Handel Festival Bad Lauchstädt — Goethe Theater

The last surviving Goethe Theater in Central Germany

Bad Lauchstädt in the Saalekreis is a small spa town, shaped by Goethe's stays, which holds a theatrical gem: the Goethe Theater, built in 1802 according to Goethe's plans and preserved almost unchanged ever since. With its 800 seats, original stage machinery, and classical box tier, it is one of the few authentic theatre buildings from the Goethe era worldwide. Today, it serves as a venue for the Bad Lauchstädt Summer Culture Season and as an external venue for the Halle Handel Festival.

As part of the Halle Handel Festival 2026, the Goethe Theater will be transformed into a place where Baroque opera is returned to its most intimate and, at the same time, most theatrical roots. The Berlin-based lautten compagney BERLIN, one of the most renowned original sound ensembles for Baroque music, will perform three Handel operas — and on stage, it won't be singers in costume, but puppets from the Italian troupe Carlo Colla e Figli, one of the most important puppet theatre companies in the world, based in Milan and with a tradition dating back to the 19th century.

Three operas, one format, an unusual alliance

The idea of performing Handel operas as puppet theatre is not as far-fetched as it initially sounds: in the 18th century, puppet operas were a common form of performance, especially in Italian provincial theatres and at smaller courts. Handel himself was familiar with the format from his time in Italy. The rediscovery in Bad Lauchstädt allows for an exploration of a performance form in a historic theatre space that suited the time of the works' creation — with all the possibilities that the medium of puppets offers for stylization, distancing, and magical realism.

Bad Lauchstädt and the Saalekreis

The Goethe Theater is located in the spa park of Bad Lauchstädt, a classical ensemble with fountains, colonnades, and pavilions. Bad Lauchstädt itself belongs to the Saalekreis in Saxony-Anhalt — a region between Halle and Merseburg, which, with Merseburg Castle, Geiseltalsee lake, and Querfurt Monastery, is one of Central Germany's most surprising cultural landscapes.