Opera Finale has become a permanent feature at Oper Frankfurt. It revolves around the last new production of the season, which this year is Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress - the previous four were Beethoven’s Fidelio, Pfitzner’s Palestrina, Berlioz' Fausts Verdammnis/The Damnation of Faust and Sallinen’s Kullervo.

Igor Stravinsky, the little man with a gigantic oeuvre who continued being creative, versatile, pugnacious and amusing into old age, is central to the closing series of the season. Come and find out more about one of the most popular figures of the 20th century by attending exhibitions, concerts, discussions and talks taking place at the same time as the new production of The Rake’s Progress. What did his first compositions sound like and what inspired him? Was he revolutionary or retrogressive? A genius or an overrated public’s darling? A rational constructor or a composer who worked with body and soul? Who was this man who composed for elephants but was extremely upset when his works were misinterpreted? Just some of the questions to which we seek answers. Many documents will make Stravinsky’s views and intentions clear and give some of his contemporaries the chance to have their say. His enjoyed close friendships with other prominent artists, including Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau, who painted him, composers like Erik Satie and Claude Debussy, who admired him, and Coco Chanel, who became his patron and lover, will be brought back to life in pictures and word.

There will also be a Stravinsky evening in the Bockenheimer Depot called Tilimbom, or Listening with Open Eyes and a podium discussion with the composers Rolf Riehm and Ernst August Klötzke.

Two exhibitions, one about the life and work of Igor Stravinsky and the other about William Hogarth’s A Rake's Progress - a series of copperplate engravings which inspired Stravinsky to write the opera - are on view from May 13th – June 12th 2012 in the Wolkenfoyer and Chagallsaal when the opera house is open for performances.