Johann Mattheson:
The Voice of Society

A unique opera project will come to life as a staged production at Hamburg’s St. Pauli Theater at the beginning of 2027. Centered around the Hamburg composer Johann Mattheson and his contemporaries at the Oper am Gänsemarkt, we are presenting a tailor-made pasticcio that brings almost-forgotten music back to the stage. Alongside excerpts from Mattheson’s operas "Henrico IV.", "Cleopatra", and "Boris Goudenow", audiences will discover works by Christoph Graupner, Reinhard Keiser, and Francesco Bartolomeo Conti, among others – some of them receiving their first staged performances since Mattheson’s lifetime. A practical performing edition of the music is also currently being prepared specifically for the project, transferring excerpts preserved in the composers’ original manuscripts into a modern musical notation.

In cooperation with numerous Hamburg partners, an interdisciplinary opera production of significant social relevance is taking shape, bringing together scholarship, the arts, and society. The historical power of the music will be connected with contemporary questions of diversity, inclusion, and social responsibility: What can music contribute to our society? How can it encourage people to engage in dialogue, build bridges between different perspectives, and give new voices the opportunity to be heard?

In November, the musicians of our European academy programme Balthasar NOVA will come together with the Balthasar Neumann Continuo, soloists from the Balthasar Neumann Choir, and a directing team from the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre. Under the musical direction of Andreas Küppers (harpsichord), Christoph Dangel (violoncello), and Viktoria Holenok (stage direction), they will develop the pasticcio both musically and theatrically. Following the rehearsal period, excerpts from the pasticcio will be presented specifically for schoolchildren as a children’s opera at the LIFE HAMBURG Campus on November 26, 2026. After the final rehearsals in January 2027, the complete work will be presented in three performances at the St. Pauli Theater on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn.