The Berlin State Opera has announced a new Artistic Director.

The company noted that Elisabeth Sobotka will become the company’s new Artistic Director starting September 2024. She will succeed Matthias Schulz, who will take over Zürich Opera House.

Sobotka who is also artistic director of the Bregenz Festival, said of her appointment, “It is a great honor for me to be able to take over this great house, so rich in tradition. Berlin is the city where I want to live and create opera. I know and appreciate the possibilities of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, and I feel an inspiring mixture of departure and ‘coming home.'”

Schulz noted, “I wish Elisabeth Sobotka the best and am sure that the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, into which I put so much heart and soul, will continue to be in very good hands with her in the future! It’s been five years since we moved back into the renovated building, a good rhythm has now set in and the path we have taken for an open, accessible, experimental, and also younger institution can continue.”

Finally, Music Director Daniel Barenboim said, “I have known and appreciated Elisabeth Sobotka for many years. Her time as opera director at the State Opera was characterized by a very gratifying and fruitful collaboration, and I am therefore looking forward to Ms. Sobotka’s assumption of office with great pleasure. I have followed her path with interest over the past few years. She is engaging, knowledgeable, enthusiastic and extremely versatile in her artistic thinking. In addition, I really appreciate her collegial nature and leadership style. She is passionate about opera and music and as a director is a stroke of luck for the State Opera.”