Festive Opera Galas
Top-class artists and prominent personalities get involved in festive opera galas for a good cause. The first benefit opera gala “Rebuild Ukraine” is our most actual event but we co-initiated and took over the artistic direction of the opera galas for the German Aids Foundation for more then 26 years. These galas are events highly supported by the medias, all international opera stars and hosters perform pro bono. Significant financial resources are generated for foundations and their projects via sponsorship and donations.
Festive Benefit Opera Gala "Rebuild Ukraine" at Konzerthaus Berlin, April 19th 2024 - © Till Budde
FIRST BENEFIT OPERA GALA “REBUILD UKRAINE”
On April 19, 2024, the first festive benefit opera gala “Rebuild Ukraine” took place at the Konzerthaus Berlin under the patronage of the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner. The gala was broadcast live worldwide by Deutsche Welle and in the ARD media library throughout Germany. The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under the baton of Keri-Lynn Wilson has been mastering the broad range of repertoire from alltime opera hits to very seldomly presented Ukrainian compositions. The Ukranian Freedom Chorus under the direction of Barbara Leifer supported professionally the international world opera stars Pretty Yende, Stephen Costello, Elsa Dreisig, Samuel Mariño, Nino Machaidze, Peter Mauro and star singers from Ukraine such as Olga Kulchynska, Nicole Chirka and Andrii Kymach. The Ukrainian violinist Diana Tishchenko spoke through her instrument but also via her voice, singing along with the singers the Ukrainian hymn, while the whole audience did standing ovations.
Prominent personalities such as H. E. Ukrainian Ambassador Oleksii Makeiev and numerous other ambassadors, EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn representing Ursula von der Leyen and the EU Commission, former Federal President Joachim Gauck, federal ministers such as Boris Pistorius, Volker Wissing, Klara Geywitz as well as Manuela Schwesig, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the governing mayor of Berlin Kai Wegner and many Berlin senators and many other personalities from politics, business and culture took part in the event.
Dr. Waldimir Klitschko was welcomed as special guest of honour and was presented with a donation check of 1 Mio Euros for his #WeAreAllUkrainians initiative. The donation will be used to set up community centers in Kherson, Donetsk and Zaporizhia for traumatized children suffering from the consequences of the war.
FESTIVE OPERA GALAS FOR THE GERMAN AIDS-FOUNDATION
As the initiator and artistic director of the Festive Opera Galas for the German AIDS Foundation, Dr Alard von Rohr has staged all opera gala events since 1994 until 2022. Well-known international opera stars who could be won pro-bono for these galas. Over the years, these galas have helped to bring the topic of AIDS to the forefront of society. Of course, the galas have also provided the German AIDS Foundation with considerable financial resources through sponsorship and donations.
The galas have been held annually in the last years at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf and Opernhaus Bonn. In former years they have been taken place also in Philharmonie Essen, Konzerthaus Dortmund and Opera Cologne.
Among more then 400 artists, the following singers took part at the Festive Opera Galas for the German AIDS Foundation:
Nicola Alaimo, Lucia Aliberti, Carlos Alvarez, Marcelo Álvarez, Giacomo Aragall, Hildegard Behrens, Francisco Araiza, Agnes Baltsa, René Barbera, Piotr Beczała, Angel Blue, Jean-Francois Borras, Wolfgang Brendel, Pavol Breslik, Nicholas Brownlee, Grace Bumbry, Paata Burchuladze, Montserrat Caballé, Nicole Cabell, Javier Camarena, Max Emanuel Cencic, Vladimir Chernov, Marianne Crebassa, Michele Crider, Emily D’Angelo, Annette Dasch, Lise Davidsen, Léa Desandre, Karine Deshayes, Jodie Devos, Joyce DiDonato, Ghena Dimitrova, Helen Donath, Elsa Dreisig, Malena Ernman, Simon Estes, Michael Fabiano, Rosa Feola, Franco Fagioli, Barbara Frittoli, Ferruccio Furlanetto, George Gagnidze, Paolo Gavanelli, Vivica Genaux, Véronique Gens, Giuseppe Giacomini, Carmen Giannattasio, Anna Goryachova, Stephen Gould, Margarita Gritskova, Günther Groissböck, Franz Grundheber, Joshua Guerrero, Jerry Hadley, David Hansen, Hui He, Marilyn Horne, Brian Jagde, Siegfried Jerusalem, Salome Jicia, Gwyneth Jones, Vesselina Kasarova, Dmitry Korchak, Magdalena Kožená, Stefano La Colla, Salvatore Licitra, Davide Luciano, Nino Machaidze, Ruzan Mantashyan, Samuel Mariño, Bejun Mehta, Marina Mescheriakova, Kristina Mkhitaryan, Edda Moser, Martin Muehle, Hanna-Elisabeth Müller, Valentina Naforniță, Mattia Olivieri, Lisette Oropesa, Olga Peretyatko, Luca Pisaroni, Dmytro Popov, Jessica Pratt, Marina Prudenskaya, Thomas Quasthoff, Brenda Rae, Marina Rebeka, Artur Rucinski, Matti Salminen, Andreas Schager, Andreas Scholl, Golda Schultz, Levy Sekgapane, Claudio Sgura, Neil Shicoff, Anja Silja, Michael Spyres, Nina Stemme, Elena Stikhina, Krassimira Stoyanova, Silvia Tro Santafé, Alexander Tsymbalyuk, Rolando Villazón, Klaus Florian Vogt, Michael Volle, Bernd Weikl, Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Pretty Yende, Sonya Yoncheva, Adela Zaharia, Mara Zampieri, Elena Zhidkova.
and the following conductors e.g.:
Alain Altinoglu, Philippe Auguin, Lawrence Foster, Dirk Kaftan, Axel Kober, Jiri Kout, Jesús López-Cobos, Enrique Mazzola, Kent Nagano, Ivan Repušić, Donald Runnicles, Giacomo Sagripanti, Markus Stenz, Christian Thielemann, Marcello Viotti, Keri-Lynn Wilson.
