Name: 9th Sunday & Monday Symphonic Concerts
Start: 2026-05-18T20:00:00
Location: Alte Oper

Thomas Guggeis

Magnus Dietrich

David Steffens

Karolina Bengtsson

Oper Frankfurt

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

The relationship between Cio-Cio-San, called »Butterfly«, and US American marine officer Benjamin F. Pinkerton begins as a proforma wedding – with unexpected consequences: the young Japanese woman cuts herself off from her family, hoping to leave her impoverished origins behind; Pinkerton, on the other hand, despite his overwhelming desires, doesn’t feel committed to this »provisional marriage«. When he’s ordered home Cio-Cio-San’s left behind, expecting his baby. She waits unwaveringly for his return; her only rock is her faithful servant Suzuki. But when Pinkerton’s ship re-docks in Nagasaki, the illusion shatters: He married another woman in America. When Butterfly realises they intend to take her child as well, she sees no other way out; she commits ritual suicide, as her father before her. Doing away with superficial clichés, the director R.B. Schlather focuses on the human tragedy, for which Puccini, Master of Melody found such heart-rending music.

Madama Butterfly

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

Written on Skin

Julies Massenet’s much loved opera Werther moves between ecstasy and resignation, dream and reality, sensual desire and the longing for death. Central to this feverish drama, based on Goethe‘s 1774 epistolary novel, are Werther and his impossible love for Charlotte, who promised her dying mother to marry dependable Albert. Charlotte repeatedly turns Werther down, although she shares his feelings. It ends with Werther taking his life on Christmas Eve.

Werther

Richard Wagner revolutionised music with his version of theTristan story, popular since the Middle Ages. His opening Tristan chord paved the way for modern music and encapsulates the core of this tragic love story – an insatiable longing, ceaselessly striving for relief. »Only in the face of death are the lovers able to give themselves unrestrainedly to each other«, said Katharina Thoma, focussing on the subconscious, their past lives, loss and the meaning for life of both protagonists. She explores the reasons for loneliness, which go beyond societal difficulties and external influences in Johannes Leiacker’s clear, focussed space.

Tristan und Isolde

Joseph Calleja is one of the most sought-after singers alive today. His supple, beguiling voice, often compared to legendary tenors including Gigli, Pavarotti and Caruso, has taken him to leading opera houses all over the world. During the 2024/25 season engagements included Rodolfo in La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Cavaradossi in Tosca at the Semperoper in Dresden, and concerts for the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society, in Shanghai's Performing Arts Center (his debut in China) and the Musiikkitalo in Helsinki. Now he's back at Oper Frankfurt, where roles he thrilled audiences with included Gounod's Roméo, the title role in Mascagni's L’amico Fritz (in concert), Rodolfo, Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Don José (Carmen), and Nadir and Ruggero in concert performances of Bizet's Les pêcheurs des perles and Puccini's La rondine, and a recital with Tatiana Lisnic, for this recital. The Maltese government made him their country's Cultural Ambassador in 2012 and France bestowed the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres on him in 2024. Welcome back, Joseph Calleja!

Joseph Calleja (tenor) & Sarah Tysman (piano)

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

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

It ain't easy to speak while you're playing an instrument, without getting stuck or losing the rhythm. Jazz musicians sometimes can.  ‘Speaking Drums’ takes another approach with the drummer speaking rhythmic syllables, passing the rhythm on to his instrument, teaching it to speak, so to speak, until it can alone. The first two movements are based on three poems by Sándor Weöres, and the third on a poem by Jayadeva. An unusual work to look forward by the Hungarian composer Peter Eötvös, who died last year, and Alexej Gerassimez, who returns for another concert in this series this season.

8th Sunday & Monday Symphonic Concerts

Alte Oper

During Simon Bailey's years as a much loved member of the Ensemble in Frankfurt his many roles included Peter (the Father) (Hänsel und Gretel), Mr Redburn (Billy Budd), Gunther (Götterdämmerung), Klingsor (Parsifal), Gelone (Cesti's L’Orontea - get the CD! OehmsCassics), Don Magnifico (La Cenerentola), Orest (Elektra), Křenek's Adam Ochsenschwanz (Heavyweight or the Glory of the Nation) and the title role in Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle. This British artist's recent engagements have included Achilla (Giulio Cesare in Egitto), Don Bartolo (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Mozart's Figaro, Leporello (Don Giovanni), Kutusov (Prokofiev's War and Peace), Méphistophélès (La damnation de Faust), the four Villains (Les contes d’Hoffmann), Jochanaan (Salome), Balstrode (Peter Grimes) and the Judge of the Dead (Lucullus' Condemnation) at places including Wiesbaden, Stuttgart, Basel, Strasbourg, Brussels, London and Milan. This winner of the 2018 Wales Theatre Awards added the roles of Wotan and the Wanderer to his repertoire after enjoying great success with them at the Tirol Festival in Erl, in a new Ring directed by Brigitte Fassbaender. Now we can all look forward to hearing this wonderful singer and friend again, in recital!

Simon Bailey (bass-baritone) & Anne Larlee (piano)

The inspiration for Fortner’s opera resembles an ancient Greek tragedy. The Spanish poet Garcia Lorca took up an all too familiar tale for his play Blood Wedding, which was first performed in 1933. His vitriol aimed at the uncompromising nature of blood feuds: a bridegroom’s mother lost her husband and oldest son in fights between the two clans and now fears for her youngest son’s life. She’s worried his wedding will reignite the war, because the bride still loves her former beloved Leonardo, a member of the enemy family. Leonardo abducts her during the wedding. They escape into the woods, but are caught. Two scores are settled: both rivals die in a duel.

Blood Wedding

The Four Seasons was written not long after the very successful first performance of Haydn's Creation and are clearly very closely linked, spiritually.