Chicago Opera Theater (COT) is set to present the Chicago premiere of “Der Silbersee: Ein Wintermärchen” by Kurt Weill and text by Georg Kaiser.

Directed by COT General Director Lawrence Edelson and conducted by James Lowe in his COT debut, the new production will be performed March 4, 7 & 8 at the Studebaker Theater.

The work is presented in German with English supertitles.

The cast is led by tenor Chaz’men Williams-Ali as Severin and bass-baritone Justin Hopkins as Olim. They are joined by soprano Ariana Strahl as Fennimor, tenor Dylan Morrongiello as Lottery Agent/Baron Laur, mezzo-soprano Leah Dexter as Frau von Luber, soprano Boya Wei and mezzo-soprano Sophia Maekawa as the Shopgirls, actor Korey Simeone as the Policeman/Doctor, and tenor Sam Grosby, baritones Evan Bravos and Leroy Davis, and bass-baritone Steele Fitzwater as the Four Youths.

COT General Director Lawrence Edelson on Der Silbersee said, “When I first encountered Der Silbersee, I was struck not only by the circumstances in which it was written, but by how enduringly it speaks to our time. By cloaking a searing social critique in the language of a fairy tale, Kurt Weill and Georg Kaiser transformed political protest into poetic myth, using allegory to confront society in a moral winter. Written at a moment of profound political and ethical collapse, the work grapples with wealth inequality, the rise of fascism, and the violence of the state—forces that continue to forces that refuse to remain confined to history, resurfacing whenever societies lose their moral compass.

“What makes the piece extraordinary, however, is that it refuses to surrender to despair,” Edelson continued. “This theatrical masterpiece uncovers a profound hope—a belief that empathy and moral choice remain possible even when the world feels irreparably broken. Producing ‘Der Silbersee’ today feels both like an act of remembrance and an act of resistance. I hope our new production allows contemporary audiences to encounter the work not as a historical artifact, but as a living moral inquiry—one that asks us, what kind of society we are choosing or allowing ourselves to become.”

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