Festspielhaus Hellerau brings stars to the stage

The European Center for the Arts at the Dresden Festspielhaus will also be bringing stars to the stage in the coming season. Despite the extremely difficult budget situation, it has once again succeeded in offering an extraordinary program with great commitment and strong third-party funding, announced artistic director Carena Schlewitt. The city of Dresden had cut Hellerau's subsidy for material costs by almost 30 percent.

Classic minimal music comes to the stage

50 years after the world premiere of Philip Glass' opera "Einstein on the Beach", the monumental work of minimal music will be performed in Hellerau in May 2026 with US singer Suzanne Vega, the Ictus Ensemble from Brussels and the legendary Collegium Vocale Gent.

To mark the 100th birthday of US painter Nancy Spero, a chamber music project will connect the Nancy Spero Hall in the Festspielhaus Hellerau with a subway station in New York (April 2026). As a tribute to the 150th anniversary of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, director Achim Freyer is developing a project in cooperation with conductor Dennis Russell Davies that will create Wagner's "Ring without Words" - an orchestral cross-section by Lorin Maazel.

East wing of Hellerau expands possibilities

With the opening of the Small Hall in the east wing of Hellerau, the European Center for the Arts can expand its spatial and programmatic possibilities. From now on, the local scene will be more closely involved here. The thematic focus "Transformation Forever" takes a look from Dresden at the social upheavals of the 1990s in Central and Eastern Europe and their after-effects on today's art and culture.

Dance Platform Germany to visit Dresden

In 2026, Dresden will become the stage for the Dance Platform Germany, which presents current developments and innovative trends in contemporary dance every two years. One of the venues is Hellerau.

The Festspielhaus Hellerau was built in 1911/12 to a design by Heinrich Tessenow. With its functional design, it was considered a pioneer of modernism. The Swiss composer Émile Jaques-Dalcroze founded an educational institute for rhythm and movement here and quickly made the leafy suburb of Dresden famous. The First World War put an end to the glorious times. During the Nazi era, the police and the Wehrmacht used the Festspielhaus, and after the Second World War, the Soviet army moved in. The renovation of the building from 2004 until its reopening in 2006 cost twelve million euros.