Name: Concert For The New Year 2027
Start: 2027-01-19T20:00:00
Location: Alte Oper

Jens Troester

Alte Oper Frankfurt

Mail from Fantasia

Alte Oper

Anyone who invites the Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska will be met with beaming faces in the orchestra and the audience. And a concert programme that never comes off the peg. Here now: the jubilarian of the year Maurice Ravel in dialogue with the master of Polish modernism Witold Lutosławski. Maurice Ravel is represented with two of his most fast-paced works: ‘La valse’, this grimacing swan song to the Viennese waltz, which spirals into the abyss with great speed and intoxication. And with the Piano Concerto in G major, with its jazz stylistic elements, entirely in keeping with the fashion of the 1930s. This music is as breathless as the times, a non-stop chase. The hr-Sinfonieorchester's guest pianist is the Frenchman Bertrand Chamayou, whose DNA has included Ravel's music since his first days at the conservatory. Ravel himself was a regular guest in New York jazz clubs, and so Chamayou knows: This music should sound ‘like a great, ingenious improvisation’. Rigour yes, brittleness no, that is the ideal of the pianist, whose CD recordings of Ravel's complete piano works were described ten years ago as ‘his masterpiece’ (FonoForum) and ‘a sensation’ (Stereoplay). (hr-Sinfonieorchester)

hr Symphony Orchestra

The Crimean Tatars are an indigenous Turkic-speaking ethnic group who originally lived on the Crimean peninsula. They were deported to Central Asia under Stalin in 1944. They were not allowed to return to their homeland until Ukraine gained independence in 1991. After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, many had to flee as they experienced massive repression and arrests by the Russian regime, including Crimean Tatar multi-instrumentalist, music researcher and composer Dzhemil Karikov and his daughter, cellist Nial Khalilova. They found a new sphere of activity in Lviv. Together with the Ukrainian singer Natalia Rybka-Parkhomenko, they created the music project Yuşan Zillya, which unites two cultures and languages. It is named after the plant Yuşan, which grows in the Crimea - the fragrant plantain, also known as the herb of immortality. The trio's songs symbolise the power of not forgetting one's own culture.

Crimean Tatar musical records

‘Magische Töne’ - the aria of Assad from the opera “Die Königin von Saba” by Karl Goldmark - is one of the evergreens of the tenor repertoire. On Jonas Kaufmann's tour, this title is the motto for a programme dedicated to famous works by Austro-Hungarian composers. In addition to Goldmark, these are above all Franz Lehár and Emmerich Kálmán, the two protagonists of the so-called ‘Silver Era’ of operetta. Together with the renowned Swedish soprano Malin Byström, Jonas Kaufmann invites the audience to immerse themselves in this special genre on this evening. Often derided as opera's ‘little sister’, operetta nevertheless captivates with a large portion of elegance, humour and bittersweet melancholy and often has the cheekiness to not take life too seriously without ever slipping completely into the banal. Accompanied by the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Jochen Rieder, Kaufmann and Byström present a varied programme of arias and duets from works such as ‘The Merry Widow’, ‘The Land of Smiles’, ‘Giuditta’, ‘The Csárdás Princess’ and ‘Countess Mariza’ in the Alte Oper. (Pro Arte Frankfurt)

Jonas Kaufmann, tenor

There's trouble in the Spanish city of Seville! Count Almaviva has seen the beautiful Rosina out for a walk! He wants to meet her! But her guardian, the cunning Dottore Bartolo, is causing trouble. He wants to marry the beautiful Rosina himself, for the money! Who can help? The barber - a hairdresser who knows all the tricks of the trade! They lie and cheat, they disguise themselves and trick the police, they escape on a ladder, there are sword fights and completely botched love arias... Luckily, the children help the Count to marry his Rosina after all, and Dottore Bartolo has to look down the tube... (Frankfurter Museums-Gesellschaft e.V.)

The Barber of Seville

Antonio Vivaldi is known across all continents today. Among other things, he has his four violin concertos from his Opus 8 of 1725 to thank for this, which are considered to symbolise the art of Baroque music-making. Vivaldi himself summarised them as the ‘Four Seasons’ and under this title they are still among the best-known works from the Baroque period. Very virtuosic and full of small and large affects, they present the great wealth of colour of their era. These violin concertos are made for the top Dutch violinist Janine Jansen and the Camerata Salzburg, because rediscovering the classics of music history is their speciality. We can look forward to the breath of fresh air that the musicians, who are well attuned to each other, will blow through the familiar scores in May. And even more virtuoso baroque music can be experienced in this concert when Francesco Geminiani's Concerto grosso in D minor is performed that evening in the Alte Oper. (Pro Arte Frankfurt)

Janine Jansen, violin

This concert relies on the voices of children. Primary school classes from all over Frankfurt gather in front of the Alte Oper on the Opernplatz to sing together. In 2026, we expect to see a huge choir of over 1,000 voices singing joyfully once again.

Opera Square Singing

The first instalment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series is returning to the Alte Oper Frankfurt. Jack Sparrow's eccentric and charismatic portrayal of a pirate captain – played to perfection by Johnny Depp – has brought Disney one of its greatest successes and is one of the most original cinema hits of all time. A spectacular film whose adventurous character was perfectly staged by the two film music composers Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer and their unerring sense for the right sound. Now the first part of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ series can be experienced again as a film concert. The original soundtrack has been reduced to the music, which is played live by an orchestra to accompany the action on screen. A feast for all Jack Sparrow fans, made possible by sophisticated technology, a large screen and a fantastic orchestra with extensive experience in film music.

Pirates of the Caribbean

To mark the 50th anniversary of the death of the renowned German-Jewish poet Mascha Kaléko, Etta Scollo and Eva Mattes, accompanied by the Etta Scollo Trio, will present an extraordinary stage production combining music, poetry and remembrance. Entitled Nirgendland (Nowhere Land), the evening will bring Kaléko's subtle melancholy, humour, and linguistic precision to life in a new way.

Nowhere Land

Jazz songs can also be classics – they are then called ‘standards’. The format JAZZ IN CONCERT deals with the eternal hits of jazz history. Fifth to seventh graders can get ready to feel the groove and give jazz their voice.

Jazz in Concert

In 2026, Tim Bendzko, the singer-songwriter who has shaped German-language pop music like no other in recent years, will be performing live again. The fitting title of the concert tour is: ‘Alles, nur nicht zurück - Tour 2026’. The programme includes new songs as well as classics such as ‘Wenn Worte meine Sprache wären’, ‘Keine Maschine’, ‘Alleine in Paris’, ‘Hoch’ and, of course, ‘Nur noch kurz die Welt retten’.

Tim Bendzko

With ‘HEROES’, Alexander Scheer, one of the country's most prominent actors and musicians, together with his magnificent band, brings a stage show on tour that sheds new light on David Bowie's musical work with a grandiose performance. Scheer approaches Bowie's creative world in a special way: not only as a pure homage, but also as a personal experience that connects Bowie's music with literature, which is essential to him.

Heroes

As 2027 begins, the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt is celebrating with its usual dash of fine humour, performing melodiously and energetically!