On 5 April 1874, at what is now Linke Wienzeile, a world premiere took place that changed the genre of operetta and the history of the Theater an der Wien for good. To mark Johann Strauss’ 200th birthday, artistic director Stefan Herheim surprises with a fresh new production of the “queen of operettas”: Musical references that tie back to the Theater an der Wien, political warnings and precise character work make for a truly unique spin on an old classic. “Alina Wunderlin is a delightful grumpy Adele with coloratura qualities, Hulkar Sabirova throws herself wholeheartedly into the role of Rosalinde and Thomas Blondelle is a pompous, sleazy Eisenstein, just as one could wish for” (APA). Chief conductor Petr Popelka “achieves success with the confident and supple orchestra and the enthusiastic and splendid Schoenberg Choir” (Die Presse). “A brilliant performance by conductor and orchestra!” (FAZ)
Bregenz Festival 2025: Oedipe
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)
Bregenz Festival 2024: Tancredi
With an emotional opera thriller, the then 20-year-old Gioachino Rossini surpassed most of the popular Italian composers in 1813. Even though Tancredi is one of his early works, with its sweeping melodies and rushing finales it still shows Rossini’s musical creativity. Jan Philipp Gloger stages this action-packed opera about love, trust and the impossibility of finding happiness in times of crisis. Since 2010, the drama director of the Staatstheater Nürnberg also worked internationally as an opera director. Yi-Chen Lin, who guests of the Bregenzer Festspiele might remember from Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, conducts the opera. “You can hardly do opera better these days!” (Kronenzeitung)
Popelka conducts Schönberg
“Schönberg is one of my heroes”, conductor Petr Popelka said in an interview (Der Standard) – and you can really hear his dedication to the composer as he leads the well-oiled machine of 400 musicians, consisting of the Wiener Symphoniker, three choirs and 5 soloists in their interpretation of Gurre-Lieder: “Perfectly organised, always striving for a balance between pointillist precision, a sense of the grotesque and romantic emphasis” (Die Presse). The soloists shone, above all Vera-Lotte Boecker as a “youthfully blossoming Tove with a bright, secure high register” (Die Prse) PROGRAM: Schönberg: Gurre-Lieder
Where the Wild Things Are
Based on Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are, one of the world’s best selling and most beloved children’s books, this opera will enchant children and adults alike. To turn his story about a young boy who travels to a faraway island full of wild creatures into an opera libretto, author Maurice Sendak let his imagination run riot. He invented, for instance, a new language for the wild creatures that Max meets on the island. This inspired British composer Oliver Knussen to what is probably his most adventurous music: It whistles, squeaks, sparkles, shines, entices and dances with delightful lightness. This production at the MusikTheater an der Wien “captivates as a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk” (Kurier). With loving attention to even the smallest detail, director and puppet virtuoso Nikolaus Habjan and his team created fabulous life-size puppets for Max and his “wild things”. The singers are in the bodies of the puppets and puppeteers handle the gestures and facial expressions. “The result is a visually stunning round dance of monsters” (Kleine Zeitung).
Bregenz Festival 2024: Der Freischütz
A “small theatre miracle” unfolds at the Bregenz Festival under Philipp Stölzl’s direction, featuring a visually stunning production of Der Freischütz with elements like a dilapidated village and water zombies. Conducted by Enrique Mazzola, the Wiener Symphoniker performs Weber’s music beautifully, while the ensemble shines, particularly Nikola Hillebrand as Agathe and Mauro Peter as Max. Moritz von Treuenfels adds flair as the devil Samiel, guiding the audience through the action with agility and charm, resulting in a captivating two-hour performance.
Bregenz Festival 2023: Ernani
Six years before Rigoletto, Giuseppe Verdi had already composed a gripping drama about love and revenge: Ernani – his breakthrough as a composer. The opera was also based on a play by the French author Victor Hugo, whose text inspired Verdi’s unique style with moving arias, stirring choruses and scenes of high drama: Elvira is desired by three men – among them the Spanish king and her old uncle. But she loves the robber Ernani, of all people, who has a score to settle with the king… “As much as this brilliant and precisely executed evening is always one over, it cleverly always moves just below the caricature threshold. Scurrilous drama, bizarre humour and splatter comedy serve only one thing: the unmasking of the guys.” (Münchner Merkur); “A mixture of Tarantino’s ‘Kill Bill’ and Monty Python’s ‘The Knights of the Coconut’.” (Deutschlandfunk)
Bregenz Festival 2022: Siberia
It is a tremendous act of love when Stephana gives up her life as a mistress in an elegant St Petersburg palais to follow her true love Vassili to a Siberian prison camp. In this exile, Stephana turns into a fearless hero. For Umberto Giordano, who also composed Andrea Chénier and Fedora, Siberia is a universally applicable human drama despite its Russian local color: “Love and pain do not have a nationality”. Siberia premiered in 1903 in La Scala in Milan replacing Giacomo Puccini’s postponed Madama Butterfly. Two young artists from Moscow bring the stirring opus to the Festspielhaus: the internationally aspiring director Vasily Barkhatov and Valentin Uryupin, who already conducted Eugene Onegin in Bregenz. “Uryupin leads the agile Wiener Symphoniker through the score of Strauss’ contemporary Giordano with a feeling for delicately toned colours. Ambur Braid sings the demanding part of Stephana with bravura.” (FAZ)
La Wally
Catalani’s masterpiece, first performed in 1892 at La Scala in Milan, is best known for its aria “Ebben? Ne andrò lontana”. With nuanced harmonies and colourful instrumentation, he pays great attention to the orchestra sound. He chose highly unusual material for his opera: the successful novel Die Geier-Wally by Wilhelmine von Hillern tells the story of a young woman who does not fit any of the gender clichés of the time. Unlike many earlier operatic heroines commanded to marry against their will, Wally does not look for a solution in society, but instead runs away to the mountains. Her husband must be her equal, someone unafraid to face both a bear and her father…
Bregenz Festival 2022: Madama Butterfly
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, one of the most played operas today, was staged on the Seebühne for the first time. Enrique Mazzola, who was also responsible for the Rigoletto production, leads “the Wiener Symphoniker to a beguiling string sound and a flexibility that is so important for Puccini” (Der Tagesspiegel). Director Andreas Homoki, who is the artistic director of the Opernhaus Zürich, and his internationally renowned team use Michael Levine’s magical stage set with its subtle landscape paintings to bring Japanese flair to Lake Constance. Barno Ismatullaeva’s performance as Cio-Cio-San “is simply world class!” (Online Merker). “Rightly a standing ovation ended the multiple dramatic evening.” (Neue Musikzeitung)