Frankfurt has 11 new opera productions. Count them
NewsHere’s the list. Really keen on the Ligeti, Zemlinsky and Halévy.
2023/24 Season
New Productions
Gaetano Donizetti
Don Pasquale
Saturday September 23rd 2023 (Bockenheimer Depot)
Conductor: Simone Di Felice
Director: Caterina Panti Liberovici
Set Designer: Sergio Mariotti
Costume Designer: Raphaela Rose
Lighting Designer: Joachim Klein
Dramaturge: Deborah Einspieler
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Le nozze di Figaro
Sunday October 1st 2023
Conductor: Thomas Guggeis / Alden Gatt
Director: Tilmann Köhler
Set Designer: Karoly Risz
Costume Designer: Susanne Uhl
Lighting Designer: Joachim Klein
Chorus Master: Tilman Michael
Dramaturge: Zsolt Horpácsy
György Ligeti
Le Grand Macabre (first ever performance in Frankfurt)
Sunday November 5th 2023
Conductor: Thomas Guggeis
Director: Vasily Barkhatov
Set Designer: Zinovy Margolin
Costume Designer: Olga Shaishmelashvili
Lighting Designer: Joachim Klein
Video: Ruth Stofer
Chorus Master: Tilman Michael
Dramaturge: Maximilian Enderle
Giuseppe Verdi
Aida
Sunday December 3rd 2023
Conductor: Erik Nielsen
Director: Lydia Steier
Set Designer: Katharina Schlipf
Costume Designer: Siegfried Zoller
Lighting Designer: Joachim Klein
Chorus Master: Tilman Michael
Dramaturge: Mareike Wink
With generous support from the DZ BANK AG
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Ascanio in Alba (first ever performance in Frankfurt)
Sunday December 17th 2023 (Bockenheimer Depot)
Conductor: Alden Gatt / Lukas Rommelspacher
Director: Nina Brazier
Set Designer: Christoph Fischer
Costume Designer: Henriette Hübschmann
Lighting Designer: Jonathan Pickers
Dramaturge: Deborah Einspieler
Jacques Offenbach
Die Banditen (The Bandits; first ever performance in Frankfurt)
Sunday January 28th 2024
Conductor: Karsten Januschke
Director: Katharina Thoma
Set Designer: Etienne Pluss
Costume Designer: Irina Bartels
Choreographer: Katharina Wiedenhofer
Lighting Designer: Olaf Winter
Chorus Master: Tilman Michael
Dramaturge: Konrad Kuhn
Alexander Zemlinsky
Der Traumgörge (Görge the Dreamer; first ever staging in Frankfurt)
Sunday February 25th 2024
Conductor: Markus Poschner
Director: Tilmann Köhler
Set Designer: Karoly Risz
Costume Designer: Susanne Uhl
Lighting Designer: Jan Hartmann
Chorus Master: Tilman Michael
Children’s Chorus Master: Álvaro Corral Matute
Dramaturge: Zsolt Horpácsy
Wolfgang Fortner
In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplín Belisa
(The Love of Don Perlimplín and Belisa in the Garden; first ever staging in Frankfurt)
Friday March 22nd 2024 (Bockenheimer Depot)
Conductor: Takeshi Moriuchi
Director: Dorothea Kirschbaum
Set Designer: Christoph Fischer
Costume Designer: Henriette Hübschmann
Lighting Designer: Jonathan Pickers
Dramaturge: Konrad Kuhn
George Frideric Handel
Giulio Cesare in Egitto
Sunday March 24th 2024
Conductor: Simone Di Felice
Director: Nadja Loschky
Set Designer: Etienne Pluss
Costume Designer: Irina Spreckelmeyer
Lighting Designer: Joachim Klein
Conceptual collaboration: Yvonne Gebauer
Dramaturge: Mareike Wink
Richard Wagner
Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg
Sunday April 28th 2024
Conductor: Thomas Guggeis
Director: Matthew Wild
Set Designer: Herbert Murauer
Costume Designer: Raphaela Rose
Lighting Designer: Jan Hartmann
Chorus Master: Tilman Michael
Children’s Chorus Master: Álvaro Corral Matute
Dramaturge: Maximilian Enderle
Fromental Halévy
La Juive (pictured)
Sunday June 16th 2024
Conductor: Henrik Nánasi
Director: Tatjana Gürbaca
Set and Lighting Designer: Klaus Grünberg
Costume Designer: Silke Willrett
Chorus Master: Tilman Michael
Dramaturge: Maximilian Enderle
It’s all very well having new productions, if you have the money to mount them. Critics putting pressure on companies to spend money on new productions is has what has left so many of them in such a parlous financial state.
I don’t deny the pressure from critics. But to blame them for repertoire choice and company finances is stretching it way too far. Opera companies make their own decisions. Sadly they too often appear to be making wrong ones.
…and who are the singers ?
You might well ask…at least Frankfurt has a long and excellent record of discovering and nurturing talent.
Impressive first season for the new director of Frankfurt, 30 year old Thomas Guggeis
Keep an eye (or ear) on this man
Do we need 11 new productions in Frankfurt? No. It’s all a bit manic if you ask me, even for our gifted Intendant. (And I‘m grateful we have him. Who else could have landed Guggeis, van den Heever, Michael Nagy, and regular visits by Asmik Hrigorian.)
Instead, let’s do 6 or 7 new productions and then invest more in a better mix of ensemble and **guest** singers and conductors for performances of an already excellent and vast repertory.
Great New season, congrats to Oper Frankfurt! New in the already fabulous ensemble is a brillant young Soprano Elena Villalón (24), just admired her in the new “Hercules”, she will sing Susanna in Guggeis’ first Premiere. And Pretty Yende will be Cleopatra in “Giulio Cesare” in March 24! Her sister is in the Frankfurt Opernstudio! Bravi!