A History of German Guilt. Milo Rau meets Richard Wagner

THE FLYING DUTCHMAN

On 24 October, what is arguably the most eagerly anticipated opera of the season will premiere: Milo Rau tackles Richard Wagner’s Flying Dutchman! A road movie through the history of German Guilt, from World War II to the current war in Gaza.

Wagner’s Flying Dutchman is cursed to sail forever, never landing, never absolved. Milo Rau puts an entire nation on that ship: Germany!

The result is a road movie through the most charged relationship in world history: the relationship between Germany and Israel.

Before a single note was rehearsed, Rau went on a research journey through Israel and the occupied territories, talking to the people this history has shaped.

From the Holocaust to the antisemitism debates that divide Germany’s cultural life: Is German Guilt a duty, an alibi, or a weapon? Can it become responsibility?

All of it plays out inside the most iconic of German operas, on the stage of one of its most iconic houses. And it arrives as the far right surges back in Germany and anger at Israeli politics spreads across the globe.

„A scandal in the waiting.“ (The Guardian)

„Rau breaks the greatest taboos of all: embracing complexity“ (Haaretz)

📅 Date: 24 October 2026
🕖 Time: 18:00
📍 Venue: Deutsche Oper Berlin

With Aušrinė Stundytė and Tomasz Konieczny, conducted by Giedrė Šlekytė.