Applications now open!
Apply now! Opera by the Fjord - Summer Academy 2025
News
Stay up to date on all current and forthcoming events and performances by Bergen National Opera - producers of world-class opera in Norway.
What happens in The Dead City?
Get ready for an extraordinary love triangle: The amorous and confused Paul stands between two women who look completely identical: One is his deceased wife Marie, the other is the vivacious dancer Marietta.
A prodigy rediscovered
Erich Wolfgang Korngold had an extraordinary life, buffeted between three very different worlds: Mahler’s Vienna, Errol Flynn’s Hollywood, and the years of reckoning that followed World War II.
What happens in Die Fledermaus?
In our new production the story is moved from Vienna in the 19th century to the Norwegian cities of Bergen and Oslo in our own time.
WANTED: Wotan, Sarastro & Fafner (2024)
Do you wish to be the greatest god of all at our Summer Academy 2024? Or the high priest and also a giant? We are now searching for two male singers in the roles as Wotan – and Sarastro & Fafner. Application deadline: March 8, 2024. // The application forms are now closed. //
Three from the Vienna Philharmonic will teach at our Summer Academy 2024
The students at this year's summer academy (2024) will get the chance to perform together with top professionals from orchestras in Vienna and the Nordic countries.
Summer Academy 2024
You are now welcome to apply for the Summer Academy Opera by the Fjord 2024! Application deadline January 31st. NEW announcement for the roles as Wotan and Satrasto & Fafner. Application deadline March 8. //All application forms are now closed.//
Selected Participants in Griegkvartalet's Architectural Competition
Five groups of architects and consultants have been chosen to compete for the design of the new music theater in Griegkvartalet.
What happens in Katya Kabanova?
Katya dreams of freedom, but she is trapped in an unhappy marriage, with a cruel, controlling mother-in-law. Then, the charming Boris arrives ... Here's the synopsis of Janáček's opera, Katya Kabanova, which premieres here in Bergen autumn 2023
Renowned violinist to Opera by the Fjord - Summer Academy
1st violinist Maxim Brilinsky from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the world’s most renowned symphony orchestras, will be concertmaster at our 2023 summer academy.
Who is who in the Magic Flute?
Meet the persons from The Magic Flute, who enter the stage here in Bergen autumn 2022
What happens in Gianni Schicchi?
A huge heritage, two young lovers – and the very cunny Gianni Schicchi. Here are the highlights of Puccini’s comic one act opera our academists will dive into summer 2022.
What happens in Mozart's Magic Flute?
Magical instruments, romantic couples and a fight between light and darkness: Here's a summary of Mozart's enchanting opera, which premieres in Bergen autumn 2022.
What happens in The Merry Widow 2.0?
In this new version spring 2022 we are no longer in an embassy in Paris, but peeking into the secrets of a faulty theatre here in Bergen.
Opera by the fjord - Summer academy 2022
Bergen National Opera welcomes young singers, instrumentalists, conductors and repetiteurs to apply for our summer academy Opera by the fjord 2022, where Gianni Schicchi and more will be performed on July 2nd.
Meet the founders
Meet the founders of the summer academy Opera by the fjord, Sascha Goetzel and Eivind Gullberg Jensen
Opera by the fjord - Summer academy 2021
Bergen National Opera are proud to launch our first ever summer academy, which takes place this August by the majestic Bjørnafjorden, near Bergen.
What happens in Rusalka?
What happens when the water nymph Rusalka falls madly in love with a human prince, and asks the witch Ježibaba for help? Here's a synopsis of Dvořák's enchanting opera, with five musical excerpts.
Toreamor - Love is waiting for you
The murder of Carmen, Bizet's gorgeous music and - a dating agency called Toreamor... Our new film really has it all!
Carmen - news about our film
Carmen, Carmen, Carmen..... so breathes our entranced journalist blogger at the opening of Bergen National Opera´s new film Carmen: Obsession in Isolation.
Updates on the Corona virus situation
Information with regards to the Corona virus and our performances.
#REDALERT
A civilized and balanced society demands that all generations are cultured in the broadest sense.
What happens in Macbeth?
Here is the plot of the dramatic opera Macbeth, based on the masterpiece by Shakespeare.
Carmen - See the trailer!
Carmen is one of the most performed operas in the world, but what happened after the last act? Bergen National Opera has made a film inspired by Carmen, and now the trailer is ready!
CARMEN – a movie in the making
Guest blogger and music supervisor Stephen Higgins reports from behind the scenes of Carmen, a movie currently in the making with star singers and an exciting plot.
#BlackoutTuesday
MUSIC INDUSTRY BLACKOUT 2ND JUNE / This evening's performance has been postponed
Call an opera dude – or diva!
Have you always dreamed about talking directly to a real opera singer, an orchestra musician, a director ... or may be a composer? Now you have the chance to call them all, from up north in Bergen and southwards to Madrid!
Cancelled: La clemenza di Tito
Due to the corona virus, Bergen National Opera and Musikkselskapet Harmonien have decided to cancel the Mozart opera La clemenza di Tito.
Sex, Violence and Modern Opera
From its earliest days, opera has always been explicit.
Top reviews for Peter Grimes in London
See reviews from The Times, The Guardian, Evening Standard and The Daily Mail
Janie Dee
- Cabarets are very much like life, says Janie Dee. You don’t know what’s going to happen next.
Queen Sonja International Music Competition
The Queen Sonja International Music Competition is one of the world’s leading voice competitions. BNO's General & Artistic Director, Mary Miller, is a board member.
New Artistic & General Director
The renowned Norwegian conductor Eivind Gullberg Jensen takes over from Mary Miller as the new Artistic and General Director of Bergen National Opera in 2021.
Video: Werther by Massenet
Werther's music counts as some of the most gorgeously romantic ever written. Here you can see the live recording from 22 March 2019, with Edgaras Montvidas and Catriona Morison as Werther and Charlotte.
"Pure pleasure" - Klassisk Musikk
"Warmly recommended" - Bergensavisen
"An elegant and floating production" - Bergens Tidende
How to make misery interesting
I´ve just been down in the rehearsal room where Massenet´s hero Werther has been dying since 10:00 this morning. The atmosphere is brisk and deeply practical.
Diversity, quality and leadership
It was Winston Churchill who once suggested that ‘while we shape our buildings, afterwards our buildings shape us.’ The content of those buildings – who are they for, and how should they be led - is a conversation currently much in focus.
Top reviews for Candide
"Magic", "A triumph", "Fireworks" - The press loved the new production of Candide at Bergen National Opera
What happens in Werther?
The deeply passionate young idealist and poet Werther meets an inexperienced young woman who is bound to her family by duty. She is engaged to Albert – decent, hard-working and steady – and she has promised her late mother to marry him. Werther becomes obsessed, and Charlotte begins a journey of self-discovery.
New: The season program for 2018/19 has just launched
Welcome to Bergen National Opera!
Great review in Opera Now
Bergen National Opera's new production of The Flying Dutchman gets 4 (out of 5) stars in the international opera magazine. Read excerpts here.
Director's diary: Week three of production - Meet the chorus
What a week! We moved up into a much higher gear as the chorus arrived, all of whom have their lives and jobs in the city, while forming the backbone of the thriving choral scene in Bergen.
Director's Diary: Ghost makeup and a new arrival
Set, costume and makeup, it's all looking as sleek as we hoped. And best of all - our Dutchman, Iain Paterson, arrives in Bergen!
Director's diary: First week in Bergen
Big questions of philosophy arise when interpreting the characters in The flying Dutchman during the first week of rehearsals. What is the best way of living one's life, what is a life well spent? Find out more in the director's diary.
Knit your own opera
A gentle rhythmic clicking floats from the doors as though some dreamy animal is tapping its teeth. Sailors need jumpers, and the BNO staff knitters are hard at work.
A new house for the future
The building of a new house on the Grieghallen site brings the possibility of building a new creative hub for the future.
Director's Diary
John Ramster, director of The Flying Dutchman, writes about the process of making an opera.
Otello the Outsider
Verdi from two centuries past: opera at its most raw and modern.
Congratulations Elizaveta Agrafenina
The young soprano has this year won a prestigeous prize and this weekend holds two concerts in Amsterdam.
Marita Lervik med konsert i Leeds
Leeds art gallery gjenåpner med Marita Lervik fra Unge Stemmer i nyskrevet, koreografert konsert!
Witches and Wonderland
A witch with a long silver tail is dancing with a bloody saw and cackling horribly. Hansel is trapped on top of a hospital trolley and Gretel is hiding behind lurid pink boxes. Welcome to the opera!
The opera about the village animal
With his first opera Peter Grimes the young Benjamin Britten achieved instant international fame, and with good reason. In addition to brilliant and distinctive music the drama encompasses a universally recognisable phenomenon: the individual against the world, the outsider against the ‘village animal’.
Händel and humanity
In Grieghallen´s basement rehearsal room, figures in tattered grey sing Händel as they shuffle towards a table where soup is ladled from a vast battered pot.
Il Turco in Norwegian
Razzle-dazzle, high kicks and general mayhem... Mary talks us through the plot of our most glamorous opera to date!
"A sensational line-up of singers"
The renowned magazine Opera Now gives 5 (of 5) stars to I Capuleti e i Monthecchi!
Great review in Opernwelt
Januar kicks off with a great review in Opernwelt for our production of I Capuleti e i Montecchi.