Experience a musical highlight of the pre-christmas season in the heart of Vienna: the advent concert of the Wiener Symphoniker with chief conductor Petr Popelka in the beautiful St. Stephen’s Cathedral. In 2025, the focus will be on a “Bohemian Christmas” – with touching works by Antonín Dvorák, Bedrich Smetana, Josef Suk and others. You can look forward to special moments such as the enchanting “lullaby” from the opera Hubicka (“the kiss”), masterfully interpreted by Katerina Knežíková. Other top-class soloists of the evening: Stepánka Pucálková, Pavel Cernoch and Adam Plachetka. The crowning finale: the joint “O du fröhliche” – the unforgettable end to an evening full of magic and anticipation of christmas.
Hamlet
This production “offers all an Italian-opera-lover could possibly desire” wrote the FAZ after the revival of this “forgotten gem” at the Bregenz Festival. The festival continued ist rediscovery series with “Amleto/Hamlet”, an opera by Verdi contemporaries Franco Faccio and Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. Premiered in 1865 in Genoa and restaged in 1871 at Milano’s La Scala, “Hamlet” was only revived in 2014 concertante in the US before ist “triumphal rebirth” (Deutschlandradio Kultur) at the Bregenz Festival, where the opera was also recorded for the first time ever. Faccio, who conducted the first performance of Verdi’s Aida in Italy and the world premiere of Otello, and Boito, Verdi’s librettist of Otello and Falstaff, skillfully and effectively challenge the conventions of Italian opera, which they wanted to revitalize by infusing it with the spirit of Shakespeare’s drama. Anticipating the musical language of later Italian verismo composers, the opera combines lovely musical interludes with superb vocal writing. Heading a supreme cast, Pavel Cernoch as Amleto delivers superbly, “using his colorful tenor skillfully to develop the transformation of the insecure youngling to the ice-cold avenger” (NZZ) and “granting the work large scale” (Abendzeitung). Under the baton of Paolo Carignani with the Vienna Symphoniker and Prague Philharmonic Choir “it carried terrific punch (The Telegraph)”. Olivier Tambosi’s “excellent staging served it well, with a clear focus on the high points (The Telegraph)”. “In the intermission and at the end there was vociferous enthusiasm of the audience for the late first encounter with this music” (Neue Musikzeitung). “There is a lot of exciting music to discover in this opera…What an amazing richness in ideas! This opera is worth to be rediscovered.” (SZ) // “Faccio’s opera is the one that should be performed, and if plans are not already afoot to bring it to the land of Shakespeare, they certainly should be.“ (The Telegraph) // “The Shakespeare year now has a breathtaking Shakespeare rediscovery. Yes, the musically convincing, pompous Hamlet opera does exist!” (FAZ)
Daphne
Richard Strauss’ opera Daphne, subtitled “bucolic tragedy in one act”, features lush, complex orchestrations and employs a large orchestra to convey its musical themes. The vocal writing is often highly virtuosic, showcasing the abilities of the singers in the lead roles. With Vera-Lotte Boecker – crowned “Singer of the year”, the prestigious Opernwelt Critics Award – he has found “an ideal Daphne, embodying both the youthful and the fated side of her character” (Bachtrack.com). “Thomas Guggeis conducted the admirable Staatskapelle Berlin with infinite delicacy and clarity” (La Libre Belgique). “Strong images that will have an impact for a long time to come.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung).
Bregenz Festival 2016: Amleto (Hamlet)
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)