A Critical Welcome!
This Website is about non-discriminatory editions of Operas, Operettas and Oratorios. The initiative Critical Classics publishes editions of such works with libretti aproximated to modern standards by experts in diversity, opera and other fields. For more information, please go to our ABOUT page.
Early in 2024 Critical Classics released its first non-discriminatory opera edition: The Magic Flute/Die Zauberflöte. Roughly a year later, St. John Passion/Johannespassion followed!
You can download the librettos, the piano vocal scores and an introductions from this and from befriended websites. If you are interested, please go to our DOWNLOAD page. Alternatively, you may download the material from the websites of LANDESMUSIKRAT NRW, NEUKÖLLNER OPER or OPERA EUROPA (Members Section).
More editions are to follow!
Latest News
Edition of St. John Passion now released
Critical Classics has published its less discriminatory edition of St. John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach. The edition aims to address the prolific anti-Judaism of the work by proposing textual changes. The conflicts are not defused, but motivations are made comprehensible against the historical background. The (German) press release can be found here. A detailed introduction, the libretto with all proposed changes, and a score are available in the DOWNLOAD area.
Lecture and round table at zentrum für alte musik köln (zamus:)
On May 24th 2025, Critical Classics was invited to partake in the symposium Creating New Spaces: Approaches to Colonial Heritage in Early Music at zamus: – a “space where new strategies in early music can be imagined, discussed, and actively developed”. Our team members Leyla Ercan and Änne-Marthe Kühn enjoyed the exchange immensely!
Funding received to develop a non-discriminatory edition of Bach’s St. John Passion
Both the Amadeu Antonio Foundation and the Municipal Integration Centre of the City of Cologne have decided to support the work of Critical Classics. The funding will make it possible to adequately involve the many necessary partners needed for the edition, to produce the edition to the usual high editorial standard and then to make it available to interested amateur and professional ensembles free of charge.
Seminar at the University of Hildesheim
Lecture and discussion at Assitej-Meeting
„From Appropriation to Recognition – Possibilities and Potentials of Dealing with Discriminatory Content in Classical Operas and Young Music Theatre“
At the opera meeting of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (Assitej) in Stuttgart on 27.10.2024, Cricitcal Classics was invited to give a lecture and hold a discussion event in front of a number of heads of theatre education departments. For the first time, Critical Classics had to deal specifically with the issues of theatre for children and young people. You can download the lecture in German language here.
The Landesmusikrat NRW and Critical Classics have agreed an official partnership
The Landesmusikrat NRW supports the aims of the initiative, in particular the creation of editions which include the original texts in their entirety and provide all possibilities of faithfulness to the intentions of the authors, but which also propose alternative versions and explain the contexts.
The results of the initiative’s work will be presented by the Landesmusikrat NRW as an umbrella organisation with the relevant member associations and, if necessary will be further developped. Our focus is primarily on oratorios that are frequently performed by music lovers in North Rhine-Westphalia. Here, the stimulation of discourse can lead to a valuable sensitisation of performers and music lovers in the amateur music scene.