“The powerhouse of emotions wouldn’t be much without a high-performance chorus”, commented Albrecht Thiemann in Opernwelt Magazine – and so it is. The chorus forms an important and integral part of a successful opera performance: equally at home in new productions and in their enormous repertoire, the Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin performs around 35 titles over the course of the season, from the great Wagner operas such as “Lohengrin” and “Tannhäuser” for which they are particularly renowned, to world premieres such as Detlev Glanert’s recent International Opera Award-winning “Oceane”.
The Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, one of the world great theatre choruses, has been led over the years by a number of renowned directors. Alongside Walter Hagen-Groll, an enormous influence for over two decades after the current house opened in 1961, names such as Ernst Senff, Marcus Creed and William Spaulding feature prominently on the roster. The ensemble was recently named Opernwelt Magazine’s Chorus of the Year three times and enjoyed rave reviews for its guest performances of “Tannhäuser” and Verdi’s “Requiem” at the BBC Proms.
Since the 2017/2018 season, the Chorus Director has been Jeremy Bines, formerly Chorus Master of Glyndebourne, under whose leadership the Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin won extensive praise for their performance of “Das Wunder der Heliane”, “Le prophète”, and other large-scale works. The Chorus played key roles in Deutsche Oper Berlin’s monumental Meyerbeer cycle (the last one completed just before lockdown in 2020), and in the 2021 Grammy-nominated DVD of Zemlinsky’s “Der Zwerg”. The Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin was proud to be nominated as Chorus of the Year at the International Opera Awards 2021.