Farewell to Artistic Director Tobias Wolff: Leipzig Opera enjoys a successful end to the season

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Following the final performance of Handel’s *Giulio Cesare in Egitto*, the Leipzig Opera held a ceremonial farewell for its artistic director, Tobias Wolff, on Saturday 27 June. This was followed by a reception at the Musikalische Komödie on 28 June. As the season draws to a close, the Leipzig Opera can look back on a positive year: in the 2025/2026 season, more than 184,000 audience members attended 398 performances at the Leipzig Opera, with attendance figures rising further to 75 per cent.

“I am delighted with the tremendous response to my final season – particularly as we deliberately took artistic risks with the world premiere of ‘Coming Up for Air’ and the Lortzing Festival,” says Artistic Director Tobias Wolff.

“My team and I are particularly proud of the continued development of the Musical Comedy. We simply could not have accommodated such a large number of fans in the old MuKo. And the narrative ballets by the Leipzig Ballet, under the direction of Rémy Fichet, are proving a hit with audiences.”

The 2025/26 season is Tobias Wolff’s fourth and final season as Artistic Director of the Leipzig Opera. Since taking up his post in 2022, he has shaped the company through dedicated work on the repertoire and with the ensemble, new outreach formats, a clear commitment to artistic diversity and the consistent promotion of young vocal talent.

Highlights of his tenure include, amongst others, the major open-air event ‘Future Now!’ to mark the start of his term of office and the commission for ‘Coming Up for Air’, which will have its world premiere in spring 2026, as well as major collaborations, including with opera houses in Paris and Rome.

The theatre repositioned

He successfully concluded the search for new musical directors for the opera and operetta departments with the appointment of Ivan Repušić as General Music Director, Yura Yang as Principal Conductor and Michael Nündel as Music Director of Musical Comedy.

Tobias Wolff also initiated a shift at the Leipzig Ballet towards artistic and curatorial leadership under Rémy Fichet, with the aim of providing a platform for a diverse range of choreographic styles. In addition, the Leipzig Opera’s sustainability efforts have received multiple awards and certifications. The first production developed in accordance with sustainability criteria, ‘Mary, Queen of Scots’, was funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation and nominated for the International Opera Awards.

The Leipzig Opera presents a retrospective of Tobias Wolff’s four-year tenure as artistic director, from summer 2022 to the present day, in a special edition of its magazine “Dreiklang”, which was unveiled to the public on Saturday.

This ‘Dreiklang Special’ looks back on key moments, achievements, productions and artistic milestones of the team led by Artistic Director Tobias Wolff – and on the artists who graced the stages of the Leipzig Opera during this period. The PDF is available to download from the Leipzig Opera’s website at www.oper-leipzig.de.

With the festive farewells held over the weekend, Tobias Wolff brings his tenure as Artistic Director of the Leipzig Opera to a close. On 1 August 2026, he will take up the post of General Director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig. His duties in Leipzig will be taken over by Administrative Director Lydia Schubert as Acting Artistic Director until his successor, Peter Heilker, takes up his post at the start of the 2028/29 season.