History
A LOOK BACK TO THE PAST
1880 - An opera house for Frankfurt
On 20 October 1880, Frankfurt celebrated a long-awaited event - the
opening of its own opera house. Visitors came to feast their eyes on the
brand-new auditorium designed by Berlin architect Richard Lucae, which
could seat 2010 people.
Under the management of the first artistic director Emil Claar and the
first musical director Felix Otto Dessoff, the concert hall - situated on
Scherbius- und Andreae'schen Platz on Bockenheimer Landstrasse (today
Opernplatz) - was opened with a performance of Mozart's opera 'Don
Giovanni'. Among the honorary guests was Kaiser Wilhelm I, who, having toured the
building, said Emil Claar, "I could never allow myself such a building in
Berlin."
It was Dr. Daniel Heinrich Mumm von Schwarzenstein, the Lord Mayor of
Frankfurt, who had first suggested building a new theatre at a meeting of
the City Council eleven years before. "Frankfurt lacks a theatre which
reflects the size and status of the city and meets the demands of good
taste," he declared. However, it was 67 prosperous citizens of Frankfurt
pledging a total of 480,000 guilders (some 750,000 marks) for the proposed
new building which really marked the beginning of the project. Over a
period of more than seven years, a building 34 m high was constructed on a
site measuring 4,000 m2. Its design bore the hallmark of the famous
architect Gottfried Semper and the Renaissance-style design based on Greek
influences which he had developed. Richard Lucae himself did not live to
see the completion of the work, since he died five years after
construction began.
Until it was destroyed towards the end of the Second World War, the Alte
Oper Frankfurt had eight artistic directors, staged numerous
premieres and welcomed many world-famous soloists and composers. It put on
the latest operas by Wagner, and its programmes featured leading names
including Bizet, Leoncavallo, Puccini, Mascagni, Smetana, Richard Strauss
and Humperdinck.
Destruction and reconstruction
The Alte Oper Frankfurt had escaped the First World War with only slight
bomb damage to its façade, so its destruction towards the end of the
Second World War was all the more tragic. During the night of 23rd March
1944, the Alte Oper was completely burnt-out and sections of its roof
collapsed entirely. It was not long before the decision to rebuild it was
taken. A call for donations urged people to "Save the Alte Oper", and enough money was raised to allow the building to be made safe in 1952,
rescuing "Germany's most beautiful ruin" from demolition. However, the
dedicated efforts of local people to rebuild the Alte Oper were rejected
by the city authorities at first.
It was not until eleven years later that an organisation called the "Action
Group for the Alte Oper of Frankfurt am Main", one of the first citizens'
action groups to be set up in the Federal Republic, managed to drum up
immense support among local people and businesses, quickly wining the
backing of the city fathers. Fritz Dietz was the founder and first
chairman of the organisation. As president of the local chamber of
industry and commerce, he unwaveringly pursued his objective of bringing a
piece of Frankfurt's tradition back to life. "This opera house is a piece
of Frankfurt's cultural history and demonstrates that this city should
consist of more than just large modern business premises," he said. In
1976, Frankfurt City Council, led by Lord Mayor Rudi Arndt, gave the
go-ahead for the reconstruction of the Alte Oper. During his time in
office as Finance Minister for Hesse, Rudi Arndt had still been in favour
of demolishing the ruins. He believed that constructing a new building to
the original plans would be a more financially-sensible approach.
By late 1972, the Action Group had managed to raise DM 11.5 million through fundraising events ranging from raffles to gala concerts given by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Karajan. Some of this money was immediately spent on urgent work to make the external walls safe.
The Alte Oper is reborn
The
continuation of the building work on the ruins was overseen by a working
party made up of the City Council and the Action Group, and plans were
drawn up for a new building offering "multifunctional" facilities. The
designs produced by architects Braun and Schlockermann incorporated an
all-new interior for the building behind a historic façade, the idea being
to create a building which would meet the technical requirements of both a
concert hall and a cutting-edge congress centre.
The rectangular Großer Saal was expanded to provide seating
for 2,500 people, leaving the Foyer and the Vestibule as the only parts of
the Alte Oper still resembling the original design of Richard Lucae.
Unfortunately, the new design could not incorporate the sumptuous Imperial
Staircase. The new plans included flexible foyer areas for exhibitions,
art auctions, sales and the like, as well as a second, smaller concert
hall, the Mozart Saal (Mozart Hall), seating around 700 people.
In December 1978, the topping-out ceremony marked the completion of the
main external reconstruction work on the new "Alte Oper". Whilst the
preserved or restored decorations, reliefs, medallions, frescoes, tiles
and mosaics were being reinstated inside the building, thousands of
Frankfurt residents gathered on Opernplatz in August 1981 to watch the
Pegasus statue being lowered onto the roof, the final step in the cleaning
and completion work on the façade. A few days later, on 28th August 1981,
the Alte Oper Frankfurt was officially reopened. Following an opening
ceremony attended by the then Federal President Karl Carstens, the
Frankfurter Opernhaus- und Museumsorchester conducted by Michael Gielen
played Gustav Mahler's Symphony No.8.
Frankfurt, October 2003
Just a few of the famous names to play in the Alte Oper Frankfurt
Classical - Orchestras
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields - Bamberger Symphoniker - Balthasar
Neumann Chor & Ensemble - Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester - Boston
Symphony Orchestra - Budapest Festival Orchestra - Chamber Orchestra of
Europe - Chicago Symphony Orchestra - City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra - Collegium Vocale Gent & Orchestery - Ensemble
Intercontemporain, Conductor: Pierre Boulez - Estonian Philharmonic
Chamber Choir & Orchestra - Gewandhausorchester Leipzig - Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra - Junge Deutsche Philharmonie - Les Arts
Florissants - London Philharmonic Orchestra - London Symphony Orchestra -
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra - Milan Scala / Choir and Orchestra -
Mariinsky Theater St. Petersburg / Orchestra - Metropolitan Opera New York
/ Orchestra - NDR-Sinfonieorchester - New York Philharmonic Orchestra -
Opéra de Lyon / Choir and Orchestra - Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne -
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra - Philadelphia Orchestra - Philharmonic
Orchestra London - Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt - Rundfunkorchester
des Hessischen Rundfunks - San Francisco Symphony Orchestra -
Staatskapelle Dresden - SWR Sinfonieorchester - The Cleveland Orchestra -
Wiener Kammerorchester - Wiener Philharmoniker - Wiener Symphoniker -
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Classical - Conductors
Abbado, Claudio - Albrecht, Gerd - Antonini, Giovanni - Arming,
Christian - Asbury, Stefan - Barenboim, Daniel - Barschai, Rudolf -
Benjamin, George - Berglund, Paavo - Bernstein, Leonard - Blomstedt,
Herbert - Boulez, Pierre - Cambreling, Sylvain - Carignani, Paolo -
Celibidache, Sergiu - Christie, William - Davis, Sir Colin - Entremont,
Philippe - Eötvös, Peter - Eschenbach, Christoph - Faerber, Jörg -
Fedossejew, Vladimir - Fischer, Iván - Foster, Lawrence - Frantz, Justus -
Gelmetti, Gianluigi - Gergiev, Valerij - Gielen, Michael - Haitink,
Bernard - Harding, Daniel - Harnoncourt, Nikolaus - Hengelbrock, Thomas -
Herreweghe, Philippe - Holliger, Heinz - Inbal, Eliahu - Järvi, Paavo - Jansons, Mariss -
Kagel, Mauricio - Kaljuste, Tonu - Kalmar, Carlos - Kitajenko, Dmitrij -
Knussen, Oliver - Koopman, Ton - Levine, James - Maazel, Lorin - Märkl,
Jun - Marcon, Andrea - Marriner, Neville - Masur, Kurt - Mehta, Zubin -
Metzmacher, Ingo - Muti, Riccardo - My, Dominique - Nagano, Kent -
Norrington, Roger - Nott, Jonathan - Ozawa, Seiji - Plasson,
Michel - Pretre, Georg - Previn, André - Rattle, Sir Simon -
Rostropowitsch, Mstislaw - Salonen, Esa-Pekka - Sawallisch, Wolfgang -
Schäfer, Wolfgang - Segerstam, Leif - Saraste, Jukka-Pekka - Shallon,
David - Sheriff, Noam - Sinopoli, Giuseppe - Solti, Sir Georg -
Stockhausen, Karlheinz - Tilson Thomas, Michael - von Dohnányi, Christoph -
von Karajan, Herbert - Wand, Günter - Welser-Möst, Franz - Wolff, Hugh -
Zender, Hans
Classical - Soloists
Aliberti, Lucia - Argerich, Martha - Ashkenazy, Vladimir - Bär, Olaf - Barenboim, Daniel - Bartoli, Cecilia - Bezzubenkov, Gennady - Bell, Joshua - Brendel, Alfred - Bronfman, Yefim - Brückner, Christian - Buchbinder, Rudolf - Bumbry, Grace - Burtschuladse, Paata - Caballé, Montserrat - Carmignola, Giuliano - Carreras, José - Cura, José - Diener, Melanie - Dixon, Janice - Domingo, Placido - Doufexis, Stella - Duchable, François-René - Feidman, Giora - Fischer, Julia - Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich - Fleming, Renée - Frantz, Justus - Friedrich, Reinhold - Gage, Irwin - Glemser, Wolfgang - Goerne, Matthias - Guriakova, Olga - Haefliger, Andreas - Hahn, Hilary - Hamann, Sebastian - Hammer, Christoph - Hampson, Thomas - Horne, Marilyn - Horowitz, Vladimir - Kallisch, Cornelia - Kammerloher, Katharina - Karamazov, Edin - Kashkashian, Kim - Kennedy, Nigel - Kissin, Jewgenij - Knight, Susan - Kocsis, Zoltán - Kremer, Gidon - Kuusisto, Pekka - Liberg, Hans - Lipovsek, Marjana - Ludwig, Christa - Ma, Yo-Yo - Marton, Eva - Mc Ferrin, Bobby - Meier, Waltraud - Menuhin, Sir Yehudi - Mertens, Klaus - Midori - Millo, Aprile - Mullova, Viktoria - Mustonen, Olli - Mutter, Anne-Sophie - Neunecker, Marie-Luise - Norman, Jessye - Oelze, Christiane - Oistrach, Igor - Oppitz, Gerhard - Otter, Anne Sofie von - Paratore, Joseph und Anthony - Pavarotti, Luciano - Perlman, Itzhak - Pogorelich, Igor - Pollini, Maurizio - Prégardien, Christoph - Price, Margaret - Rudolph, Claude-Oliver - Schiff, András - Schiff, Heinrich - Scholl, Andreas - Soucy, Jean-Eric - Stuller, Gyula - Tetzlaff, Christian - Theodorakis, Mikis - Thibaudet, Jean-Yves - Tichmann, Nina - Te Kanawa, Kiri - Uchida, Mitsuko - Ugorski, Anatol - Upshaw, Dawn - Urusov, Mikhail - Varadi, Julia - Vengerov, Maxim - Vogt, Lars - Zacharias, Christian - Zehetmair, Thomas - Zimmermann, Frank Peter - Zimmermann, Tabea - Zukerman, Pinchas
Chamber Music/Ensembles
Alban Berg Quartett - Arditti Quartett - Artemis Quartett - Borodin
Quartett - Brodsky Quartet - Buchberger Quartett - Ensemble Modern -
Guarneri-Quartet - Juilliard String Quartet - Kronos Quartett - Leipziger
Streichquartett - Nash Ensemble of London - Scharoun Ensemble Berlin - The
Hilliard Ensemble - Tokyo String Quartet - Vermeer-Quartett - Wiener
Streichsextett
Pop/Rock/Jazz/Cabaret/Readings
ABC - Adams, Bryan - Adorf, Mario - Amos, Tori - B.B. King - Barrelhouse Jazz Band - Bécaud, Gilbert - Becker, Ben - Beikircher, Konrad - Benatar, Pat - Bennett, Tony - Biermann, Wolf - Bireli Lagrene Trio - Brandauer, Klaus Maria - Brightman, Sarah - Charles, Ray - Chris Barber Jazz & Blues Band - Cliff, Jimmy - Cocker, Joe - Cole, Nathalie - Conte, Paolo - Corea, Chick - Corti, Nina - Crawford, Randy - Cray, Robert - Cross, Christopher - Davis jr., Sammy - Davis, Miles - de Burgh, Chris - Denver, John - Degenhardt, Franz Josef - Depeche Mode - Domino, Fats - Dylan, Bob - Ferry, Bryan - Gabriel, Peter - Ganz, Bruno - Geldof, Bob - Gilmour, David - Glen, Marla - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - Grass, Günter - Greger, Max - Gréco, Juliette - Hancock, Herbie - Hoger, Hannelore - Hampton, Lionel - Heller, André - Hudson Shad - Iglesias, Julio - Jarreau, Al - Jarrett, Keith - Jethro Tull - Jones, Tom - Kaas, Patricia - Kajagoogoo - Karat - Kid Creole & The Coconuts - King, Carole - Kishon, Ephraim - Kitt, Eartha - Knopfler, Mark - Kool and the Gang - Kraftwerk - Kuhn, Paul - Last, James - Lemper, Ute - Level 42 - Lindenberg, Udo - Mae, Vanessa - Mangelsdorff, Albert - Marsalis, Branford - Marsalis, Wynton - Mary - Mc Cafferty, Dan (Nazareth) - Mc Ferrin, Bobby - McLaine, Shirley - Milva - Minelli, Liza - Montand, Yves - Mouskouri, Nana - Moustaki, George - Müller Westernhagen, Marius - Münsters Old Merry Tale Jazzband - Nannini, Gianna - NDR Big Band - Newman, Randy - Palmer, Robert - Petrucciani, Michel - Quadflieg, Christian - Raabe, Max - Ramazotti, Eros - Ramsey, Bill - Rea, Chris - Richard, Cliff - Ross, Diana - Ryan, Barry - Sade - Sander, Otto - Santana, Carlos - Shakin Stevens - Sledge, Percy - Sosa, Mercedes - Spandau Ballett - Strasser, Hugo - Sulke, Stephan - The Commodores - The Diana Krall Quartet - The Dubliners - The Eurythmics - The Four Tops - The Gipsy Kings - The Harlem Gospel Singers - The Manhatten Transfer - The Jackson Singers - Toto - Turner, Tina - Ustinov, Peter - Valente, Caterina - van Veen, Herman - Vega, Suzanne - Vollenweider, Andreas - von Bülow, Vico - Waalkes, Otto - Wader, Hannes - Walser, Martin - Wecker, Konstantin - White, Barry - Winwood, Steve - Yes - Zappa, Frank