Neuköllner Oper

Neuköllner Oper is an independent music theatre in Berlin's Neukölln district. It grew in 1977 out of a chamber choir founded in 1972 by the composer and director Winfried Radeke, and at first performed at changing venues. Since 1988 it has had its own house on Karl-Marx-Straße, performing in the old ballroom of a former Rixdorf assembly hall built by Reinhold Kiehl in 1909. Conceived as an alternative to traditional opera, its programme ranges from Baroque opera and operetta to musicals such as Das Wunder von Neukölln, topical operas and music theatre for children. To support young artists it works with the Hanns Eisler School of Music and the Berlin University of the Arts, whose musical theatre students stage their own productions here. It also runs the Berliner Opernpreis composition competition.