Hamburg State Opera

The Hamburg State Opera is a German opera company based in Hamburg. Its theatre is located near the square of Gänsemarkt. Since 2015, the current Intendant of the company is Georges Delnon, and the current Generalmusikdirektor of the company is Kent Nagano. Opera in Hamburg dates to 2 January 1678 when the Oper am Gänsemarkt was inaugurated with a performance of a biblical Singspiel by Johann Theile. It was not a court theatre but the first public opera house in Germany established by the art-loving citizens of Hamburg, a prosperous member of the Hanseatic League. The company has won the “Opera House of the Year” award by the German magazine Opernwelt in 1997 and in 2005. Recent General Music Directors have included Ingo Metzmacher and Simone Young. Young was the first female in the company’s history, serving from 2005 to 2015. Kent Nagano became as of the 2015-2016 season, with an initial contract of 5 seasons. In October 2017, the company announced the extension of Nagano’s Hamburg contract through 2025.