Community Opera

When Bremen’s ›Green Hill‹ awakens

For most of the year, this is nothing more than a patch of green with a slight incline, flanked by two main roads. Visible on the periphery are the high-rise buildings of Osterholz-Tenever – a district with a reputation and very particular social challenges. Yet when Bremen’s ›Green Hill‹ is roused from its sleep, audiences over 1,000-strong flock to OTe where an impressive opera tent is erected between the high-rises and the ›Green Hill‹ is transformed – rather like the famous Bayreuth Festival – into a spectacular opera stage.

Together with professional opera singers, the children from Bremen East Comprehensive School perform on stage, accompanied by world-class musicians. They are supported throughout this mammoth project by people from the entire district as even the costumes and scenery are designed and made by the schoolchildren and the many helpers from the local area.

Even the artists and performers chosen by The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen open themselves up to new ideas and allow the creativity to flow. More than 600 people work together under professional guidance behind the scenes for several months on each ›Community Opera‹, getting involved in every possible way; arts and crafts, culinary skills, logistics and of course musically.

Next concerts

18 & 19 september 2025, 7.30 p.m.

concert calendar

A district with a voice

You always have a choice

Through this project, the ›Community Opera‹ brings together a most diverse array of people and gives them space to participate in the design, consciously picking up the impulses of a multicultural environment. The opera’s storyline is biographical, taking elements from the main performers’ own lives and experiences and setting them to music from the complete range of genres to create a completely new and unique whole. In doing so, the residents of Osterholz-Tenever not only give the ›Community Opera‹ a face but also give the district a voice.

This local musical and social cooperation project in Bremen has come to serve as an international example. However, you will only experience the Bremen original in its home district of Osterholz-Tenever – OTe for short!

Account for donations:

Die Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen
Die Sparkasse Bremen
IBAN: DE48 2905 0101 0001 6303 26
BIC: SBREDEDE22

A district with a voice

You always have a choice

Through this project, the ›Community Opera‹ brings together a most diverse array of people and gives them space to participate in the design, consciously picking up the impulses of a multicultural environment. The opera’s storyline is biographical, taking elements from the main performers’ own lives and experiences and setting them to music from the complete range of genres to create a completely new and unique whole. In doing so, the residents of Osterholz-Tenever not only give the ›Community Opera‹ a face but also give the district a voice.

This local musical and social cooperation project in Bremen has come to serve as an international example. However, you will only experience the Bremen original in its home district of Osterholz-Tenever – OTe for short!

Account for donations:

Die Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen
Die Sparkasse Bremen
IBAN: DE48 2905 0101 0001 6303 26
BIC: SBREDEDE22

Glittering characters and a glimpse behind the scenes

Visit the 2019 Community Opera on Instagram!

Instagram