Name: Written on Skin
Start: 2026-04-05T18:00:00
Location: Oper Frankfurt

Cecelia Hall

Bo Skovhus

Erik Nielsen

Elizabeth Reiter

Iurii Iushkevich

Michael McCown

Tatjana Gürbaca

Silke Willrett

Klaus Grünberg

Oper Frankfurt

The last hours of the singer Flora Tosca and artist Mario Cavaradossi's passionate love: they couldn’t escape the vortex of power and violence. Their attempts to break free from the unscrupulous Police Chief Scarpia’s system were in vain. The strength in Puccini’s opera lies in striking portrayals of extreme emotions, violence, jealousy and persecution. The composer decided on this work while watching a performance of Victorien Sardou’s play, with Sarah Bernhardt as Tosca. His music lives in the keenly sketched characters, their outpourings contrasting with lyrical moments. Director Andreas Kriegenburg homed in on their private lives, while liberating the characters from clichés: they could be people of today, broken by a brutal police state. Strong visual effects and detailed portraits of the three key protagonists turn his production into a study of the abuse of power and resistance.

Tosca

Mozart and his librettist, and kindred spirit, Lorenzo da Ponte’s third opera revolves around six people. The lives of two couples are thrown into confusion in the space of 24 hours: Guglielmo and Ferrando are persuaded to make a bet with cynical Don Alfonso about their lovers’ Fiordiligi and Dorabella’s fidelity. Don Alfonso’s convinced that, with their maid Despina's help, he can prove both sisters are fickle. The young men dress up as foreigners, to seduce their best friend’s lovers. Feigned and real emotions start getting all mixed up. The »wrong« couples even celebrate a sham double wedding, before the sisters discover their husbands' true identities. All six draw seemingly happy and conciliatory conclusions, but the laughter sticks in their throats. Can things return to how they were? Which feelings were and are real anyway?

Così fan tutte

Jacques Offenbach carries us off to a world of bandits in his wonderful operetta. Falsacappa, their chief, is having trouble keeping his men’s moral up: recent forays raked in next to nothing. Now he’s planning an outrageous coup. Taking advantage of complicated events concerning an envoy from Granada, wanting to claim a debt from the court of Mantua, and sneaking into Mantua, is disguise, to swipe the money for themselves. The carabinieri, in their heavy boots, always arrive too late. But Falsacappa's gang ends up empty-handed: the Duke of Mantua's coffers are empty … criminal activity at court far outclasses the bandits’.

The Bandits

Little ones will probably never forget being so close to a handful of singers and musicians performing for them, live, that going to an opera when they're bigger will be something to really look forward to.

Opera for Children

Neue Kaiser

The title of this series of concerts– »Happy New Ears« – was something John Cage once wished his audience instead of Happy New Year. Cage, along with Luigi Nono, who taught him, and Karlheinz Stockhausen were among those to have influenced Helmut Lachenmann most. He turns 90 on November 27 this year; a chance to honour one of the most important composers of the 20th and 21st centuries with a portrait concert. He's been trying to broaden horizons across the board with his distinct sound world and challenging concepts of art and music for nearly 70 years. »Art is not an expression of what defines time, but what it lacks,« he said and, with Beethoven in mind: »a metamorphosis of magical, familiar experiences triggered by a spiritually charged, creative driving force« - something that fascinates him.

Happy New Ears

HfMDK Frankfurt

Elderly King Mitridate wants to marry again, but suspects his sons might dispute his right to his beloved Aspasia and the throne. He therefore spreads the rumour that he died in battle after being defeated by the Romans. Sure enough, his older son Farnace starts pressurising his father’s young intended bride to marry him. But Aspasia secretly loves Sifare, his younger brother, who she asks to protect her from Farnace’s advances. The King of Pontus, believed to be dead, returns in the company of Irene, whom Farnace once promised to marry. Everyone starts eyeing each up other suspiciously. Farnace, in league with the Romans, plots against his father while Sifare und Aspasia are torn between their love for one another and loyalty to Mitridate. Left at the mercy of the King’s jealousy, their desperation brings them close to death.

Mitridate, Re di Ponto

Harrison Birtwistle’s opera ain’t for the fainthearted. A man throws a baby in the fire, stabs his wife Judy, searching for lovely Polly, who he wants to marry, carrying out further murders before he finally finds her. Benjamin Britten proposed the young composer Birtwistle for an opera commissioned by the Aldeburgh Festival, because »he’s got more to say than his contemporaries«.

Punch and Judy

Bockenheimer Depot

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

See in the New Year in a relaxed atmosphere in Oper Frankfurt's wonderful foyer, with buffet, drinks, a DJ and dancing! Come and have a ball!

New Year's Eve at Oper Frankfurt

This petite American soprano with an enormous voice is back in Frankfurt, where she thrilled audiences in recent seasons as Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, for this recital. Recent opportunities for her versatile abilities to shine included appearances at the Aix-en-Provence Festival,  where she can be heard again soon in a Gluck double-bill as young Iphigenie in Aulis and the older Iphigenie auf Tauris. She sang the title role in Janáček's Katja Kabanová, one of her finest roles, at the Salzburg Festival (get the DVD), in Munich, Stuttgart, Rome, Geneva, Brno and Seattle. Get a copy of her debut CD:Canción amorosa - with Lieder from Spain. She's putting together a special programme for Frankfurt, inspired by Nadezhda von Meck (1831 - 1894), a Russian amateur musician and valued confidante and patron of Tchaikovsky and Debussy, who also influenced Janáček and Glière.

Corinne Winters (soprano) & Simon Lepper (piano)

Mendelssohn was influenced less by Prussian austerity and dramatic pathos than his comprehensive education, evangelical piety and, in musical terms, adherence to classical form. The three movements in his violin concerto flow seamlessly into one another. We're delighted that Arabella Steinbacher is back, playing one of the most popular violin concertos there is.

5th Sunday & Monday Symphonic Concerts

Alte Oper

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

A wealthy man wants to immortalise his life and success in an illustrated book, which confronts him with an uncomfortable reality.