It’s an impetuous, impassioned Hamlet that treads the boards in composer Franco Faccio and librettist Arrigo Boito’s opera Hamlet (Amleto), which was first staged in 1865 in Genua. Faccio and Boito skilfully and effectively challenge the conventions of Italian opera, which they wanted to revitalise by infusing it with the spirit of Shakespeare’s drama. Amleto was performed again at La Scala in 1871, after that the opera was not staged again – until 2014 when it was revived in the USA. The Bregenz Festival is now bringing Faccio’s Hamlet back to Europe. This production “offers all an Italian-opera-lover could possibly desire” (FAZ); “a triumphal rebirth” (Deutschlandradio Kultur)
Salzburg Easter Festival 2017: Die Walküre
In 1967 the first Salzburg Easter Festival presented a now legendary production of Richard Wagner’s “Ring des Nibelungen” tetralogy, led by Herbert von Karajan. The 50th anniversary of the festival in 2017 saw a new production of “Die Walküre” by famous Bulgarian director Vera Nemirova which is set in a unique “re-creation” of this very first Salzburg Easter Festival opera production in the set by Günther Schneider-Siemssen. Christian Thielemann conducts his Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and an illustrous cast including Anja Harteros, Anja Kampe, Vitalij Kowaljow and Peter Seiffert. The critics are full of praise for this “musically ravishing Walküre” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) and ist “excellent ensemble of soloists”. As Sieglinde, Anja Harteros is “enchanting and elegant”, Peter Seiffert “amazingly presents a steady and expressive Siegmund”, Christa Mayer “shows off as irresistible, throroughbred Fricka” and Anja Kampe is celebrated as “outstanding Brünnhilde” (Süddeutsche Zeitung).
Bregenz Festival 2017: Carmen
Georges Bizet‘s captivating music with its Spanish sounds took the world by storm: Carmen‘s Habanera and Seguidilla, like Escamillo‘s Toreador‘s Song, are known to one and all. The French composer‘s most successful opera is staged on the world’s largest, spectacular floating stage of Lake Constance in Bregenz, with a set designed by British artist Es Devlin. She has designed sets for pop stars like Adele, U2, Take That, the Pet Shop Boys and Kanye West. In collaboration with the stage director Kasper Holten, Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House in London, she has also worked at opera houses in Helsinki and Copenhagen, at the Theater an der Wien and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. For the Danish stage director, this “opera about destiny and obsession” centres on “two people who are treated as outsiders, whose paths cross and who cling to each other in a passionate but unhealthy relationship”.
Bregenz Festival 2017: Mosè in Egitto
This production from the Festspielhaus at Bregenz Festival centers on the Biblical Exodus. The universal story, with ist themes of migration and inability to deal with power, has lost none of ist urgency and topicality. By choosing an Old Testament subject, Rossini was able to get round the ban on staging operas during Lent. None the less, Mosè in Egitto contains all the ingredients of grand opera, mainly thanks to the concealed love story of the heir to the Egyptian throne. Today the moving prayer-aria of the Israelites in captivity remains the best known piece from the opera. For the staging of this rarely performed work by Rossini, Dutch director Lotte de Beer, one of the most sought-after stage directors of her generation (International Opera Newcomer Award 2015) teams up with the Dutch theatre collective Hotel Modern. While the soloists and choir relate the tale of the pharaoh and the conflicts in his family, Hotel Modern conjure up ist own reality by using live animations to portray the mass scenes and the parallel narrative of the people and the slaves. Miniature cameras, thousands of puppets, models of villages and cities and a spectacular aquarium installation present the biblical tale of plagues and the parting of the Red Sea on the Bregenz stage.
Salzburg Festival 2017: Aida
“Passionate and unconditionally dedicated” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), Anna Netrebko makes her role debut as Aida at the Salzburg Festival, joined by Francesco Meli as Radamès and Ekaterina Semenchuk as her rival Amneris. In the pit: no other than Verdi expert Riccardo Muti, “our finest Verdi conductor” who “creates effects you didn’t quite think possible” (NY Times). This Aida is the first opera staging by award-winning Iranian film-maker, photographer and video artist Shirin Neshat, known for her critical examinations of gender roles and religious fundamentalism. “Lyric sensitivity and searing power – Ms. Netrebko is ready for Aida!” (New York Times)
Salzburg Festival 2017: La Clemenza di Tito
Deemed today’s most exciting Mozart conductor and highly acclaimed for his revolutionary Da-Ponte Cycle, Teodor Currentzis takes on Mozart’s final opera for his long awaited debut at the Salzburg Festival: “La clemenza di Tito”. The current Artistic Director of the Perm State Opera and Ballet Theatre is accompanied by his MusicAeterna and MusicAeterna Chamber Choir and joins forces with award winning director Peter Sellars, with whom he has established a successful long-term collaboration. Known himself as Mozart rebel for his unique contemporary stagings of Mozart’s operas, Sellars directs the opera also for the screen. “Peter Sellars’ picture language and precise direction are masterful!” (Der Spiegel)
Bregenz Festival 2015: Turandot
Mention Giacomo Puccini’s name and opera-lovers all over the world will think of grand opera and passionate love stories. One of the world’s most famous arias comes from the composer’s final opera, Turandot: “Nessun dorma” – none shall sleep because by morning the Chinese princess is determined to have discovered the name of the unknown prince. The work is remarkable for its Chinese local colour, its opulent crowd scenes, its powerful choruses and its characters overwhelmed by their emotions. Enthusiastically acclaimed by its audiences, the present production combines spectacular and touching scenes on the Bregenz Festival’s vast lakeside stage. “Melodies for millions, impressively staged” bringing “a bit of Hollywood to Bregenz” (ZDF heute journal TV news programme).
Fidelio
The Salzburg Festival presents Ludwig van Beethoven’s one and only opera, his masterpiece: Fidelio, in a new production staged by Claus Guth, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst and starring Jonas Kaufmann as Florestan. The casting is remarkable in this beautiful new production by the Salzburg Festival. Adrianne Pieczonka embodies the faithful Leonore and Jonas Kaufmann, more tragic than ever, lends his voice to Florestan. The Wiener Philharmoniker and the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor conducted by Franz Welser-Möst join them in this remarkable performance.
Bregenz Festival 2015: Les Contes d’Hoffmann
“The opera visit of the year – Bregenz is showing a Tales of Hoffmann that makes you forget everything you saw before.” (FAZ) Sparkling with creativity, Stefan Herheim’s new staging of Jacques Offenbach’s opera Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Bregenz Festival, starring Kerstin Avemo, Mandy Fredrich, Rachel Frenkel, Daniel Johansson and Michael Volle, was received by an enthusiastic audience with standing ovation and frenetic applause. The international press agreed wholeheartedly: The New York Times praised the “thoughtfulness and creativity” of the new production, devised by the director as a search for one’s own self in a sparkling drag show.
Ariadne auf Naxos
Here is one of the truly overwhelming successes in recent opera history: Christian Thielemann’s sensational return to the Vienna State Opera to conduct his first-ever performances there of Richard Strauss, with an ideal cast in an acclaimed production of Ariadne auf Naxos, featuring Peter Matic, Sophie Koch, Soile Isokoski and Johan Botha, stage directed by Sven-Eric Bechtolf. “A triumph […] world stars and ensemble shine” (Die Presse). “Strauss in all his glory”(Wiener Zeitung).