About philipoftheopera

Hi! 👋 I'm Philip, and I've loved opera all my life. Moving to Berlin with its three opera houses, as many concert halls, and countless smaller stages, seeing operas and concerts has quickly become a full-time hobby: I'm able to see shows every week now, which means that it has been necessary to start collecting my thoughts and documenting what I see. I've been sharing these thoughts and reviews on Instagram for some time now (@philipoftheopera) and have enjoyed connecting with like-minded opera stans and concert fans. It turns out, though, that Instagram, captions are not the best medium to offer long-form text—hence this website.

What to expect

While singing in a boys' choir and performing in concert halls and on opera stages throughout Germany and Europe as a child was my gateway into classical music, I have no advanced musical training or musical theory background. I therefore feel the need to clarify that I don't view myself as qualified to comment on the musical direction, the individual vocal talents, and overall performance quality—and therefore leave such commentary to the plethora of opera websites, magazines, and editorials.

I did, however, pursue an academic focus on political sciences and social policy. Therefore, what most interests me when seeing an opera—beyond enjoying the music—is not so much what is heard, but rather "what it means". I want to interpret the sociocultural narratives offered by a production, read into artistic criticism of our society, and understand the world that is created by a certain storytelling taking place. Let's be so real: we live in a time of dominant and conflicting narratives about the society we live in, the future we envision, and normative beliefs about who should determine all this. I believe that opera has a unique artistic advantage in processing what is happening around us today, and delivering it to a broad audience across the world.

philipoftheopera is an independent publication launched in March 2025 by Philip Zuschke. If you subscribe today, you'll receive email newsletters about new content when it's available. Your subscription makes this site possible, and allows philipoftheopera to continue to exist. Thank you!

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