Even in the sweltering heat, the Berlin series of events “State Opera for All” has once again attracted thousands to Bebelplatz next to the State Opera on Unter den Linden.
The Staatskapelle and the meanwhile 87-year-old Zubin Mehta at the conductor’s desk were frenetically celebrated on Sunday evening. On a stage in the square next to the opera house, they played the overture to “Rienzi” by Richard Wagner and Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony in front of the audience, who sat on blankets or cushions, chairs they had brought or rented.
The State Opera estimated the number of visitors on Sunday at around 21,000.
On Saturday evening, an estimated 12,000 people gave enthusiastic applause for Giuseppe Verdi’s “Don Carlo” in a production by Philipp Himmelmann.
Verdi’s adaptation of Friedrich Schiller’s story about futile love between political intrigues and the Inquisition was transferred from the opera house directly to a screen on the square that used to be called Opernplatz. The performance was under the musical direction of Daniele Rustioni.
