In 1947, Walter Felsenstein founded and led the resident opera company, the Komische Oper, until his death in 1975.  During his lifetime the Komische Oper had become known as the birthplace of the modern musical theatre. Joachim Herz became general director after Felsenstein's death and served until 1980. Subsequently, Harry Kupfer directed the company for 21 seasons, until 2002. The company specializes in German language productions of opera, operetta and musicals. In 2007 the company won the "Opera house of the year" award by the German magazine Opernwelt. Since 2002, the company's chief director and Intendant has been Andreas Homoki. He passed his affairs on to Barrie Kosky in 2012.

Members of the orchestra

first violin

Gabriel Adorjan
Sophie Heinrich
Mika Yonezawa
Christiane Wolff
Angelika Muncheberg
Hannah Perowne
Peter Wunnenberg
Annemarie Rentzsch
Matthias Rechenberg
Klaus Watzig
Claudia Borner
Yoo-Jin Chung
Andreas Brautigam

second violin

Melinda Watzel
Stephan Kalbe
Dietrich Knappe
Thomas Holzhauser
Evan Rynes
Dorisz Batka
Volker Friedrich
Amelie Schmidt
Dorothee Muller
Almuth Kummer

viola

Johanna Kubina
Susanne Fliegel
Angelika Steinbeck
Yuta Nishiyama
Martin Flade
Manfred Glas
Anton Loginov
Anna Lotzsch

violoncello

Christoph Lamprecht
Thomas Helms
Cecile Tacier
Kleif Carnarius
Monika Lentfer
Christoph Bachmann

double bass

Jesper Ulfenstedt
Okhee Lee
Jorg Lorenz
Frank Lassig

harp

Tina Žerdin

flute

Matthieu Gauci-Ancelin
Andrea Haubold

oboe

Tjadina Wurdinger
Gerald Frohlich

clarinet

Sebastian Lehne
Tilo Morgner

bassoon

Reinhard Bastian
Martina Bastian
Yu-Tung Shih

horn

Christian Muller
Angelika Goldammer

trumpet

Michael Stodd
Lutz Emmelmann

trombone

Helmut Polster

timpani

Reinhard Toriser

percussion

Jan Biesterfeldt
Jože Bogolin

technical support

Orlando Koner
Gunter Loose

leadership

Andreas Moritz
Ulrike Krtschil

From 1966 to 2004 the theatre was also home to a resident ballet company – first as "Tanztheater der Komischen Oper", and then from 1999 as "BerlinBallett – Komische Oper". In 2004, due to budgetary problems, the “Tanztheater” was discontinued.

Past General Music Directors (GMD) of the company have included Rolf Reuter, Yakov Kreizberg, Kirill Petrenko and Carl St.Clair. Patrick Lange became GMD of the Komische Oper Berlin as of the 2010/2011 season. The present GMD is Henrik Nánási.