Rosie Aldridge opens her busy 2026/27 season this evening, making her role debut as Goneril in Aribert Reimann’s Lear, the production that launches the Komische Oper Berlin’s new season.

The British mezzo-soprano returns to the company, where she previously appeared in The Nose and, most recently, as Mrs. Lovett in Barrie Kosky’s production of Sweeney Todd. She reunites with Kosky for Lear, taking on the role of the king’s eldest daughter for the first time.

Barrie Kosky directs the new production of Reimann’s powerful adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear, presented at Berlin’s historic Tempelhof Airport.

The cast includes Scott Hendricks as King Lear, Dimitry Ivashchenko as the King of France, Philipp Meierhöfer as the Duke of Albany, Johannes Dunz as the Duke of Cornwall, Ivan Turšić as the Earl of Kent, Günter Papendell as the Earl of Gloucester, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen as Edgar, Brenton Ryan as Edmund, Rosie Aldridge as Goneril, Nicole Chevalier as Regan, Penny Sofroniadou as Cordelia and Dagmar Manzel as the Fool. Nicholas Carter conducts.

Performances take place on September 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26 and 29, and October 1 and 3.