A rarely performed masterpiece, Gioachino Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto at the Bregenz Festival staged by Lotte de Beer, who retrieves this hidden gem of opera literature for a spectacular staging. De Beer, one of the most soughtafter stage directors of her generation (International Opera Newcomer Award 2015) teams up with the Dutch theatre collective Hotel Modern to tell the story of the Biblical Exodus. Their unique production concept for Mosè in Egitto revolves around the ingenuity of Hotel Modern. The theatre group conjures up its own reality by using live animations to portray the mass scenes and the parallel narratives 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 – “a stroke of genius” (Der Standard).
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 at 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”. „The whole ensemble deserves a floor-deep bow.” Der Tagesspiegel
„In terms of sound and, above all, visual finesse, the Carmen in Bregenz is opulent … and brilliant opera show.“ Wiener Zeitung // „The lake-stage in Bregenz is a venue for theatrical spectaculars, and Kasper Holten’s production of Carmen on Es Devlin’s extraordinary set was a knockout.“ The Telegraph // „The French singer Gaëlle Arquez proves to be a lucky find. Not only her massive, shimmering mezzo-soprano is convincing, but her high-quality acting skills as well.” Salzburger NachrichtenNachrichten
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)
Prague Sounds – Concert for Europe with Semyon Bychkov & the Czech Philharmonic
For this special concert, the Vltava river in Prague turned into a unique concert venue. Floating stages were built especially for this concert. To celebrate Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Czech Philharmonic perform some of the most iconic pieces of Czech classical music. The concert opens with the anthem of the European Union, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”, and is completed by Smetana’s Vltava (The Moldau), Dvorák’s Carnival Overture and – as the main piece of the evening – Janácek’s monumental Glagolitic Mass, one of the most powerful sacred compositions ever. It is the perfect piece to celebrate Europe: “the ancient classical meets the spontaneously avant-garde in a special and optimal way.” (Lidové noviny) PROGRAM: Beethoven: ”Ode to Joy” Finale of Symphony No. 9, Op. 125; Dvorák: Carnival overture op. 92; Smetana: Vltava, a symphonic poem from the cycle ‘My Country.’ Janácek: Glagolitic Mass
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)
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)