Singer

Who are we, who do we want to be? How far will longing for more power, wealth and a more elevated position in society make peope go? Triggered by a curious encounter, which he thinks is a prophesy, Macbeth’s wife goads him into murdering King Duncan. The throne falls to him, but remorse and hallucinations throw him deeper and deeper into turmoil, while Lady Macbeth urges him to carry out more atrocious deeds. But her feelings of guilt ending up destroying her too. R.B. Schlather’s production traces the extraordinary actuality of the protagonists, just as Verdi was fascinated by Shakespeare’s King and Queen. The Director studied the gruesome events surrounding a childless couple in an elegant but cheerless atmosphere of an imposing residence: global politics mirrored in private lives. In the end the oppressed put a violent end to the Macbeth’s autocratic regime.

EPSG:4326

Macbeth

Oper Frankfurt

»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.

The (female) Passenger

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

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

Finding no peace in the world hereafter, Guercœur wishes himself back to earth – to his great love Giselle and his people, who he led to freedom ...

Four deities, Vérité, Bonté, Beauté and Souffrance grant Guercœur’s wish to return to earth, but the world’s moved on: Giselle, who promised to be true to him forever, is having an affair with Guercœur’s pupil Heurtal, who’s kissed goodbye to the ideals of freedom and love and turned into a dictator. The starving populace is divided, resulting in violent riots which threaten the foundations of the fledgling democracy.

Soprano

Julia Stuart

Events

Past events

Apr 18 - Jun 13, 2026

Macbeth · Oper Frankfurt

1 - 21 Feb, 2026

The (female) Passenger · Oper Frankfurt

Future and recently performed repertoire

Lady-in-Waiting in Macbeth by Verdi

Oper Frankfurt

6 Flowermaidens in Parsifal by Wagner

Oper Frankfurt

Two Nieces in Peter Grimes by Britten

Oper Frankfurt

Shadow of a young Girl in Guercœur by Magnard

Oper Frankfurt

Katja in The Passenger by Weinberg

Oper Frankfurt

About

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