Berlin opera lovers know to expect the unexpected, but staging Aribert Reimann’s brutal avant-garde masterpiece Lear inside a massive airplane hangar? That’s next-level.
Komische Oper kicked off its season inside Hangar 4 at the former Tempelhof Airport—and turned a cavernous industrial shell into an existential battlefield.
Directed by Barrie Kosky, this version of Shakespeare's tragedy is a high-octane, 140-minute sprint without an intermission. The staging immediately defies expectations: instead of medieval velvet, the royals start out looking like sleek, corporate elites trapped in a stark, glowing white square. The audience sits in two grandstands facing each other across the arena, with the orchestra stacked high on the flanks.
When King Lear demands flattery from his daughters and Cordelia refuses, a tiny crack opens in the world—and the entire system spirals into chaos.
Aribert Reimann’s 1978 score is a relentless, ear-piercing storm of dissonance and modern electronics. Under Nicholas Carter’s baton, the Orchestra of the Komische Oper filled the hangar with sound that felt both terrifyingly close and overwhelmingly vast. As the plot devolved into civil war, madness, and blinding grief, Kosky stripped the characters down—literally leaving the fallen rulers in their underwear as their empires evaporated.
Edgar’s striking transformation into "Poor Tom" with a bold, sparkling queer aesthetic added a poignant touch of modern humanity to the ancient myth.
It was loud, fierce, and entirely unforgettable—proof that when Berlin takes its opera out of the theater, magic (and a little bit of madness) happens.
Foto: Monika Rittershaus
