The Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester(Frankfurt Opera House and Museum's Orchestra) is the resident orchestra of the Oper Frankfurt. Its somewhat peculiar name is derived from the series of "Museum Concerts", organized by the Frankfurter Museumsgesellschaft since 1808. [1] The orchestra is ranked as an "A-list" ensemble under the German TVK regulations. Its music director and principal conductor is Thomas Guggeis.
With a history spanning more than 200 years, the Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester is one of Germany's oldest symphonic ensembles. It was founded in the late 18th century as the orchestra of the Oper Frankfurt, Frankfurt's municipal opera. [2] In addition to playing in the opera house, the orchestra maintains a series of 10 subscription programs per season (each played twice, on Sundays 11 a.m. and Mondays 8 p.m. CET, respectively), performed at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, a former opera house converted into a concert hall.
The orchestra has attracted leading conductors and musicians since its founding. Composer-violinist Louis Spohr was the second principal conductor (1817–1819) of the Museumsorchester; his successors included Clemens Krauss, William Steinberg, Franz Konwitschny, Georg Solti, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Michael Gielen.
Other notable conductors and composers who led the orchestra have included Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Arthur Nikisch, Hans Pfitzner, Willem Mengelberg, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Hans Knappertsbusch, Hermann Abendroth, Bruno Walter, and George Szell. The orchestra has played the premieres of several operas.
Richard Strauss' large-scale tone-poems Ein Heldenleben and Also sprach Zarathustra were both premiered by the Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester.
Many leading soloists have appeared with the orchestra, beginning with Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann in the 19th century. From 1915 to 1923, composer-violist Paul Hindemith served as concertmaster of the Opern- and Museumsorchester. Its repertoire includes major operatic and symphonic works from Baroque to contemporary music.
In the 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 seasons, the Museumsorchester was voted one of the three top German opera orchestras in the country, selected by the leading operatic magazines in Germany. For the 2007/2008 season, the noted German periodical Die Deutsche Bühne voted the Oper Frankfurt the best opera house in Germany. Finally, in 2009, the respected music-industry magazine Opernwelt voted the Opern- und Museumsorchester Orchestra of the Year among all the German opera- and theatre orchestras, an honour the orchestra shares with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester; in both 2010 and 2011 the orchestra was again named "Orchestra of the Year". [3]
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Ingo de Haas, Dimiter Ivanov, Gesine Kalbhenn-Rzepka, Artur Podlesny, Vladislav Brunner, Arseni KulakovTarasov, Sergio Katz, Hartmut Krause, Basma AbdelRahim, Kristin Reisbach, Karen von Trotha, Dorothee Plum, Christine Schwarzmayr, Freya Ritts-Kirby, Juliane Strienz, Almut Frenzel-Riehl, Jefimija Brajovic, Gisela Müller, Beatrice Kohllöffel, Stephanie Gierden, Yoriko Muto, Tsvetomir Tsankov, Cornelia Ilg, Alexandra Tsiokou
Guntrun Hausmann, Jörg Hammann, Aischa Gündisch, Ruth Elisabeth Müller, Olga Yuchanan, Lin Ye, Susanna Laubstein, Donata Wilken, Frank Plieninger, Nobuko Yamaguchi, Lutz ter Voert, Sara Schulz, Peter Szasz, Yu-Lin Tsai, Merve Uslu, Samuel Park, Miri Kim, Shaoling Jin
Thomas Rössel, Philipp Nickel, Wolf Attula, Lev Loiko, Guillaume Faraut, Jean-Marc Vogt, Mathias Bild, Fred Günther, Ulla Tremuth, Susanna Bienroth, Ariane Voigt, Elisabeth Friedrichs, Friederike Gutsch, Gabriele Piras, Maria del Mar Mendivil Colom, Vaida Rozinskaite
Rüdiger Clauß, Mikhail Nemtsov, Sabine Krams, Lukas Plag, Johannes Oesterlee, Florian Fischer, Roland Horn, Nika Brnič Uhrhan, Mario Riemer, Bogdan Michael Kisch, Janis Marquard
Bruno Suys, Tamás Frank-Dessauer, Hedwig Matros-Büsing, Peter Josiger, Rafael Kufer, Ulrich Goltz, Matthias Kuckuk, Philipp Enger, Jean Hommel, Kalle Helm
Sarah Louvion, Eduardo Belmar, Elizaveta Ivanova, Almuth Turré, Giovanni Gandolfo
Nanako Becker, Johannes Grosso, Márta Berger, Aurélien Laizé
Jens Bischof, Claudia Dresel, Diemut Schneider, Ramón Femenía, Matthias Höfer
André Rocha, Richard Morschel, Henrike Kirsch, Eberhard Beer
Matthijs Heugen, Ku-Hsin Chen, Joseph Longstaff, Stef van Herten, Tuna Erten, Claude Tremuth, Genevieve Clifford, Sara Oliveira
Matthias Kowalczyk, Florian Pichler, Balázs Drrahos, Markus Bebek, Wolfgang Guggenberger, Dominik Ring
Jeroen Mentens, Miguel García Casas, Hartmut Friedrich, Manfred Keller, Rainer Hoffmann
József Juhász-Aba
Tobias Kästle, Ulrich Weber
Jürgen Friedel, Nicole Hartig-Dietz, Steffen Uhrhan, David Friederich
Francoise Verherve, Barbara Mayr-Winkler, Sara Esturillo Sanchez
Torsten Frenzl, Anton Lauer, Ivan Scaglione, Aaron Veil, Hanns Will
Christoph von Dohnányi is a German conductor.
Michael Andreas Gielen was an Austrian conductor and composer known for promoting contemporary music in opera and concert. Principally active in Europe, his performances are characterized by precision and vivacity, aiding his ability to interpret the complex contemporary music he specialized in.
Alte Oper is a concert hall in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. It is located in the inner city, Innenstadt, within the banking district Bankenviertel. Today's Alte Oper was built in 1880 as the city's opera house, which was destroyed by bombs in 1944. It was rebuilt in the 1970s as a concert hall with a large hall and smaller venues, opened in 1981. The square in front of the building is still known as Opernplatz.
The Frankfurt Radio Symphony is the radio orchestra of Hessischer Rundfunk, the public broadcasting network of the German state of Hesse. Venues are Alte Oper and hr-Sendesaal. Music director is the French conductor Alain Altinoglu. Chief conductors have brought in Russian, Nordic and French influences. The orchestra has been one of the leading Mahler and Bruckner orchestras internationally.
The Oper Frankfurt is a German opera company based in Frankfurt.
Opernwelt is a monthly German magazine for opera, operetta and ballet. It includes news about current performances, portraits of composers and performers, articles about opera houses, performance spaces, and contemporary and historical subjects from the world of opera and classical music. It reviews recordings and books and publishes monthly schedules of German and international opera houses. The magazine's website offers full text search for past issues. A year book is published every October.
Paolo Carignani is an Italian conductor.
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Tanja Ariane Baumgartner is a German operatic mezzo-soprano. A member of the Oper Frankfurt since 2009, she has enjoyed an international career, appearing in major European and American opera houses and the Salzburg Festival.
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The Sir Georg Solti International Conductors' Competition is a German competition for conductors that occurs biennially in Frankfurt, at the Alte Oper. The cooperating music organisations are the Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester and the hr-Sinfonieorchester. The competition was founded in memory of Sir Georg Solti, who led the Frankfurt Opera during 1952–1961. The patroness of the competition for many years was Valerie, Lady Solti, the widow of Sir Georg Solti.
Sarah Louvion is a French classical flautist. The award-winning player has been the principal flute of the Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester from 2002, and is active as a soloist and chamber musician. She has given international master classes.
Bernd Loebe is a German music journalist and opera manager. After working as a journalist with a focus on opera and voice for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Neue Musikzeitung, Opernwelt and Hessischer Rundfunk, he was artistic director of the opera house of Brussels, La Monnaie, from 1990, and has been Intendant of the Oper Frankfurt since 2002, where he encouraged a capable ensemble, international guest artists, and the production of rarely performed operas. He received the 2018 International Opera Award in the category Leadership in Opera.
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The Frankfurter Museums-Gesellschaft is a cultural association in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany, which is responsible for the Frankfurt museum concerts. It manages the Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester, which is both the municipal orchestra of Frankfurt and the orchestra of the Oper Frankfurt. Concerts take place in the Alte Oper concert hall. The orchestra is regarded as an important German symphony orchestra.
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