NO neighborhood, NO opera! In the 1970s, the Neuköllner Oper was founded as a deliberate counter-model to the major opera houses – not in Mitte or Charlottenburg, but in Neukölln, which was already then a vibrant, diverse, and fragile district. Anyone wanting to experience German urban society in all its potential and fault lines under a magnifying glass – anyone wanting to see how Arab communities, hipsters, long-time residents, and expats animate the same neighborhood, while also witnessing the stark disparities in living conditions, income, and wealth – should come to Neukölln, then as now.
Here, neighborhood is proofed and stress-tested daily as the smallest common denominator of democracy. This melting pot offers countless thematic, musical, and performative starting points for exciting and relevant contemporary music theater. It also provides opportunities for a relevant cultural practice that considers social aspects in their full complexity and understands institutions like the NO as neighborhood spaces for encounter and collective (un)learning.
With the artistic relaunch of the NO in September 2025, a third-party-funded Outreach position was created to build relationships with initiatives, associations, and residents in the Rollberg neighborhood. The goal of this local and community work is to explore the intersections between the NO and the various actors in the neighborhood, and to discover how these connections can lead to unusual, but certainly surprising, collaborations. Together with the outreach project office and the dramaturges of the Neuköllner Oper, local needs are being explored, initial partnerships tested, and new forms of collaboration developed. The aim is an opening process that does not remain symbolic, but instead transforms the institution in the long term – in its structure, its programme, and its roots within the district.
Initial pilot projects include:
- “You Can Do It” – application training for girls and young women from the neighborhood with Morus 14 e.V. and artist Ariane Kipp
- “Art on Prescription” with the health collective GeKo
- Connecting NO music theater projects with young people from the neighborhood as performers
Funded by the German Federal
Cultural Foundation
Funded by the Federal Government
Comissioner for Culture and the
Media
