Oper Frankfurt Keeps Loebe and Guggeis Through August 2032

Oper Frankfurt has extended both of its top artistic contracts by four years, keeping Intendant Bernd Loebe and General Music Director Thomas Guggeis in their posts until August 31, 2032.

The double announcement settles the leadership question at one of Germany's busiest opera houses well into the next decade. Loebe runs the company as Intendant (the German term for an opera house's general artistic director); Guggeis conducts as General Music Director. Both men now have runway through the end of the 2031-32 season.

Who is staying, and for how long?

The contracts run four additional years, expiring August 31, 2032. That's the concrete number behind the announcement. Everything else is track record.

Loebe took over the Intendant post in the 2002-03 season. More than two decades later, he holds the longest-running tenure of the pair. Under his direction, the house has produced several world premieres and built relationships with international guest artists, according to the company's announcement.

Guggeis arrived much more recently. He began as General Music Director in the 2023-24 season, meaning his extension now carries him into his ninth year with the company.

What have they actually won?

The honors list is short and specific.

• In 2013, Oper Frankfurt was voted Opera Company of the Year at the first-ever International Opera Awards in London.
• In 2018, Loebe personally won the Organization's Leadership in Opera Award.
• The Frankfurt Opern- und Museumsorchester (the house's orchestra, which also serves as Frankfurt's concert orchestra) has won Opernwelt magazine's "Orchestra of the Year" title three years in a row under Guggeis.
• Opernwelt has also named Guggeis Conductor of the Year for 2026.

That's a respectable trophy shelf for a house that often sits in the shadow of Berlin, Munich and Hamburg. Three consecutive orchestra titles, in particular, suggest the ensemble's standing is no accident of a single season.

Why does the timing matter?

Opera houses live and die by planning horizons. A four-year extension gives Loebe and Guggeis the authority to cast singers, commission work and schedule repertory seasons in advance — the currency of any serious German Stadttheater (municipal theater) operation.

The announcement also lands alongside news of the company's artistic future. Oper Frankfurt's 2026-27 season features headline singers Kristina Mkhitaryan, Louise Alder, Xabier Anduaga and Christina Nilsson, and the house has already staged productions under review this season, including its new "Ottone."

Continuity is the operative word here. One leader inherited in 2002, one hired in 2023, both locked in until 2032. Frankfurt's audiences now know exactly who will be running the show, and the podium, for the next seven years — a rarity in an industry where music directorships increasingly turn over like stock portfolios.