Singer

»If I survived, and others didn’t, then it was probably to attest to what Auschwitz was.« Said Zofia Posmysz, explaining why she wrote her novel The (female) Passenger. Polish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg, who suffered under the brutality of the SS as well as Stalin’s reign of terror, found a guardian and supporter in Dmitri Shostakovich. It was he who suggested he turn Posmysz' novel into an opera. Director Anselm Weber and set designer Katja Haß cleverly managed to depict different times and places – present day and memories: A ship sailing to Brazil in the 1950s. Lisa and her husband Walter are on their way to start a new life when an encounter suddenly confronts Lisa with the past, when she was a KZ guard in Auschwitz. Is the other passenger a former prisoner, Marta? Lisa was convinced she had died but now stands face to face with her. Walter’s dumbfounded and fears for his future as a diplomat – he knew nothing of his wife’s past.

EPSG:4326

The (female) Passenger

Oper Frankfurt

Driven into a corner, disowned by a community who blame him for an accident that killed his apprentice, after the first one died at sea, because they'd run out of water – Peter Grimes is a tragic figure, at the mercy of a narrow-minded rural community’s bigotry. Keith Warner, with a passion for psychodrama, draws a haunting portrait of a fishing community, portraying people thrown together in a claustrophobic world. Ellen Orford finds the jersey she knitted the second apprentice washed up on the beach. With the people baying for Grimes‘ blood, Balstrode, his only friend, tells him to take the boat out, and sink it.

Peter Grimes

They meet on an island where they become aware of the power of magic and the magic of power.

Handel gave the world a magic opera, and one of his best, in 1735 - about love, manipulation and real, or pretend, feelings on Alcina’s island. What makes his characters in this moving story so special? Their (erroneous) paths, obsessions, vows of love, highly emotional confusion or their vulnerability?

Alcina

Amfortas, leader of the Knights of the Grail, was wounded when he lost the Holy Spear to Klingsor, a wound, that won’t close.

As long as he does his duty and reveals the Grail, Amfortas can’t die. Kundry, a two-faced individual, serves the knights; she procures medicine to alleviate his pain, but it has little effect. Then Parsifal appears, committing sacrilege by shooting down a swan in this hallowed region. Gurnemanz rebukes him, then starts wondering: Could the young hothead be the promised »innocent fool«, who could bring salvation to their community? If so Parsifal would have to become »knowing through compassion« first. He meets Kundry, now a seductive woman, in Klingsor’s magic realm. Can he beat Klingsor and take the speer from him, the only thing that can close Amfortas’ wound?

Parsifal

Lulu's uniqueness challenges the norm. Is she real, a mythological figure or a figment of men's imagination? Innocent victim or a destructive demon? She's none of these things yet all of them. This feral, vulnerable, creature's struggle with the world, during which she's appropriated and exploited before being murdered, began when she was dragged out of her element.

Lulu

How to become self-aware and lead a meaningful life? Does the secret to happiness lie in accepting finiteness and overcoming human vanities?

Contralto

Katharina Magiera

Events

Upcoming events

13 - 24 Jun, 2026

The Triumph Of Time & Truth · Oper Frankfurt

Past events

1 - 21 Feb, 2026

The (female) Passenger · Oper Frankfurt

6 - 18 Sep, 2025

Peter Grimes · Oper Frankfurt

Future and recently performed repertoire

Disinganno in The Triumph of Time and Truth by Handel

Oper Frankfurt

Voice from on High in Parsifal by Wagner

Oper Frankfurt

Auntie in Peter Grimes by Britten

Oper Frankfurt

Her Mother in Lulu by Berg

Oper Frankfurt

Bradamante in Alcina by Händel

Oper Frankfurt

Lisa in The Passenger by Weinberg

Oper Frankfurt

About

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