Mr. Fein, your inaugural season, the 2020/21 season that ends with the summer break and was planned by your predecessor Stephan Pauly, was completely incalculable.

The house has been closed since November.

In September and October, however, there were still a number of concerts that you had simply rescheduled.

How did you experience these first weeks?

Guido Holze

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

  • Follow I follow

    I experienced these first concerts after a long phase of lockdown like a liberation. Culture needs a counterpart, even in times of war the dialogue with the audience never ceased. Therefore, the silence of the concert halls was and is a painful first experience for all cultural workers. Last autumn we were able to get in touch with the audience in 80 concerts. Over all of this, of course, lay the shadow of the pandemic. We had to develop hygiene concepts and deal with topics that were completely alien to all of us. That threatened to obscure everything. It was all the nicer to experience that the music always made its way through the thicket of regulations to the audience. The audience welcomed these musical experiences very gratefully. At the same time it was important weeks for mein order to draw conclusions for the coming 2021/22 season.

    The Alte Oper has lost a lot of income due to the lack of leases and additional costs have arisen due to the new planning and the reversal of tickets sold. Is that even covered by the public grants? How is the current financial situation?

    The financial situation is extremely difficult for all concert halls. It also presents the Alte Oper with enormous challenges. Fortunately, a number of visitors, especially from the circle of Friends of the Alte Oper and the subscribers, have waived ticket refunds. Nonetheless, the bottom line in terms of savings and lost revenue is a deficit. In 2020 we were able to absorb this with residual funds. We now very much hope that the 2021 financial year will not worsen the situation any further. The second half of the year will be crucial, especially the question of when we can return to normal operations with full room utilization.

    You mentioned the support from the friends and subscribers. In Frankfurt, the citizens are considered to be particularly committed. What distinguishes the former Free Imperial City? And what role should the Alte Oper play in today's pluralistic society?

    That is in great demand. I experience Frankfurt, even through the cloud of the pandemic, as a very lively, dialogue-oriented city. There is a long tradition of civic engagement, a great deal of openness. Frankfurt is permeable, welcomes people, is very international and, like our society as a whole, is in a tremendous process of transformation. Cities are changing tremendously, and this change is accelerated by Corona. We want to participate in this discourse and be inspired. At the same time, the Alte Oper stands for tradition, for excellence, for a good piece of Frankfurt, for the good in the real, so to speak. These are good prerequisites for responding to a diverse city in terms of its program.