By Claudia von Duehren
He’s kind of a prodigy. The Swiss Aviel Cahn (48) will be the new director of the Deutsche Oper in 2026. BZ met him for an interview.
He started playing the piano at the age of six, studied singing, piano and law. His doctoral thesis was entitled “The Theater Manager – His Legal Position in Theory and Practice”.
At only 30 years old, Aviel Cahn became the youngest opera director in Bern, followed by positions in Beijing, Helsinki, Antwerp and Ghent. He lectures in Vienna and Salzburg and has been director of the Grand Théâtre in Geneva since 2019.
BZ: Aren’t you afraid of moving from lovely Geneva to rough Berlin?
Aviel Cahn: I like Berlin very much. My father was a cultural journalist and drove us children in the car from Zurich to Berlin. We were visiting East Berlin and at the buffet in a large restaurant Unter den Linden there was only cabbage salad. As a spoiled Swiss child, I wasn’t used to that. When I was ten I saw a performance at the Deutsche Oper. I now have many friends here.
But will you miss the mountains?
Geneva is a very quiet city that doesn’t burn for culture. Geneva is empty at the weekend because everyone goes skiing or to the Côte d’Azur. Berlin burns for culture. This is a gift for cultural workers. After seven years in the mountains and the Swiss leisurely pace, I’m looking forward to a fresh injection of Berlin wildness.
Will you move to Charlottenburg and who will accompany you?
I am neither married nor do I have children, but I hope that my partner will accompany me. I don’t know yet whether it will be Charlottenburg, there are so many beautiful corners in Berlin. The radius should not exceed 25 minutes and that can happen quickly in Berlin.
You come from a Jewish family. Does that also characterize your work?
Like Barrie Kosky, I have a very relaxed relationship with it, but it’s definitely something that shapes me. I did the opera version of Jonathan Littel’s The Kindly Ones, about the perpetrators of the Holocaust, in Flanders.
Did you also work as a tenor and pianist after your studies?
Never. My voice didn’t live up to my own standards. But of course it helps me with casting and understanding the singers. Today I only sing in the shower. And my grand piano will move to Berlin with me, but I hardly play anymore.
Have you ever fallen asleep at the opera?
I’ve often nodded off at the opera and also left during the intermission. If it doesn’t appeal to me or if I’m bored, then that can happen.
What must a production have so that you don’t fall asleep?
She must surprise me for sure. The elements of singing, music, performance and design have to come together, then it grabs me. I have also hired visual artists for productions several times and I will of course find a wide field in Berlin.
Was there an initial spark in a production?
In Helsinki 2002 with the Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo. He turned Rossini’s “Journey to Reims” into total theatre. Fo was a choreographer, writer, painter, designer, incredible.
You are friends with Oscar winner Christoph Waltz and have already hired him as an opera director. Will he also direct here?
I don’t want to rule it out, but directing operas is not his greatest ambition.
What are you passionate about privately?
I swim and of course I ski. I burn for good food and drink. The first thing I did in Geneva was to open a great restaurant in the theatre. The experience of going to an opera house is not just the imagination. It’s the reception, what’s to eat during the break and afterwards. Opera and cuisine go well together. The structural conditions here are very good.
With the Komische Oper, the competition is once again moving into your neighborhood!
Competition stimulates business. I don’t have to be the sole top dog. There is such a great humus of people and cultural offerings here, in Berlin there is a basic hunger for culture.