NOperas! / feXm

The ‘Fonds Experimentelles Musiktheater’ (feXm) has been the relevant funding initiative for new music theatre formats in German-speaking countries for two decades. The feXm was initiated in 2005 by the NRW KULTURsekretariat and supported until 2023 together with the Kunststiftung NRW. Since the 2024/25 season, the fund has been continued with its ‘NOperas!’ initiative under the sole sponsorship of NRWKS.

‘NOperas!’ brings together several theatres, including those outside NRW, over a period of three seasons to jointly develop one music theatre project per season and present it on all stages in different site-specific project variants. This enables an artistically and ecologically sustainable approach that places the process at the centre rather than the product.

On the basis of annual calls for proposals, a jury with participants from the theatres and the funding body as well as external experts decides on the selection of the project from the so-called independent scene, the realisation of which is funded with up to 150,000 euros. The call for proposals for the 2025/26 season has ended. 

A concept by the newly formed collective ‘Dritte Degeneration Ost’ was selected for the 2024/25 season. This sixth ‘NOperas!’ work, entitled ‘Oper Otze Axt’, is inspired by the life of GDR punk musician Dieter ‘Otze’ Ehrlich and scrutinises our image of the post-reunification era. The theatres in Darmstadt (premiere: 14.02.2025), Gelsenkirchen (premiere: 13.04.2025) and Bremen (premiere: 04.07.2025) are involved in this production, which concludes the second three-year cycle.

For the 2025/26 season, the jury selected ‘Die Kantine’, a project by composer, director and filmmaker Nico Sauer. The musical theatre will be produced at Staatstheater Darmstadt and for the first time at Theater Münster. ‘Die Kantine’ questions the production of music theatre and its prerequisites in the opera business. The project is site-specific to the two cities and is aimed at the audience as well as the artistic and non-artistic staff of the theatres.