It is George Enescu’s only opera: the Romanian composer struggled for years with the greatest of all tragedies, the myth of Oedipus, who kills his father and marries his mother because the gods have predestined it so. The new Bregenz production of the work is directed by the internationally renowned director Andreas Kriegenburg, who, together with set designer Harald B. Thor and costume designer Tanja Hofmann, dedicates each of the four independently narrated acts to an element: fire, water, air and earth, combined with archaic materials such as wood, clay and simple fabric, but also bare skin. Finnish star conductor Hannu Lintu, who will be appearing at the Bregenz Festival for the first time, will conduct the music. “Gorgeous, stately, incandescent” (Los Angeles Times)
Salzburg Festival 2019: Simon Boccanegra
Giuseppe Verdi’s emotional political thriller, brilliantly captured in Andreas Kriegenburg’s puristic staging, becomes a musical feast in Salzburg with a high-class ensemble including René Pape, Luca Salsi, Marina Rebeka and Charles Castronovo. Conductor Valery Gergiev gives a “musically differentiated and overall convincing interpretation of Verdi’s sonically immensely subtle score” (Die Zeit). The Wiener Philharmoniker and the choir of the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor perform superbly.