Singer

A Tsar, wanting to have his photograph taken has no idea he’s surrounded by conspirator’s planning his assassination. And a young woman, who can outsmart anybody – even a King.

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The Tsar wants his Photograph taken / The Clever Woman

Oper Frankfurt

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.

Macbeth

Turandot refuses to marry by setting an impossible condition: Whoever wants her for his wife must solve three riddles. Anyone who can’t, is publicly executed. Prince Calaf, a refugee stranded in Peking, falls hopelessly under Turandot’s spell. The Princess is shaken to the core when he manages to answer all three. Turandot unleashes a clear struggle for power, which ultimately claims innocent victims.

Turandot

Introductory talks (in German) in the Holzfoyer 30 minutes before curtain up, available here shortly after opening night and everywhere where podcasts are to be found.

Amor vien dal destino

She lives in the here and now, one of the best-known heroines in operatic history, she makes sergeant Don José lose his mind, throwing his life into confusion. His attempts to make her tow the line fail because she can’t be tied down. They gradually drive each other into corners. Bizet’s music brings the differences in their perceptions of love and relationships into contrast again and again: Their downfall starts with light-hearted operetta music, but ends in tragedy. Barrie Kosky’s production quickly achieved cult status after it blasted onto the stage in  2015, and has lost none of its impact, taking the most performed opera in the world back to its roots - Opéra comique. The story’s interspersed and told using concise texts, steering us towards its tragic end. En route, romantic, amusing moments and wonderful dance routines share the stage. Kosky’s vision is fascinating, toying masterfully with usual Carmen and Spanish clichés.

Carmen

A ruler wracked with guilt, power-greedy conspirators, a fickle people and a monk, who writes history, in the true sense of the word: Boris Godunov is crowned Tsar, to the delight of the people, after Dimitri, legitimate heir to the throne, was murdered. The monk Pimen naming the ruler as the murderer in his chronicles of Russian history inspires the novice Grigori to pass himself off as Dimitri, who escaped with his life after all, and lay claim to the throne, backed by ambitious Marina, Polish Voyevoda's daughter. While Boris struggles with ghosts of the past, the Boyars wonder how to get rid of the new usurper, but the »fake Dimitri« ends up being crowned Tsar.

Boris Godunov

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

Robert Schumann: Genoveva

Museum Ludwig

Doctor Krautmann and Stössel, the pharmacist, are deadly enemies. That their children have fallen in love, doesn’t help matters at all ...

These fathers are German counterparts to Cimarosa and Rossini’s funny old men, who steal the show with wit and situation comedy. Even more so than Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Dittersdorf’s Doctor and Pharmacist marks an important turning point in the history in German opera-cum-plays. It resulted in three further commissions for von Dittersdorf, who’s all but forgotten today. This composer, violin virtuoso and contemporary of Mozart was internationally admired, not just in Viennese circles. He combined elements of north German Singspiel in his works with the tradition, wit and vocal virtuosity of Italian opera seria and buffa. He composed light-hearted music which, married to his hearty sense of humour, went down well with audiences. This, his best known work, was commissioned by the Emperor and the manager of the Burgtheater in Vienna, the librettist Johann Gottlieb Stephanie.

Doctor & Pharmacist

Bockenheimer Depot

Charismatic, good-hearted, and beloved by his fellow sailors, Billy Budd is pressed into service aboard a British warship during the Napoleonic Wars. His innocence and integrity inspire the crew, but also awaken jealousy and obsession in those around him. Based on Herman Melville’s classic novella, Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd is a gripping drama that explores the moral grey zones between innocence and corruption, justice and mercy, duty and conscience. At its center stands Captain Vere, forced to make an impossible choice that will alter the lives of everyone aboard his ship. Featuring one of opera’s most powerful scores, this searing tale of morality and fate returns to Des Moines Metro Opera in Kristine McIntyre’s acclaimed production ten years after its celebrated premiere.

Bass-baritone

Thomas Faulkner

Events

Upcoming events

10 - 23 Jul, 2027

Billy Budd · Des Moines Metro Opera

Past events

14 - 27 Jun, 2026

The Tsar wants his Photograph taken / The Clever Woman · Oper Frankfurt

Apr 18 - Jun 13, 2026

Macbeth · Oper Frankfurt

Future and recently performed repertoire

Timur in Turandot by Puccini

Oper Frankfurt

Banquo in Macbeth by Verdi

Oper Frankfurt

Drago in Genoveva by Schumann

Kölner Philharmonie

Swallow in Peter Grimes by Britten

Oper Frankfurt

Rangoni in Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky

Oper Frankfurt

John Claggart in Billy Budd by Britten

Des Moines Metro Opera

Dr Krautmann in Doctor & Pharmacist by Dittersdorf

Oper Frankfurt

Zuniga in Carmen by Bizet

Oper Frankfurt

Latino in Amor vien dal destino by Steffani

Oper Frankfurt

Farmer in The Clever Woman by Orff

Oper Frankfurt

About

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