DEAR OPERA LOVERS,

Singing is incorporeal. You cannot touch it yet it can hold us with irresistable power. A singing voice is air passing over vocal chords but it thrills our souls and, sometimes, we feel it physically. These phenomena can be experienced every evening in the opera. A »Game for Body and Soul« is the title of the last new production of the season: Rappresentazione di anima e di corpo a piece by the Renaissance composer Emilio de’ Cavalieri. We engaged the composer Klaus Lang to embellish the work, building an arch from the time when »opera« had just begun to the present day and into the future.

The 185 performances during the 2012/13 season provide examples of what went on between opera’s earliest beginnings and today: our new productions, 13 as in past seasons, are, once again, from different eras, genres and in various styles. Works from the 16th to 21st centuries, discoveries and classics (including Puccini’s La fanciulla del West, which has only been performed at Oper Frankfurt once before – in 1958!) will be directed by young and internationally established artists.

The season opens with a rarity: Samuel Barber’s Vanessa, hardly ever staged in Germany, being performed in Frankfurt for the first time in an impressive production by the young director Katharina Thoma (who began her career as an assistant here). Humperdinck’s Königskinder and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande are stories about two couples which end in tragedy, one told in late German romantic music, the other in French symbolism. David Bösch and Claus Guth direct these two linked, yet contrasting works. Königskinder is not, as the composer’s name and title might lead you to believe, a fairy tale for children but a deep exploration of Richard Wagner’s legacy and a knowledge of psychology. Amanda Majeski, who sings the Goose Girl, will be playing an important role with the company in the future and Daniel Behle returns to Oper Frankfurt as the Prince. Giulio Cesare in Egitto is probably the most entertaining opera from Handel’s mature period; Johannes Erath, a master when it comes to combining tragedy and comedy, will stage it. This is followed by Prokofiev’s conversation opera The Gambler (after Dostoyevsky’s story) – the first ever performances in Frankfurt. Harry Kupfer directs this work, which is set in Wiesbaden, disguised as »Roulettenburg«, for the first time. Four years ago we engaged a director from straight theatre, who had never directed an opera before, for Mozart’s Idomeneo. Jan Philipp Gloger has since proven how good he is with this art form; he will make his debut at Bayreuth with The Flying Dutchman in 2012. Tilmann Köhler, also from straight theatre, is making his operatic debut here with Teseo (Theseus), Handel’s third London opera, which is full of wonderfully fresh music and brilliant writing for the singers. Richard Jones was engaged to direct Puccini 's La fanciulla del West but has been forced to cancel for personal reasons. We are delighted that, at short notice, it has been possible to replace this with Christoph Loy's highly successful new production, which opened recently at the Royal Opera in Stockholm.
Verdi’s Vêpres siciliennes, seldom performed on stage in Germany, let alone in the original French version, has been programmed to celebrate Verdi’s 200th birthday in 2013, and is the starting point for the series of events in this season’s Opera Finale. The role of Duchess Hélène in The Sicilian Vespers could have been written for Elza van den Heever. This is her last new production as a member of the ensemble – but she will be coming back soon as a guest.

We are also much looking forward to performances by many other singers: former members of the ensemble and guests who have worked closely with the company in the past return to Oper Frankfurt: Clive Bailey as the General in The Gambler and Hagen, Joseph Calleja as Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera, Christian Gerhaher as Pelléas, Michael Nagy as Caesar in Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Camilla Nylund as Elsa in Lohengrin, Roberto Saccà as Idomeneo and Eva-Maria Westbroek as Minnie in La Fanciulla del West. We also look forward to the return of the wonderful Anja Silja as the Grandmother in The Gambler.

I would like to draw your attention to two of the many revivals this season: Axel Corti’s La Traviata, our oldest production, with Aleksandra Kurzak new in the title role, conducted by the very talented Omer Meir Wellber, and Mussorgsky’s Khovanschina, a challenge for every opera company, with a wonderful cast led by Daveda Karanas, completely re-rehearsed and conducted, amongst others, by Lawrence Foster. I don’t think I need to say much about the Ring des Nigelungen. The general acclaim which it has received far exceeded our expectations. We are performing two cycles to celebrate the Wagner year. General Music Director Sebastian Weigle, under whose direction our orchestra has been voted »Orchestra of the Year« three times in succession, proves his enormous versatility again by conducting both Rings, Rienzi, Königskinder, Prokofiev’s The Gambler and La Fanciulla del West.
In addition to the aforementioned conductors, a squad well known guests will be taking to the podium: Bertrand de Billy (Lohengrin) Jonathan Darlington (Vanessa), Riccardo Frizza (Otello), the Solti prize winner José Luis Gómez (La Boheme), Pablo Heras-Casado (Sicilian Vespers), Julia Jones (Idomeneo), Friedemann Layer (Pelléas et Mélisande) and Carlo Montanaro (Don Carlo).

I hope you will visit us often during the season. There is nothing artists love more than the thrilling atmosphere of a full house. And I, as Intendant, want nothing more that happy audiences and artists.

Your