budget.

This season, those cuts have already led to the cancellation of a premiere, or an operetta adaptation of Eastern Germany of “the importance of being seriousness” by Oscar Wilde. In the production of Serebrennikov, Leporello holds a sign in the second act of “Don Giovanni” drying that the aria of a tenor “was unfortunate due to the reduction of Berlin’s cultural budget.” On the opening night, the audience members cheered and applauded.

“We are not saved in any way or form,” Gaffigan said. “We are fighting for our survival. From year to year, we don’t know what will happen.” In a statement sent by email in German, Christopher Suss, a spokesman for the city’s cultural department, said that “construction will not stop” in the house renewal project and emphasized that “the closing of this unique opera is out of search.”

I would comment more cuts because the city budget is in the negotiating process. On Friday, the main politician of Berlin’s culture, Joe Chialo, resigned from his post; His renunciation letter presented his opposition to the planned fortifications cuts that, he warned, “would lead to the imminent closure of national cultural institutions.”

“I’ve never seen anything like that, where a company is so good, and we are terrified by our own existence,” Gaffigan said. “Doing as well as we are doing, I thought the comic operation would always be there. And one night you wake up and realize,” maybe not. “