In the coming 2022/23 season, the Frankfurt Opera will present its program to the usual extent and at the same time save one million euros in costs.

As director Bernd Loebe said on Tuesday, this is possible because several productions that were postponed due to corona, which had already been equipped and partly rehearsed, would be made up for.

Loebe rejected the city's savings target, according to which the opera should save ten million euros in the budget in the next three seasons from 2023, as completely unrealistic: "Then we'll close the shop".

He hopes that the corresponding insight will mature in urban politics and that the tax revenue, which has recently improved compared to expectations, will enable a different approach.

Guido Holze

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The new schedule shows a total of eleven premieres, two of them in the Bockenheimer Depot.

The first new production on October 2nd is Mozart's “Magic Flute” staged by Ted Huffman, who also staged Handel's “Rinaldo” in the depot.

This is followed by Richard Wagner's “Meistersinger von Nürnberg” in a production by director Johannes Erath, who is often hired in Frankfurt.

General Music Director Sebastian Weigle, who is in his fifteenth and final season in office, is on the podium.

Loebe expressly praised and thanked Weigle in his absence: he had always run the house with him "as a partner".

With Weigle's young successor Thomas Guggeis, the first plans have now flourished until the 2025/26 season.

"Electra" by Richard Strauss

Other new productions include the little-known opera "The Sorceress" by Peter Tchaikovsky with the sought-after Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian in the main role, Handel's "Orlando", which in turn is directed by Ted Huffman, and the opera "Francesca da Rimini", which was performed again for the first time in 2016 ’ by the forgotten bel canto composer Saverio Mercadante.

Claus Guth and Weigle take on the one-act play "Elektra" by Richard Strauss together.

In the stage design, which was made for the canceled production of Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunow", Keith Warner is staging a double evening with the operas "The Tsar lets himself be photographed" by Kurt Weill and "Die Kluge" by Carl Orff.

Barrie Kosky stages Handel's oratorio Hercules.

Weigle denies his last premiere as general music director with a rarity,

The premiere of the opera "Blossom" by the Slovenian composer Vito Žuraj, born in 1979, can be seen in the depot.

The work, which is based on Thomas' last novella, will be staged by doyen Brigitte Fassbaender.

In addition, Benjamin Britten's two church parables "The Prodigal Son" and "The Burning Fiery Furnace" in the production by Manuel Schmitt will be made up for in the depot: in a stage design that was designed for Corona conditions, but was then not used.

Another premiere was designated as a revival "for tactical reasons" so that the city would not get the impression that the opera was producing more than usual under austerity constraints, Loebe openly explained: "Le vin herbé" by the Swiss composer Frank Martin was shortly after the Dress rehearsal has been canceled and will now be shown for the first time in Tilmann Köhler's production.

Among others, Puccini's “Tosca” and “Manon Lescaut” will be revived.