Name: Mail from Fantasia
Start: 2026-05-16T12:00:00
Location: Alte Oper

Alex Jussow

Miki Nagahara

Lilya Tymchysyhn

Bettina Kessler

Alte Oper Frankfurt

The global musical hit returns to Germany and Switzerland at the end of 2025 - bringing the original English-language production of 'The Bodyguard - The Musical' to the big stage! Over four million enthusiastic visitors in twelve countries: The Bodyguard is not just a hit in the cinema! From London, the glamorous stage event has conquered the metropolises of the world. Look forward to a thrilling theatre experience full of suspense, romance and musical highlights. The world-famous songs from the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack, including 'I Will Always Love You' and other chart hits such as 'I Wanna Dance with Somebody' and 'How Will I Know', guarantee goose-pimple moments, big emotions and breathtaking suspense that won't be forgotten.

The Bodyguard – The Musical

Alte Oper

Joliphanto

With the concert series ‘The World of Hans Zimmer’, multiple Academy Award® and Grammy winner Hans Zimmer has created live experiences that guide fans worldwide through his film music in an individual and impressive way. As musical director and curator, the master is personally responsible for the ‘World of Hans Zimmer’ productions, even when he is not on stage himself.

The World of Hans Zimmer

His fans know it: Grigory Sokolov only announces his programme later in the concert year. And it doesn't really matter what he plays. Whether Schubert or Scriabin, Bach or Mozart, Chopin or Rameau: when Sokolov sits at the piano, you can expect the extraordinary. When he touches the keys, everything around him becomes secondary, and once the pianist is immersed in this world of his own, he makes you forget time and space and lets the audience take part in an extraordinary piano recital. It is no wonder that he has built up a large circle of fans over the course of his life as a pianist. With his outstanding artistry, which he always puts entirely at the service of the music, he has literally mesmerised us for decades. And it is no longer a secret that the pianist likes to give the odd encore ...(Pro Arte Frankfurt)

Grigory Sokolov, Clavier

Once you have heard this music, you will never forget it. Le Sacre' - not a few people pronounce the title with a mixture of awe, horror and fascination. Stravinsky's ballet music is and remains the standard bearer of the classical repertoire. If you wanted to describe the music that caused the biggest scandal in music history in Paris a good 100 years ago, you could use terms like orgy, black mass and high mass for the rhythm. It is dance music, but for a very different, dark kind of dance: earthy, throbbing, sharp-edged, brutal - music that still overwhelms and intoxicates today. At the time of the premiere, few people knew what they were witnessing.

Rite of Spring

Almost a family reunion: hr principal conductor Alain Altinoglu was born in Paris and has Armenian roots. And Yerevan-born Sergey Khachatryan grew up in Frankfurt as one of the greatest violin talents of recent decades. It is a must that Armenia's best-known composer also comes into play here, and a plus that it even gives rise to a small programme focus for the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under the title ‘Armenian Soul’. Aram Khatchaturian's Violin Concerto, composed in 1940, has everything a violinist could wish for: Fire, brilliance, the great cantilena as well as the light but always perceptible folkloristic touch. And it calls for a true virtuoso like Sergey Khachatryan, who says: ‘If he didn't play the violin, he would have become a racing driver. He is always looking for an adrenaline rush, both on the podium and in life, and he plays every concert with an artistic exertion as if it were his last. Exhaustion: this is also the keyword for one of the most famous orchestral works of the 20th century, Igor Stravinsky's ‘Le sacre du printemps’. It is ballet music, but not the airy kind - on the contrary, it is a worship of the earth, rhythmically pounding, with horrendous sound power. The premiere in 1913 was dominated by bewilderment and tumult - the work still takes the breath away today. (hr-Sinfonieorchester)

hr Symphony Orchestra

Julia Fischer, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Nils Mönkemeyer and Benjamin Nyffenegger have been working together regularly for 15 years, devoting themselves to the royal genre of chamber music in intensive rehearsal and concert phases. Contrary to what the name might suggest, this is not a 'primaria' quartet, but a true chamber music ensemble in which four musicians work together as equals. Each of them is a gifted soloist. The combination of the highest virtuosity, a well-balanced ensemble spirit and great joy in playing results in quartet artistry of the highest order, which we can look forward to again this season. This time with Franz Schubert, Dmitri Shostakovich and Johannes Brahms.

Julia Fischer Quartett

The horn has always been an instrument of communication. So it is perhaps no coincidence that Sarah Willis is not only an excellent horn player with the Berlin Philharmonic, but also a presenter and music educator. In her 'Backstage' series, the Berliner by choice with the smart British accent takes the audience behind the scenes via video link, where she has a relaxed chat with the evening's performers and shows how much passion and emotion goes into a concert.

Backstage with Sarah Willis + Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

Art and culture are the oxygen of humanity," said Michel Friedman in his acceptance speech when he received the Goethe Plaque from the city of Frankfurt in November 2024 - and this oxygen is needed all the more in times of crisis. What music touches the Frankfurt publicist, lawyer and philosopher? Michel Friedman talks about his favourite piece, which will be played before and after the concert. Another guest is the archaeologist Doreen Mölders, director of the Frankfurt Historical Museum since 2025.

My favorite piece

For Igor Levit, there seems to be nothing less than going the whole hog. When he gets involved with a cosmos of works, he does so as intensively as possible. The name Johannes Brahms stands above the worlds in which the exceptional pianist currently prefers to spend his time, and his Brahms interpretations in the celebrated double bill in February 2025 will still be well remembered by Frankfurt audiences. Levit readily admits his deep affection for the music of the Romantic composer, emphasising its emotional richness: "I experience happiness, I experience sadness, melancholy, being in love, loneliness, longing - like a kaleidoscope of what we humans are capable of feeling. Nevertheless, Brahms' monumental First Piano Concerto is always one thing above all else for him: demanding. It takes and takes and takes," says Levit. Together with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, he rises to the challenge - and will allow us to peer into the heart of the notes. Just as Edward Elgar looked into the soul of a close friend in each of his enigmatic ‘Enigma Variations’.

Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia

It's not easy to talk and play an instrument at the same time, it's easy to get stuck or out of rhythm. In jazz, musicians sometimes accompany individual passages with spoken vocals. The percussion concerto 'Speaking Drums' takes the opposite approach. The drummer first speaks rhythmic syllables, then passes the rhythm on to his instrument, teaching it to speak, until it finally speaks for itself. The first two movements of the piece are based on three poems by Sándor Weöres, while the third movement is inspired by a poem by Jayadeva. We can look forward to an unusual work by the Hungarian composer Peter Eötvös, who died only last year, and to Alexej Gerassimez, who will also appear as a museum soloist in our other concert series during the 2025/26 season.

Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra

The friendship between the drums and the viola begins a musical journey. The drums, with their powerful rhythms, and the viola, with its soft, melodic sounds, initially struggle to find a way to play together - the drums think the viola is too quiet and the viola thinks the drums are too loud. But through trial and error and mutual understanding, they slowly discover how their sounds can harmonise. In the end, they show that true friendship knows no prejudices and that it is possible to find common ground even across apparent differences.