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"The Triadic Ballet" by Oskar Schlemmer - an epochal masterpiece of the "Golden Twenties"! In many parts of the western world, the economy was experiencing strong growth and a cultural heyday. It was a period of abundance, economic boom and technological progress: automobiles, railways, floating overseas colossi made the world appear increasingly mechanical and "dehumanized". Contemporaries were forced to ask themselves the question: in what form or style could a ballet be created that critically allegorizes this theme of booming modernity? The dancers Albert Burger and Elsa Hötzel - both soloists at the Royal Court Opera in Stuttgart - discussed their views and thoughts on this with the painter and stage designer Oskar Schlemmer, the pioneer of so-called "classical modernism". His avant-garde intention was to unite technology and art, man and civilization, and body and mind in his work. As a master at the State Bauhaus in Weimar, he initially headed the wall painting classes and workshops, and later the Bauhaus stage, which he significantly influenced. The result of the artistic compilation by Burger, Hötzel and Schlemmer was the so-called "Triadic Ballet", an experimental ballet méchanique of shapes, colors and movement. Schlemmer saw his "Triadic Ballet" as an artistic reaction to a world of machines. The name of the ballet is derived from the Greek word "trias" [τριάς] and illustrates the interaction of three concepts as a whole. In his design, Schlemmer concentrated on the basic shapes of sphere, circle and cuboid, as well as the three primary colors red, yellow and blue. To underline the dominance of the "machine world", the dancers' choreography was supposed to appear "mechanical"; ultimately, he envisioned the realization of the ballet completely without human involvement and he therefore favored mechanical puppets. As part of the Ekhof Festival 2025, a version of the "Triadic Ballet" will be performed as a marionette theater - a form that Oskar Schlemmer himself once planned. The legendary eighteen costumed figurines were constructed as string marionettes by the puppet designers Marianne and Kurt Erbe. In Christian Fuchs' production, they will be presented in the original colors from the Bauhaus era. They will be accompanied musically by star pianist Ragna Schirmer, who will virtuosically interpret the suite of piano pieces planned by Oskar Schlemmer. Music by Georg Friedrich Händel, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Marco Enrico Bossi and Claude Debussy will be played. Ragna Schirmer will play on a grand piano from 1856 from the "Julius Blüthner Pianofortefabrik" in Leipzig.

"Tenors are a rare species, good tenors even more so, brilliant and good-looking ones are about as rare as white unicorns," writes "Klassik begeistert.de" in 2022 about Jonathan Tetelman. "A star par excellence" is what one reads in the New York Times, "dark-colored tenor timbre" (SZ) and "balsamic verve" (Der Tagesspiegel). The critics' unanimous verdict is also "voice and charisma" when it comes to the 35-year-old Chilean-American opera star Jonathan Tetelman . On June 15, 2025, visitors to the Alte Oper Frankfurt will experience Jonathan Tetelman, a tenor who can certainly be counted among the most impressive singers of all time. In a solo concert, Tetelman will not only sing the most famous tenor arias by Puccini, Verdi and other composers, but will also treat the audience to the most beautiful Neapolitan melodies. The soloist will be accompanied by the renowned Thuringia Philharmonic Gotha-Eisenach . Frédéric Chaslin will conduct .

Spohr, Weber, Schubert and Haydn – four titans of classical-romantic music history! They were undoubtedly pioneers on their respective musical paths, intuitively picking up on the trends of their time and laying the foundations for future generations of composers. One thing is certain, however: the one would probably not have existed without the other, or would probably not have achieved the virtuoso brilliance for which they are still praised today. There was a clear mutual influence and this contributed to the development of the musical landscape of their time. One example of this interaction is the connection between Franz Schubert and Carl Maria von Weber. Although they took different musical paths, as contemporaries they shared a common era of transition from Viennese Classicism to Romanticism. Schubert, inspired by Weber's operas, integrated some of his ideas into his songs and music-dramatic works, thus coming closer to the romantic ideal of musical expression. Weber, in turn, was impressed by Schubert's melodic inventiveness and his ability to convey emotional depth in his music. This mutual admiration and influence contributed to the bilateral development of their musical styles. Joseph Haydn and Louis Spohr were also no strangers to each other's musical world. Although they lived in different eras, they shared a common appreciation for form and structure in music. Haydn's work in developing the symphony form laid a foundation for the instrumentation and orchestration that would later be further developed by Spohr in his own works. Spohr's innovative use of the orchestra and his virtuosity as a violinist were certainly influenced by Haydn's pioneering work. The relationship between Spohr and Weber, in turn, was an appreciative, if not friendly one. Both knew each other from their time together in Gotha: In 1812, Karoline Amalie of Hesse-Kassel hosted the German Music Festival in the Margarethenkirche in Gotha, where Carl Maria von Weber took part as pianist and Louis Spohr as conductor of the Gotha court orchestra. The four works played in this symphony concert reveal the excellent legacies of past musical eras in harmonious harmony - for a fleeting moment, space and time merge into a single, infinite moment of classical-romantic aesthetics.

In den Tiefen des Kontrabasses verbirgt sich eine Welt von höchst unterschätzten Klängen, die von Komponisten gezaubert worden sind, deren Existenz und Wirken heutzutage kaum mehr bekannt sind. Einer von ihnen ist der tschechische Frühklassiker Jan Křtitel Vaňhal, der in seiner kompositorischen Kunst Mozart und Haydn mindestens ebenbürtig gewesen ist und mit seinem virtuosen Konzert für Solo-Kontrabass Musikgeschichte geschrieben hat. Als Schüler Carl Ditters von Dittersdorfs, der selbst auf das Komponieren von Werken für tiefe Streicher spezialisiert war, gelang es Vaňhal, sich – neben Johannes Matthias Sperger – als einer der führenden Kontrabass-Komponisten des 18. Jahrhunderts zu etablieren; bis zu seinem Tod hatte sich seine Popularität sogar bis nach Amerika ausgebreitet. Vaňhal beschäftigt bis heute die Musikwissenschaft, denn er war ein ausgesprochen produktiver Komponist, der aber die Angewohnheit hatte, Freunden beim Verlassen seines Hauses einzelne Notenblätter seiner Musik zu schenken; außerdem fielen viele Spätwerke Vaňhals seiner geistigen Labilität zum Opfer. Die Schwierigkeit für die Musikforscher besteht nun im Auffinden und Wiederbeschaffen von Originalmanuskripten – sein kompositorischer Nachlass soll sich auf mehr als 700 Werke belaufen. Vaňhal war einer der ersten unabhängigen Künstler überhaupt in der Geschichte, der Zeit seines Lebens kein offizielles Amt innehatte und „freischaffend“ leben konnte.