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FRATOPIA
Festival of discoveries

24 – 28 SEPT 2024

Key-Visual Fratopia © Alte Oper Frankfurt/Norbert Miguletz

Fratopia Festival 2024: that means we're sharing music with you again! For five days, you can look forward to a lavish concert programme with free admission and almost 250 individual events in the various rooms of our building. From early afternoon until late in the evening, we would like to show you how we imagine a lively concert hall in the heart of the city - and how encounters with music and people can take place far away from the usual concert formats. We define Fratopia as a desire to experiment. Just drop by! You don't need a ticket, pre-booking or a plan. We warmly welcome you to our house!

THIS IS HOW IT WORKS:

JUST DROP BY - FREE ENTRY

For five days, from 3 p.m. to midnight, you can look forward to an extensive programme of concerts with free admission. You can choose from more than 100 dates, opt for classical or experimental music, concerts in a seated, reclining or standing position, solo performances or orchestral sounds. And once again, you have free admission to all concerts without advance booking - as long as there is enough space in the halls.

CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE

For us, Fratopia means changing our perspective. To also have in mind those who do not regularly listen to classical music in the concert hall. For whom a concert may only last 20 minutes. Whose musical home might be jazz, electro or pop. But the audience is also invited to change their perspective. To experience music lying down, standing up or sitting on the floor. To literally look at the performers from a different angle. And to hear them anew from a different perspective.

MUCH TO DISCOVER

Five days of time and space for an experimental exploration of the mediation of music in the concert hall, for example: Beethoven's Ninth will be spun further. Music by Björk can be experienced in a string quintet formation. Billie Eilish's songs move into the orchestra. Jazz meets klezmer or Indian raga, in the Great Hall sound fields meet with quotes from Wagner and Ives.

MEETING PLACE ALTE OPER

Those who need a break from the many new auditory impressions can take a seat in the reading lounge or set up their temporary workstation in the working space.

THE DIGITAL FRATOPIA NAVIGATOR
Visitors can find a daily overview of the festival programme at alteoper.de/fratopia-app. They can use the filter function, search specifically for artists, genres, formats, dates and venues and thus conveniently put together their daytime or evening programme. The web-based app does not need to be installed or downloaded and is free of charge.

FRATOPIA NAVIGATOR

DISCOVER THE PROGRAMME:

Choose from over 100 events throughout the house.

OPEN SPACE | GROSSER SSAL (1)

Fratopia 2023 – Open Space © Alte Oper Frankfurt/Wonge Bergmann

The music takes centre stage, literally. In the open space of the Großer Saal (Great Hall), the classic frontal stage situation is cancelled. Instead, the audience can group around the musicians and ensembles. Why not experience Beethoven's Ninth when your eyes and ears are very close to the timpani?

RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE | MOZART SAAL (2)

Fratopia 2023 – Mittendrin © Alte Oper Frankfurt/Tibor-Florestan Pluto

Same concept, one size smaller. The performers move to the centre of the stalls, the visitors make themselves comfortable around them and experience chamber music up close.

SALON SOLITAIRE | LISZT SALON (3)

A space for solo musical endeavours. Each day of the festival, a solo instrument and a performer take centre stage in the Liszt Salon. The audience sits on cushions and chairs all round. In 20-minute concerts, there are surprising sounds to discover, for example when music by Vivaldi and Scarlatti is interpreted on the bass lute.

LATE NIGHT X | CLARA SCHUMANN FOYER (4)

Fratopia 2023 © Alte Oper Frankfurt/Salar Baygan

From late afternoon, the music plays here - in various line-ups. Omer Klein organises the evening in the Clara Schumann Foyer: the jazz pianist welcomes his guests here to talk and make music and shares his playlist with the audience late at night.

SALON EXPERIMENTAL | ALBERT MANGELSDORFF FOYER (5)

Erst klassisch, dann experimentell. Der Nachmittag im Albert Mangelsdorff Foyer gehört Frankfurter Ensembles, die zentrale Meisterwerke der Kammermusik zu Gehör bringen. Zum Abend hin wird es verwegener – mit neuen Tönen und spannenden Formaten.

RECUMBENT CONCERTS | TELEMANN SALON (6)

Einmal gemütlich ausstrecken und gerne die Augen schließen – zu sehen gibt es sowieso nicht viel. Im abgedunkelten Telemann Salon umfangen nicht zu ortende Klänge die Besucher*innen, etwa wenn Scarlatti auf der Harfe erklingt oder Neue Musik auf dem Marimbaphon.

FRATOPIA CINEMA | MENDELSSOHN SALON

Daumenkino Volker Gerling © Volker Gerling

Experimental works from the early history of film as well as iconic film classics can be seen in the Fratopia cinema. And a "cabaret" will be in great form: Photographer Volker Gerling will be flicking through his wonderful flipbooks on all five days and allowing the audience to participate by projecting them onto the screen.

MAY WE INTRODUCE ...

Lernen Sie eine Auswahl mitwirkender Künstler*innen kennen.

Omer Klein Fratopia 2023 © Alte Oper Frankfurt/Wonge Bergmann

OMER KLEIN

Equation with X

He loves concert situations like this, where the frontal element is dissolved and you get a communal feeling instead, enthused Omer Klein at the last Fratopia Festival. The busy pianist and composer is not a fan of entrenched fronts anyway. His understanding of jazz is much broader; encounters with a classical string quartet appeal to him just as much as the combination of jazz and oriental soundscapes. In the 2024/25 season, Omer Klein is a resident artist at the Alte Oper and will be back at the Fratopia Festival, this time in the expanded role of host. Every evening in his "Late Night X", he will introduce an exciting personality - a Mr or Mrs X - and take a look into their worlds. In addition, Omer Klein himself will perform as a jazz pianist, either as a soloist or with changing duo partners.

Wooden Elephant © Anneveldt Multimedia

WOODEN ELEPHANT

Sensitive pachyderms

"Electronic-based music of elephantine proportions is presented on nothing other than our small wooden instruments" is how the musicians of Wooden Elephant explain the name and the unusual concept of their ensemble. What they call "on our small wooden instruments" is described by others as a classical string quintet. And the ominous and elephantine are pop-electro milestones that they reinterpret with their own means. For example, Björk's celebrated studio album "Homogenic reimagined" or the classic "Kid A" by Radiohead. The multinational quintet is bringing both to Frankfurt for the Fratopia Festival - sensitively transformed into chamber music of our time.

Vision String Quartet © Harald Hoffmann

VISION STRING QUARTET

The future of the string quartet

What could be better suited to the Fratopia Festival than an ensemble that already has visionary in its name? Founded in 2012, the Vision String Quartet consciously revitalises the string quartet scene - with unconventional compositions, an open ear for other genres and playing without notes and standing up. The four free spirits who have joined forces here will give an insight into the entire spectrum of their work at the festival. They present original compositions inspired by folk, pop, rock, funk, minimal and singer-songwriter music and create an astonishingly modern cosmos of sound with their four traditional string instruments.

Federspiel © Maria Frodl

Federspiel

As light as a tuba

Who says brass music is sedate or ponderous? The seven-piece ensemble Federspiel stands for airiness and lightness, for surprising alliances between cultures and traditions, for courage and openness. Alpine repertoire is just one of the sources from which the musicians draw their inspiration. Musical traditions from the Balkans and Latin America also find their way into their world of sound. Percussive playing styles are combined with electronic sounds, from Um-ta-ta straight to 5/8 time, from cosy harmonies to weird tones. At the Fratopia Festival, the ensemble presents a new kind of music-in-space programme in which the musicians take up different positions in the "open space" of the Großer Saal and embrace the audience with their melodies and rhythms.

ELBTONAL PERCUSSION

Accurate

There is a lot to look at and even more to hear when the four musicians of the Elbtonal Percussion ensemble take up their mallets. Drums, timpani, marimba, vibraphone, taiko drums, gongs and various everyday objects used for other purposes are already visually impressive, making the listening experience all the more captivating. At the Mittendrin concert in the Mozart Saal, the virtuoso percussionists from Hamburg form a circle and allow the audience to approach them from all sides - to look over their shoulders, at their fingers, into the notes. In two programmes, the four show that percussion is by no means just about rhythm - with works from Bach to Radiohead and stops at Cage, Glass, Xenakis and other masters of rhythmic suggestion.

MOHAMMAD REZA MORTAZAVI

The world in his hands

A supposedly simple drum produces a firework of sound: Iranian-born percussionist Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, who is not without reason hailed by connoisseurs as the best tombak player in the world. The tombak and its bigger sister, the daf, are Persian drums on which fast beats, danceable rhythms and trance-like structures can be realised - provided you have such virtuoso skills as Mohammad Reza Mortazavi. At the Fratopia Festival, the musician will play out the hypnotic powers of his instruments several times and take the audience on a fascinating journey into his universe of sound in various solo recitals.

SARAH MARIA SUN

Profundity

The soprano Sarah Maria Sun draws from the full: Her repertoire comprises more than 1,000 compositions and she has already performed more than 400 world premières. "Everything from 'Elektra' onwards has always been the most interesting for me," says the singer, explaining her preference for new sounds, new techniques and new expressive possibilities. In the "Salon Experimental" of the Fratopia Festival, Sarah Maria Sun takes her audience on a playful journey through the abysses of human nature. of human nature. We meet the head of the secret political police from Ligeti's "Grand Macabre", but also villains from classical, modern, musical, pop and rock music - with songs and arias by Gershwin, Bernstein, Sondheim and others.

ENSEMBLE REFLEKTOR

Experimental orchestra

The young members of Ensemble Reflektor, founded in Hamburg in 2015, already know how to wow audiences in Frankfurt. They have already accepted our invitation twice, most recently earning enthusiastic applause for their take on Brahms' Fourth Symphony at the Fratopia Festival 2023. The chamber orchestra is now performing again at the Alte Oper and is bringing two programmes to the festival. Firstly, a tribute to the US singer-songwriter Billie Eilish, whose songs will be performed in new arrangements peppered with experimental playing techniques. Secondly, a new version of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony: the original movements one to three are not followed by the well-known choral finale, but by a composition by Chinese composer Ying Wang, who takes Beethoven's idea of humanity further and transfers it into the 21st century.

DUO RUNGE & AMMON

Shared passion, joint border crossings

Entire universes of sound are opened up on two instruments: Eckart Runge, cellist, and Jacques Ammon, pianist, together form Runge & Ammon, a mini-formation entirely dedicated to chamber music excursions into the worlds of jazz, tango, rock, theatre and film music. And so, during the 16 dates of the Fratopia Festival, the two of them will be strolling between serious and popular music, between tango and film music, between Bach and Babylon Berlin, Piazzolla and Pulp Fiction. In their short concerts at the festival, they dedicate themselves to the frenzy of the 1920s, the big cities of Paris and Berlin, they bring opulent film music classics to chamber music format and roam through Latin American soundscapes.

Project partner Zukunftshaus: Aventis Foundation
Innovation partner: Commerzbank AG
Project partner Fratopia: ART MENTOR FOUNDATION LUCERNE
Project partner Fratopia: Deutsche Vermögensberatung AG
Project partner: Erhard Kunert Stiftung
Project partner Fratopia: Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain
Project partner Fratopia: Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft
Project partner Fratopia: Union Investment Stiftung
With the friendly support of the FREUNDE der Alten Oper Frankfurt
Media partner: hr2 kultur
Advertising partner: VGF