An opera production has been performed every summer since 1989. In 2024, it will be the French opera "CARMEN" by Georges Bizet.

Music theater in the Selzach Passion Playhouse
Selzach, situated between Biel and Solothurn, became famous in the last century for its passion plays. So famous, in fact, that even the express trains stopped for it during the Passion Play season. In 1895, a successful watch manufacturer had a theater built in Selzach based on the model of the Bavarian Passion Play in Oberammergau. There were twelve Passion Play productions up until 1972. A lack of money and declining interest from the public then left the venerable building derelict and it had to wither away into a "storage barn".

Then, 35 years ago, a group formed with the aim of reviving the house. It was there that the idea of opera performances in the listed Passion Playhouse was born. The spell was broken with Mozart's "Magic Flute" and the house was given a new lease of life. Since then, opera has been performed in the Passion Playhouse every two years.

This time, for the 17th musical theater production, we would like to perform the world-famous French opera "CARMEN" by Georges Bizet.
With Kaspar Zehnder as conductor and Maria Ricarda Wessling as director, we have been able to appoint two personalities to the management team who will shine far beyond the region. This is the first time that a woman has taken the reins as director of the summer opera.


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