German opera, ballet and theatre organisation Theater Dortmund has announced that it will produce a new opera adapted from director Wim Wenders’ film Wings of Desire, with Elena Kats-Chernin commissioned as its composer.

Staged in honour of the Dortmund Opera House’s 60th anniversary, the opera will premiere on 14 May 2028 as part of its 2027–28 season. It will be directed by Martin G. Berger, who will also pen its libretto, with Mexican tenor and director Rolando Villazón set to take on a leading role.

Elena Kats-Chernin. Photo © Vicki Lauren

Wings of Desire, following a group of invisible angels in Berlin who comfort those in distress, earned Wenders the Best Director awards at the Cannes Film Festival and European Film Awards.

“Wim Wenders’ film remains an artistic benchmark to this day – for its poetic visual language as well as for its existential exploration of intimacy, longing, humanity, and transcendence,” wrote Theater Dortmund.

“With Elena Kats-Chernin, Martin G. Berger, and Rolando Villazón, three distinctive artistic voices converge in Dortmund, lending the project considerable weight even before the premiere.”

One of Australia’s leading composers in the fields of chamber music, orchestral music, ballet and opera, Kats-Chernin is also in high demand internationally. Her full-length musical Simsalabim – Das magische Leben des Dr. Schreiber (The Magical Life of Dr. Schreiber) saw its world premiere this week at Staatsoperette Dresden. Telling the story of Kalanag, a German film producer and magician who performed and produced propaganda films for the Nazi Party, it also featured Berger as its librettist.

Her 2023 children’s opera, Nils Hol­gers­son’s Won­drous Ad­ven­tures is currently being staged with Komische Oper Berlin, while Austria’s Oper Graz presents her 2014–15 work Schneewittchen und die 77 Zwerge (Snow White and the 77 Dwarfs) until 12 June.

She has also written the music for the Staatstheatre Kassel’s The Wind in the Willows (2021) and Komische Oper Berlin’s Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer (Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver) (2019) and The Monteverdi Trilogy (2012). In 2019, she served as Opera Australia’s composer-in-residence, where she wrote Whiteley, examining the life of acclaimed Australian artist Brett Whiteley.

“We feel immense pride and joy to have been granted the rights and the opportunity to premiere this epochal work as an opera,” said Opera Director Heribert Germeshausen.

“This project highlights what makes Dortmund so special: the collaborative approach of various institutions, their commitment to the community, and the resulting projects that have a far-reaching impact beyond the city limits.”

More about the Dortmund Opera’s Wings of Desire can be found here.