Selam Opera!

Selam Opera! took opera out of the house and into the city: singers and musicians of the Komische Oper Berlin performed short pop-up scenes on markets, in a boxing club, a nightclub and other everyday places. Artistic director: Mustafa Akça; creative director and stage director: Anisha Bondy.

Its best-known chapter, the Operndolmuş, retraced the historical route of the Turkish “guest worker” generation from Berlin to Istanbul by minibus, with performances and shared stories along the way – awarded the BKM Prize for Cultural Education in 2017. The project ran from 2015 to 2022.

The Operndolmuş toured several times: “Gastarbeiterroute” (2016), “In zwei Heimaten zu Hause” (At Home in Two Homelands, 2016–2019) and “Kesin Dönüş” (Final Return, 2019–2020). In 2018 it also premiered “Ben und Henry – ein Operndolmuş für Kinder”, an Operndolmuş for children, with music by Attila Kadri Şendil and libretto by Susanne Wolf.