Alte Oper Frankfurt

Frankfurt's Alte Oper opened on 20 October 1880 in a building designed by Richard Lucae. Bombing destroyed its interior in 1944, leaving a ruin that became the focus of a long reconstruction campaign. It reopened on 28 August 1981 as a concert and congress venue, with Michael Gielen conducting Mahler's Eighth Symphony. Behind the restored exterior, the Grosser Saal accommodates about 2,500 listeners, while the Mozart Saal provides a smaller setting for chamber music. Frankfurt's great concert hall, opened in 1880 in the manner of a Renaissance palace and one of the finest in Germany until the bombing of 1944 left it a shell. The ruin stood for three decades while the city argued over demolition; the reconstruction opened in 1981, modern behind the restored façade, and the building has since carried Frankfurt's concert life.