Overview
- The new Cologne installment airs Sunday, January 11 at 20:15 on Das Erste, with streaming after broadcast in the ARD Mediathek.
- Set during rehearsals for Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, the story begins with a props chief found shot and theatrically draped, and a missing prop firearm points detectives to suspects within the company.
- A masked presence prowls the backstage maze as Ballauf and Schenk probe a tightly controlled workplace shaped by hierarchy, pressure and dependency.
- Production shot in the still-closed Offenbachplatz opera house and the Deutz interim stage after another delay to the long-running renovation forced late script and location adjustments.
- Reviews praise the vivid setting and cast, including Klaus J. Behrendt, Dietmar Bär and Katja Bürkle, while noting a conventional mystery and the programming overlap with a recent Munich theater-themed Tatort; the film is written by Wolfgang Stauch and directed by Torsten C. Fischer.