For most of the year, this is nothing more than a patch of green with a slight incline, flanked by two main roads. Visible on the periphery are the high-rise buildings of Osterholz-Tenever – a district with a reputation and very particular social challenges. Yet when Bremen’s ›Green Hill‹ is roused from its sleep, audiences over 1,000-strong flock to OTe where an impressive opera tent is erected between the high-rises and the ›Green Hill‹ is transformed – rather like the famous Bayreuth Festival – into a spectacular opera stage.

Together with professional opera singers, the children from Bremen East Comprehensive School perform on stage, accompanied by world-class musicians. They are supported throughout this mammoth project by people from the entire district as even the costumes and scenery are designed and made by the schoolchildren and the many helpers from the local area.

Even the artists and performers chosen by The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen open themselves up to new ideas and allow the creativity to flow. More than 600 people work together under professional guidance behind the scenes for several months on each ›Community Opera‹, getting involved in every possible way; arts and crafts, culinary skills, logistics and of course musically.