Reduced to poverty by slander, a blacksmith seals a pact with the devil for seven years of work and good living. When his time is up, he outwits the messengers of Hell, only to be turned away from the gates of heaven. It is a rare treat to discover an unknown opera, all the more so when opera houses are forced to remain closed. In Ersan Mondtag’s vivid, politically charged staging, Schreker’s ‘magic opera’ enchants as a colourful cocktail of musical influences ranging from reminisces of Kurt Weill to baroque counterpoint. Co-produced with Nationaltheater Mannheim.

One of opera’s greatest depictions of impossible love, Werther is based on Goethe’s epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. Massenet thought long and hard about adapting Goethe’s story of a melancholy poet whose love for a married woman and general disaffection with the world lead to his suicide. Initially declined Opéra Comique, Werther had its premiere in Vienna in 1892. The portrayal of an artistic, brilliant and doomed young man rebelling against the establishment has resonated through the ages in music, literature, theatre and film. Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb’s new production is in safe and cinematic hands: Pier Giorgio Morandi, chief conductor Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, and the stage director, set and costume designer is Dante Ferretti. With Oscars to his credit, Ferretti has worked with some of the greatest names in cinema including Pasolini, Fellini, Zeffirelli, Scorsese to name just a few.