Dance | Exhibitions | Festivals | Film | Opera | Theatre


Dance

"The Sandman". Ballet by Christian Spuck based on the story by E.T.A. Hoffman. Stuttgart Ballet, intermittently April - June 2006.


Exhibitions

"The Revelation of Love. Simeon Solomon and the Preraffaelites". Exhibiting paitings of the all-but-forgotten member of the Preraffaelites for the first time in one hundred years. Museum Villa Stuck in Munich, until July 18, 2006.

"Egypt's Sunken Treasures". With over 2,000 years of finds from the Egyptian Mediterranean. Martin Gropius Bau. in Berlin. Until September 4, 2006.

"mama johnny", exhibition of the work of Jonathan Meese. With a total of around 150 paintings, sculptures, photographic works and installations this show is the first comprehensive display of Jonathan Meese’s work in Germany. At the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg until September 3, 2006.

"Caspar David Friedrich: Inventor of Romanticism". Museum Folkwang Essen, Until August 20.

"Psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud at 150". On May 6, 2006, Sigmund Freud would have turned 150. With the development of psychoanalysis, he fundamentally changed the way we think about ourselves. Jewish Museum Berlin, until August 27, 2006.

"Zero: International artistic avant-gardes of the 50s and 60s". Museum Kunst Palast in Dusseldorf until July 9, 2006.

"Hans Holbein the Younger: The Years in Basle 1515 - 1532". kunstmuseum basel, until July 2, 2006.

"Of Mice and Men", the exhibition of the 4th Berlin Biennale runs until May 28. With over 70 artists in 12 locations all along the Auguststrasse.

"Mozart. The Enlightenment: An Experiment". The official exhibition in celebration of the Mozart year in the Albertina in Vienna, until September 20.

"rarrk. John Mawurndjul." A journey through north Australia at the Sprengel Museum in Hanover until June 5.

"Louise Bourgeois. La Famille". Exhibition on the French artist at the Kunsthalle in Bielefeld, until June 5.

No less than three exhibitions in Frankfurt are now paying tribute to German painter Max Beckmann. At the Schirn Kunsthalle, the Städel Museum and the Museum für Moderne Kunst.

"Monika Baer - Paintings and Drawings 1992-2005". At the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, until June 10.

"Joe Colombo – Inventing the Future". Televisions that retract into the ceiling, pivoting walls with a built-in mini-bar – the works of Italian designer Joe Colombo could have emerged from the set of a contemporary James Bond film. Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, until September 10, 2006.

"Urban Islam. Between Mobile and Koran". Museum der Kulturen in Basel, until July 2, 2006.


Festivals

"Interplay ! Berlin". Free Jazz & Improvisation in film, art and music. A follow-up to the regularly held Workshop Freie Musik at the Akademie der Künste, Interplay! Berlin extends the format to various genres of all arts with the common denominators of improvised music and instant composing. With an exciting array of concerts, films and workshops. Akademie der Künste, Berlin. June 2 - 5, 2006.


Film

"Building the Gherkin". Switzerland 2005. Prize-winning documentary reportage by Mirjam von Arx. Exactly one month and one day after the attack on New York's World Trade Center, the first steel girder of a new skyscraper is heaved into position in London. But is it right to put up such a building in the middle of London?

"Low Profile". Germany, 2005. Drama by Christoph Hochhäusler. Job interviews are something of a leitmotiv in this film. But instead of writing yet another job application, Armin writes a letter to the police, claiming responsibility for a car accident in which a banker was killed.

"The Sounds of Silents". Germany / Czech Republic, 2005. Documentary by Ilona Ziok on silent film pianist Willy Sommerfeld, born 1904.

"Urban Guerillas". Germany, 2003. Drama by Neco Celik. A coming-of-age story in the Berlin's HipHop world.

"Workingman's Death". Austria / Germany, 2005. Documentary by Michael Glawogger. Is the working class dying out? Is heavy labour disappearing or just becoming invisible? The film goes in pursuit of the world's worst jobs.

"Zulu Love Letter". South Africa / France / Germany, 2004. Drama by Ramadan Suleman. Journalist Thandeka Khumalo is distraught by feelings of guilt. Her child was born deaf as a result of her being mistreated while imprisoned under Apartheid. Her daughter, for her part, hopes to find her mother's acceptance with a Zulu love letter.

"Moolaadé". Senegal / France / Burkina Faso / Morocco / Cameroon / Tunesia, 2004. Drama by Ousmane Sembène. Four girls who refused to submit to female circumcision seek the protection of Collé, who refused to let her own daughter be circumcised.

"Schläfer" (Sleeper). Austria / Germany, 2005. Drama by Benjamin Heisenberg. Johannes is new in the biology department. He is asked by the German CIA equivalent to spy on his Algerian fellow student. He refuses, but can never see Farid through the same eyes. Winner of the Max Ophüls Prize in 2006.

"Aaltra". France / Belgium, 2004. Dramatic comedy written and acted by Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kevern. During a brawl, the two heroes become trapped under a falling Aaltra tractor. Now in wheelchairs, they hitch-hike to Finnland to sue the tractor manufacturer. On their way north, the journey becomes a laconic review of abstruse situations.

"We feed the world". Austria, 2005. Food documentary by Erwin Wagenhofer. The most successful Austrian documentary ever.

"Something like Happiness". Czech Republic / Germany, 2005. Drama by Bohdan Sláma. Winner at festivals in San Sebastian, Montreal, Athens, Angers and Cottbus.

"That Man: Peter Berlin". USA 2005. Documentation by Jim Tushinski on model, photographer, actor and artistic legend Peter Berlin, director of "Nights in Black Leather" (1973) and "That Boy" (1974).

"Reine Formsache" (Germany, 2006) Ralf Huettner's romantic comedy about three couples who are in love, but don't have the courage to admit it.

"Spiele leben" (you bet your life) Austria, 2005. Antonin Svoboda's debut film is a charming, abrasive and dirty portrayal gambling addiction in the underbelly of Vienna.

"Ceský sen" - (the Czech Dream). Czech Republic, 2004. Directed by Vít Klusák, Filip Remunda. A film about the biggest consumer swindle ever to take place in the Czech Republic. A witty and provocative take on the rising consumer madness in post-communist society.

"Im Schwitzkasten" (In the sauna). Germany, 2005. Comedy by Eoin Moore. Every Thursday, an eclectic group of friends meet in a Berlin sauna for a convivial sweat and chat about the little and not so little things that make up vastly different lives.

"Aus der Ferne" (From Far Away). Germany, 2005. Documentary by Thomas Arslan. The director travelled through Turkey in early summer 2005, through Istanbul and ankara to Gaziantep in the south, and as far as the border with Iran.

"Das Leben der Anderen" (The life of others). Germany, 2005. Drama by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. East Berlin, 1984. Line-toeing Stasi officer Gerhard Wiesler is entrusted with spying on a successful playwright and his actress girlfriend. But he hadn't reckoned on the changes the assignment would have on his own life.


Opera

"Der Schwarze Mönch", (The black monk) opera by Philippe Hersant, based on the story by Anton Chekhov. Directed by Tatjana Gürbaca at the Leipzig Opera.

"Die Entführung aus dem Serail", by Mozart. Burgtheater in Vienna.

"Dead Man Walking". Opera by Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally, based on the novella by Sister Helen Prejean. Commissioned by the San Francisco Opera. At the Semperoper, or Sächsische Staatsoper, in Dresden.

"La Forza del Destino", opera by Giuseppe Verdi, at the Stadttheater Bern.

"Il Sogno di Scipione" (Scipio's Dream). Mozart's dramatic serenade in one act. Stadttheater Klagenfurt.

"Endstation Sehnsucht". Opera by Andre Previn, adapted from Tennessee Williams' play. At Landestheater Eisenach until May 4th.

"Der Drache" by Jewgeni Schwarz has opened at the Deutsches Nationaltheater in Weimar. A fairytale was written during the last world war, its message is political.

"Euryanthe" by Carl Maria von Weber. Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden.

"Death in Venice" by Benjamin Briten. Based on the novel by Thomas Mann. Frankfurt Opera.

"Orest", by Georg Friedrich Handel. Directed by Sebastian Baumgarten at the Komische Oper in Berlin.

"Don Giovanni" by Mozart. Directed by film and stage director Andreas Dresen, whose "Summer in Berlin" is now playing in the cinemas. Theater Basel.

Two Austrian opera houses boast productions of Mozart's "Idomeneo": The Theater an der Wien in Vienna (intermittently in February and June 2006), and the Grazer Oper in Graz.


Theatre

"The Taming of the Shrew". Frank Hoffmann's staging at the Ruhrfestspiele as a live comic strip. "When Petruchio (well played by Siemen Rühaak) conquers the shrew, the scene slides into the slow motion showdown of a gangster film." Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, Until May 14.

"Les mains salles", by Jean-Paul Sartre. Thalia Theater in Hamburg.

"Das Grosse Fressen" . Dimiter Gotscheff's stage adaptation of the seventies film "Blow-out" at the Berlin Volksbühne.

"Union des Theatres de l'Europe". Theatre festival with performances from Riga, Barcelona, Rome, London, Budapest, Porto and Frankfurt. Until May 4, 2006 at the Schauspiel in Frankfurt.

"Die Vaterlosen" (Platonov) by Anton Chekhov. Directed by Stefan Pucher at the Volksbühne in Berlin.

"Brennende Finsternis". Drama dealing with the Franco dictatorship. Written in jail in 1946 by Spanish author Antonio Buero-Vallejos, directed by Alvis Hermanis. At the Schauspielhaus Zürich.

"The Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekhov, directed by Barbara Frey. Deutsches Theater in Berlin.

"Rose Bernd" by Gerhart Hauptmann. Directed by Michael Thalheimer ("the Quentin Tarantino of the German stage") at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg.

"Mourning becomes Electra" by Eugene O'Neill. Directed by Thomas Ostermeier at the Schaubühne in Berlin.

"The Belle Vue" by Ödon von Horvath, directed by Martin Kusej. Schauspielhaus Hamburg.

"In the Jungle of the Cities" by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Frank Castorf at the Volksbühne in Berlin.

"The Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekhov, directed by Lars-Ole Walburg at the Kammerspiele in Munich.

"The Killing Game" by Eugene Ionesco. At the Schauspiel in Frankfurt.