Of One Blood

Premiere on 10. May 2026

Composer Brett Dean. Libretto by Heather Betts based on texts by Mary Stuart, Elizabeth Tudor and other 16th century sources.

recommended for age 14 and older

Opera in two acts (2026)

In English. With surtitles in German and English. New Production.

Commissioned by the Bavarian State Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, State Opera South Australia and Garsington Opera
Co-production with The Santa Fe Opera

>>> Introductory matinee

Medienpartner

The two closely related powerful women, whose graves now lie right beside each other in London’s Westminster Abbey, were “Of One Blood”, so of the same blood. Both were of course as conceivably far apart as possible during their lives. Elizabeth I ruled for almost half a century as Queen of England and Ireland, while Mary Stuart reigned over Scotland for a quarter of a century. A bitter power struggle between the Protestant hegemony and the Catholic opposition and ultimately the pressure of parliament forced the English Queen to have Mary Stuart executed.

It is all related not only by countless history books and Friedrich Schiller’s play – it is also told by Brett Dean’s new opera, which will celebrate its world premiere at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Heather Betts found what she needed for the libretto in letters of the two queens and other 16th century sources. In her composition she condenses the spiralling claims to power, intrigues, violence and aristocratic influence, peaking over several decades, into a captivating dramaturgy of situations as the welcome structure for Brett Dean’s music. This offers sound surfaces of an immensely dynamic bandwidth, in which extremes are exhausted, whereby unconventional playing styles are also applied. Director Claus Guth will focus on the ambivalent relationship of the two women with one another and thus examine how the more than four-hundred-year-old conflict is continued to this day and is told anew again and again. Iconic settings are brought to us here in an interplay from an historical, analytically-distanced viewpoint and emotional emphasis.

Australian composer Brett Dean is already familiar to Munich audiences – his Hamlet opera accoladed as “World Premiere of the Year 2018” was also presented in the Nationaltheater, as was Testament in a Bayerisches Staatsorchester concert and Nocturnes and Night Rides for the 500th anniversary of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. Testament was also recorded on CD. Director Claus Guth has already proven his virtuoso craftsmanship at the Bayerische Staatsoper in past seasons on the basis of works and materials of the most diverse provenance. After his staging of the contemporary opera Bluthaus by Georg Friedrich Haas as part of our Ja, Mai festival won the “Best International Music Theatre Award” at the Austrian Music Theatre Awards, in 2023 the internationally active director made the Baroque opera Semele by Georg Friedrich Handel his most urgent priority with the Munich Opera Festival. More recently he dedicated his talents to a rare piece of one the Bayerische Staatsoper's “house gods” here, namely Die Liebe der Danae by Richard Strauss. Claus Guth had stage designer Etienne Pluss build his worlds, among others, for the world premiere of Violetter Schnee at Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden and for Bluthaus at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Costume designer Ursula Kudrna has also already worked with the director several times. Always a member of the team is dramaturgist Yvonne Gebauer, whether at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, at the Staatsoper Wien, the Opernhaus Zürich or with the festivals in Bayreuth and Aix-en-Provence.