Let us uncork the New Year with no less than six different concerts celebrating the eternal genius of Charles Chaplin. These concerts span a range from our traditonal FilmConcerts across a ballet created by Dominique Dumais to our exclusive tribute concert WITH A SMILE, created in partnership with the Chaplin Office, thus rediscovering Chaplin as a composer, a dancer, a pantomime legend and a muse.

Admired by great artists as Stravinsky, Eisenstein, Debussy or Fellini, Chaplin’s musical and cinematic journey is full of references to our times. His iconic presence is probably the greatest symbol of the average human being struggling with love, hunger, poverty, fascism or capitalism. The resilience of his Little Tramp, his victories and defeats are portrayed with the precision of a ballet choreography. In this regard we are specially proud to finally bring to Berlin our production CHAPLIN IN CONCERT – WITH A SMILE featuring music by Chaplin, Johannes Brahms, Richard Wagner and others, performed by Frank Strobel and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. The programme, carefully curated by our Creative Director Fernando Carmena in cooperation with the Chaplin Office, explores the manyfold intersecting layers of a genius: the musician, the filmmaker, the humanist, the clown, the dancer, the rebel artist, the egotist.

Chaplin’s free-spirited Little Tramp could not be missing as a part of NDR-Radiophilharmonie’s new programme FREIHEIT exploring the substantial concept of freedom. Conducted as well by Maestro Strobel, the program reflects about this vital element, to be cherished (and often fought for) in our lives, from different musical and cinematic perspectives including, among others, dystopia (GATTACA, THE MATRIX), history (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, GLADIATOR), myth (DJANGO UNCHAINED), comedy (CHOCOLAT, MODERN TIMES) and drama (CAST AWAY, PAPILLON).

Finally, two monumental German classics from the 1920s, METROPOLIS and DIE WEISSE HÖLLE VOM PIZ PALÜ, round off the beginning of the New Year and invite the audience to start into 2024 not only with a smile but in awe.