Oper Frankfurt
The Oper Frankfurt is one of the leading opera companies in Europe, and voted best "Opera house of the year" several times since 1996. Opera in Frankfurt am Main has a long tradition, with many world premieres such as Franz Schreker's Der ferne Klang in 1912, Fennimore und Gerda by Frederick Delius in 1919, and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana in 1937. Frankfurt's international recognition began in the Gielen Era, 1977 to 1987, when Michael Gielen and stage directors such as Ruth Berghaus collaborated.
A historic opera house from 1880 was destroyed in World War II, and reconstructed as a concert hall, Alte Oper. The present opera house, built in 1963, is under one roof with the stage for drama. The opera orchestra is called Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester. Today's venue for Baroque and contemporary opera is the Bockenheimer Depot, a former tram depot.
Oper Frankfurt is part of the Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt.
History
Frankfurt's first opera was Johann Theile's Adam und Eva, performed in 1698 by Johann Velten's touring company. The young Goethe's first operas in his home town of Frankfurt were productions by Theobald Marchand's company.1782 – 1880
Opened in 1782, the Comoedienhaus was the first permanent venue of the Frankfurt Theater.1880 – 1944
The first representative opera house of the city was inaugurated in Frankfurt in 1880 at Opernplatz. Under the direction of the first Intendant Emil Claar and the first Kapellmeister Felix Otto Dessoff, the house was opened with Mozart's opera Don Giovanni.During the 1920s the opera in Frankfurt had more prominent Jewish singers than any other company in Germany, including the tenor Hermann Schramm, bass Hans Erl, baritone Richard Breitenfeld and contralto Magda Spiegel, who also toured with Frankfurt Opera performing Wagner in the Netherlands. These singers were forced to leave the opera in June 1933, though the opera's director Hans Meissner was able to persuade the mayor to speak up for Schramm, who had a non-Jewish wife. Orff's Carmina Burana was premiered at Oper Frankfurt in 1937. Jewish members of the opera company among those rounded up at 9 November 1938 at the Festhalle Frankfurt, where Erl sang In diesen Heilgen Hallen, from the Magic Flute for the deportees. Members of Frankfurt Opera were sent to Auschwitz and other camps where they perished. Schramm survived, living to testify against the Frankfurt Gestapo officer Heinrich Baab in 1951.
1945 – 1970s
The opera house was damaged in an air raid in January 1944, and then almost completely destroyed in March. After the war money was tight. A new house for opera and play was built, completed in 1963 at the Theaterplatz.The Gielen Era
From 1977 to 1987 Frankfurt Opera was led by Michael Gielen. This decade became known as the "Gielen Era", notable for the music of a conductor who was also a composer, and directors including Ruth Berghaus and Hans Neuenfels, whose productions of standard works such as Verdi's Aida and Wagner's Ring Cycle were thought-provoking. Operas which received their world premieres at the house were also performed again, including Franz Schreker's Die Gezeichneten.1987 to date
The stage of the opera house was destroyed by a fire in November 1987. The opera house was rebuilt and opened in April 1991. Many famous singers started their career with the company, including Franz Völker, Edda Moser, Cheryl Studer and Diana Damrau, and many established artists have been engaged there in recent seasons including Christian Gerhaher, whose roles here have included Monteverdi's L'Orfeo and his first Wolfram in Wagner's Tannhäuser, Piotr Beczała in Massenet's Werther and Jan-Hendrik Rootering in Wagner's Parsifal.Music Director, since 2008, is Sebastian Weigle, General Manager, since 2002, Bernd Loebe. Weigle's new productions there have included Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten, Daphne and Arabella, Korngold's Die tote Stadt, Reimann's Lear and Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauß. He has also conducted performances of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Beethoven's Fidelio, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal for the company. He performed the four parts of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, staged by Vera Nemirova, finishing with Götterdämmerung in 2012. The complete cycle was performed twice in 2012.
In 2017, Debussy's cantata La Damoiselle élue and Honegger's dramatic oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher were combined, staged by Àlex Ollé, conducted by Marc Soustrot, and co-produced with the Teatro Real Madrid.
Oper Frankfurt was voted 1996, 2003, 2015 and 2018 "Opera House of the Year" by the magazine Opernwelt.
Städtische Bühnen
Oper Frankfurt and Schauspiel Frankfurt are part of the Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt am Main GmbH.Conductors
The first conductors had the title Kapellmeister. From 1924 it was Generalmusikdirektor, who often also held the administrative leadership Intendant.- Since 2008 Sebastian Weigle
- Since 2002 Bernd Loebe
- 1999–2008 Paolo Carignani
- 1997–2002 Martin Steinhoff
- 1993–1997 Sylvain Cambreling
- 1987–1991 Gary Bertini
- 1977–1987 Michael Gielen
- 1967–1977 Christoph von Dohnányi
- 1961–1966 Lovro von Matačić
- 1952–1961 Georg Solti
- 1945–1951
- 1938–1944 Franz Konwitschny
- 1937–1938 Georg Ludwig Jochum
- 1935–1936 Karl Maria Zwißler
- 1933–1934
- 1929–1933 Hans Wilhelm Steinberg
- 1924–1929 Clemens Krauss
- 1893–1924 Ludwig Rottenberg
- 1880–1892 Felix Otto Dessoff
Premieres
| Date | Work | Composer |
| 16 September 1810 | Silvana | Carl Maria von Weber |
| 4 April 1819 | Zemire und Azor | Louis Spohr |
| 20 January 1851 | Die Opernprobe | Albert Lortzing |
| 26 November 1853 | Rübezahl | Friedrich von Flotow |
| 8 Dezember 1881 | Das Käthchen von Heilbronn | Carl Martin Reinthaler |
| 12 November 1902 | Dornröschen | Engelbert Humperdinck |
| 18 August 1912 | Der ferne Klang | Franz Schreker |
| 15 March 1913 | Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin | Franz Schreker |
| 25 April 1918 | Die Gezeichneten | Franz Schreker |
| 21 October 1919 | Fennimore und Gerda | Frederick Delius |
| 21 Januar 1920 | Der Schatzgräber | Franz Schreker |
| 1 July 1920 | Rudi Stephan | |
| 26 March 1922 | Sancta Susanna | Paul Hindemith |
| 9 July 1924 | Der Sprung über den Schatten | Ernst Krenek |
| 8 November 1924 | Sakahra | Simon Bucharoff |
| 25 February 1926 | Die zehn Küsse | Bernhard Sekles |
| 14 November 1926 | Der Golem | Eugen d’Albert |
| 25 December 1926 | Die Lästerschule | Paul von Klenau |
| 1 February 1930 | Von heute auf morgen | Arnold Schönberg |
| 23 March 1930 | Achtung, Aufnahme!! | Wilhelm Grosz |
| 25 May 1930 | Transatlantic | George Antheil |
| 31 January 1934 | Prinz Eugen der edle Ritter | Max Pflugmacher |
| 22 May 1935 | Die Zaubergeige | Werner Egk |
| 26 May 1936 | Hermann Reutter | |
| 8 June 1937 | Carmina Burana | Carl Orff |
| 13 January 1942 | Columbus | Werner Egk |
| 7 September 1942 | Odysseus | Hermann Reutter |
| 20 February 1943 | Die Kluge | Carl Orff |
| 1 March 1962 | Die Alkestiade | Louise Talma |
| 24 September 1964 | Gerhard Wimberger | |
| 14 November 1986 | Die Reise zum Mittelpunkt der Erde | Hans-Joachim Hespos |
| 15 June 1986 | Stephen Climax | Hans Zender |
| 12 December 1987 | Europeras 1 & 2 | John Cage |
| 18 May 1989 | What Where | Heinz Holliger |
| 14 June 2002 | Dr. Popels fiese Falle | Moritz Eggert |
| 7 Oktober 2006 | Caligula | Detlev Glanert |
| 29 June 2014 | Der goldene Drache | Péter Eötvös |
| 14 September 2014 | Sirenen – Bilder des Begehrens und des Vernichtens | Rolf Riehm |
| 31 May 2015 | An unserem Fluss | Lior Navok |
| 12 November 2017 | Arnulf Herrmann |