Jim Knopf und Lukas der LokomotivführerKids eventNew production

«Wir sind Heimat für alle, egal aus welchem Land man stammt» – «We’re a home for everyone, no matter where they’re from», says King Alfons the Quarter-to-Twelfth, who rules over the Lummerland (known in English as Morrowland). But his island is teeny-tiny, just twice the size of an apartment. When Jim Knopf, an unknown boy, arrives via mail ship, the King can see at once that there’s no more place for Locomotive Emma on the island. But Lukas, the engine driver, doesn’t want to part ways from Emma, so he transforms her into a water-tight vessel, and sails off, with Jim Knopf in tow. Along the way, the friends land in far-off Mandala, and are given the dangerous task of freeing Princess Li Su from Dragon City. After an adventurous journey to the end of the world, they manage to defeat Dragon Mahlzan. But they let the dragon live, and he turns into a Dragon of Wisdom, who tells them how to make Lummerland bigger – meaning they can return there together...

In his bestselling novel, author Michael Ende traces the sad fate of Jemmy Button, a Native boy from the islands around Tierra del Fuego who was sold for the price of a button and taken to England in the 19th century, and turns it into a positive: In his imaginative, humorous and world-embracing tale, the unknown is delightfully explored, evil is disempowered – and Jemmy Button, as Jim Knopf, is given a fictional, happy destiny. Composer Elena Kats-Chernin took the beloved story and created a family opera that was cheered at its world premiere at the Komische Oper Berlin in 2019. With its fabulously beautiful Mandala and fantasy characters such as the illusory giant Turtur, the half-dragon Nepomuk, cawing desert vultures, hideous dragons and, of course, the locomotive Emma, the play is tailor-made for stage director Kai Anne Schuhmacher, who will bring Jim Knopf and Lukas the Engine Driver to the stage as magical, image-rich puppet theater with puppeteers and the ensemble of the Opernhaus.

On June 17, 2023 the official ticket sale for the season 23/24 starts. Friends, subscribers, and shareholders can take advantage of their advance purchase rights one week earlier.