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.

EPSG:4326

Carmen

Oper 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

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

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

Podcast link: https://youtu.be/4hagYvrYbuM

The Artelize Podcast and Kasper Holten - Pedefining Opera for the modern world

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d36M5Hi6O80

The Artelize Podcast - A legacy of innovation in Opera: Celebrating Marc A. Scorca

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59E40S_EQSY

The Artelize Podcast: A love letter that was never sent

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THv6htilWtI

The Artelize Podcast and Adolfo Corrado: Mediterranean flavors, opera and social media

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

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

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

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

SYMPHONIC ECHOES OF PINK FLOYD feat. Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt celebrates one of the greatest bands of all time. The powerful sound of Echoes, the renowned Pink Floyd tribute band (over 500 concerts across Europe, including festivals with Jethro Tull, Joe Cocker, Manfred Mann) and the symphonic class of the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt, Germany's leading crossover orchestra (tours with Deep Purple, Gregory Porter, Peter Gabriel) combine in a breathtaking project: all of Pink Floyd's big hits in exclusive arrangements by chief conductor Jens Troester - authentic, yet new and exciting. Goosebumps guaranteed!


Symphonic Echoes of Pink Floyd feat. New Philharmonic Frankfurt

Alte Oper

John Adams doesn't just like to think big, he sometimes dreams big too. For example, of a supertanker rising from the sea like a gigantic rocket. Dream images like this inspired his large-scale orchestral work "Harmonielehre" (Theory of Harmony) as well as the whimsical scenery of his "Chairman Dances." The composer from Massachusetts is—somewhat against his will—considered part of the broader field of Minimal Music. His breathtakingly expansive "Harmonielehre," with its impressive percussion section, is both late-Romantic and expressive, as well as richly sensuous in its sound. But of course, it is also rhythmically captivating, even hypnotic—a typical Adams. It premiered exactly 40 years ago and has since been considered a touchstone for every orchestra, and the American conductor David Robertson, making his debut with the hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra), is regarded as a specialist in its interpretation. The percussion section also takes center stage in Bartók's work, acting as the third soloist in the Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion, and Orchestra. Timpani and xylophone become melodic instruments, while the Jussen brothers are given free rein to unleash their percussive fury at the pianos. Indeed, the world is turned somewhat upside down in this program – and particularly grotesquely so in the exuberant revue number "The Chairman Dances" by John Adams: Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party of China, dances a foxtrot, accompanied by a US president on a bar piano – this is the bizarrely ironic setting of this effective orchestral piece.

Harmony theory

In his »erotic mystery/enigma« Otto Borngräber envisaged the first people driven out of paradise as a nuclear family left to their own devices: Chawa longs for her husband to want her as he used to, but Adahm’s more concerned about eking out an existence. Their pubescent son Kajin charges around in the wilderness looking for a woman, while his brother Chabel seeks redemption by praying to a God. When Kajin catches his mother and Chabel in ecstatic union, he kills his brother, then sees the »future blood of future mankind« in a terrifying vision.

The First People

who's music's being performed for the first time in this series of concerts, presented by the conductor Anja Bihlmaier. Grażyna Bacewicz, who was born in Poland, was a violinist, pianist and composer who taught at various conservatoires and wrote stories and books – an all-rounder and important representative of Polish music. Her concerto for strings draws an arc from neo-baroque to neo-classic, but is unmistakably 20th century music.

4th Sunday & Monday Symphonic Concerts

Franz-Josef Selig, with his sonorous bass voice, is one of the best loved and known representatives of his fach, much in demand for his wonderful portrayals of characters including Gurnemanz, King Marke, Sarastro, Rocco, Osmin and Fiesco which he performs regularly at places including the Salzburg, Bayreuth and Aix-en-Provence festivals, the Bavarian and Vienna state operas, La Scala Milan and Metropolitan Opera in New York, working with conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Sir Simon Rattle and Zubin Mehta. Now he's back at  Oper Frankfurt, where he sang Gurnemanz in Wagner's Parsifal in 2019, to give his second recital here with Gerold Huber (the first was in 2014). We look forward to welcoming these two exceptional musicians back to the house!

Franz-Josef Selig (bass) & Gerold Huber (piano)

For over 20 years, singer and frontman Bob Dawn and his legendary top band have been performing to sold-out venues and thunderous enthusiasm throughout Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and even Albania. With authentic acrobatics, a strikingly similar appearance, and a gifted voice, Bob Dawn always manages to make you believe for a moment: Elvis is alive!

The Elvis Story – Rocking & Symphonic

After the tremendous success, the journey continues in 2025:

Timeless. Epic. Legendary. Pink Floyd made rock history – unforgettable songs, magical sonic landscapes, a unique musical aesthetic.
SYMPHONIC ECHOES OF PINK FLOYD feat. Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt celebrates one of the greatest bands of all time. The powerful sound of Echoes, the renowned Pink Floyd tribute band (over 500 concerts across Europe, including festivals with Jethro Tull, Joe Cocker, and Manfred Mann), and the symphonic excellence of the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt, Germany's leading crossover orchestra (tours with Deep Purple, Gregory Porter, and Peter Gabriel), combine in a breathtaking project: all of Pink Floyd's greatest hits in exclusive arrangements by chief conductor Jens Troester – authentic, yet new and exciting. Goosebumps guaranteed!

Christmas music in a delightful atmosphere. Enjoy familiar music from many countries: enchantingly dreamy and performed with virtuosity. Featuring a fairy garden, The Magic Flute, and of course The Nutcracker – and a Rondo for Horn and Orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Musically conducted by Adam Hickox, "Christmas All Over the World" will once again be hosted by hr3 morning show presenter Tobi Kämmerer. The hr Symphony Orchestra's international Christmas concert for the whole family, culminating in a sing-along.

Christmas all over the world

Artists in Residence Lucas & Arthur Jussen will be performing chamber music, presenting captivating works for two pianos or pianists. The program ranges from the vibrant and moving Schubert movements to the rhythmic fire of Béla Bartók and the Romanticism of Robert Schumann. Bartók impressively showcased the secret affinity between the sound of two pianos and percussion in his famous sonata. For piano four-hands, however, the early Romantic Schubert left behind more than any other great composer: among other things, the most monumental sonata movement for piano four-hands we know: a stormily beginning, almost grim Allegro, which later inspired the publisher to title it "Life's Storms." Yet here, too, the heavens open – with one of those harmonic turns with which the late Schubert repeatedly transports his listeners to another world. The same is true of his single Adagio Trio movement, in which time seems to stand still.

Events in Frankfurt am Main this month

Carmen

Oper Frankfurt

Mitridate, Re di Ponto

Oper Frankfurt

Opera for Children

Oper Frankfurt

Punch and Judy

Oper Frankfurt

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast - A ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast: A l...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

Tosca

Oper Frankfurt

The Bandits

Oper Frankfurt

New Year's Eve at Oper Fr...

Oper Frankfurt

Happy New Ears

Oper Frankfurt

Symphonic Echoes of Pink ...

Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt

Harmony theory

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

The First People

Oper Frankfurt

4th Sunday & Monday Symph...

Oper Frankfurt

Franz-Josef Selig (bass) ...

Oper Frankfurt

The Elvis Story – Rocking...

Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt

Symphonic Echoes of Pink ...

Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt

Christmas all over the wo...

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

Life's storms

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra