Giuditta was to be Franz Lehár’s ticket to the world of opera: His “Spieloper” or “musical comedy” was triumphantly premiered in January 1934. Intoxicating melodies and borrowings from Puccini, whom Lehár admired, and his tragically loving characters stand alongside operetta-like innocuousness. However, the end of the plot is by no means cheerful; the lovers Giuditta and Octavio go their separate ways in resignation. The “musical comedy” thus only seems to stand in stark contrast to the social present of the emerging war, the 1930s. Director Christoph Marthaler, known for his whimsically beautiful theatre evenings, picks up on the ambivalence of Lehár’s characters, who vacillate between opulence and resignation, between euphoria and the abyss. Orchestral music by Béla Bartók, Erich Wolfgang Korngold or Dmitri Shostakovich, songs by Viktor Ullmann, Hanns Eisler or Alban Berg as well as excerpts from Sladek oder Die schwarze Armee by Ödön von Horváth radically place Lehár’s operetta in the context of its time of origin. Giuditta in Christoph Marthaler’s version tells a love story within the turmoil and confusion of the times, brilliantly realised by a top-class cast led by Vida Mikneviciute and Daniel Behle.
The Greek Passion
Bohuslav Martinu’s opera The Greek Passion, here in the 1961 version, is based on the novel The re-crucified Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis. The opera develops the Christian doctrine of “love thy neighbour” ad absurdum, as a group of refugees are driven out of a little Greek village just as the village is putting on a Passion play for Holy Week. The opera is a pessimistic plea for humanity, made in the awareness that humanity must always wrestle anew with its own egoism. Director Simon Stone “creates a modern parable, somehow both contemporary and timeless.” (The Times) For the last of his 16 operas, Martinu developed a tonal language which combined his early musical experiences with elements of Greek folklore, Greek Orthodox liturgy and dance music. Maxime Pascal, the 2014 winner of the Salzburg Festival’s annual Young Conductors Award and at the podium of the Wiener Philharmoniker for the first time, “unfolds a musical and dramatic intensity that makes your hair stand on end, both in the tender outbursts and the violent ones. A maestro of his time.” (Le Figaro) “A highlight of this year’s Salzburg Festival” (The Times) “The Greek Passion elected “BEST PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR 2023” (OPER! Awards 2024) “This opulence and the playing of the overall grippingly coherent ensemble hits one to the core.” (Neue Musikzeitung)
Il Vologeso
The successful duo of Jossi Wieler und Sergio Morabito have rediscovered a Baroque gem in Niccolò Jommelli’s opera Il Vologeso. Their exciting staging, relocated to the present day, delighted both the audience and the press. Born in Naples in 1714, Niccolò Jommelli was in his day a superstar among composers. In the course of his life he set some 80 librettos. For this, the first staged performance of Il Vologeso for more than 200 years, a strong cast has been assembled. Sebastian Kohlhepp, Sophie, Ana Durlovski, Helene Schneiderman and Catriona Smith all bring the story of Vologeso to life again with their captivating and beautiful singing. Gabriele Ferro, conducting the State Orchestra, transforms Jommelli’s music into great waves of emotion with his differentiated and thrilling conducting style.
Salzburg Festival 2020: Mozarteum Orchestra & Bolton
“An unearthly melody characterized the Mozart Matinee on Sunday” Salzburger Nachrichten. PROGRAM Mozart: Mass in C minor, K. 139 – “Waisenhaus”; Adagio and Fugue for Strings, K. 546; Vesperae solennes de Confessore, K. 339
Salzburg Festival 2023: The Greek Passion
Bohuslav Martinu’s opera The Greek Passion, here in the 1961 version, is based on the novel The re-crucified Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis. The opera develops the Christian doctrine of “love thy neighbour” ad absurdum, as a group of refugees are driven out of a little Greek village just as the village is putting on a Passion play for Holy Week. The opera is a pessimistic plea for humanity, made in the awareness that humanity must always wrestle anew with its own egoism. Director Simon Stone “creates a modern parable, somehow both contemporary and timeless.” (The Times) For the last of his 16 operas, Martinu developed a tonal language which combined his early musical experiences with elements of Greek folklore, Greek Orthodox liturgy and dance music. Maxime Pascal at the podium of the Wiener Philharmoniker for the first time, “unfolds a musical and dramatic intensity that makes your hair stand on end, both in the tender outbursts and the violent ones. A maestro of his time.” (Le Figaro). “A highlight of this year’s Salzburg Festival”
The Times
Salzburg Easter Festival 2021: Mozart Requiem
Artistic director Christian Thielemann opens the Salzburg Easter Festival 2021 with Mozart’s Requiem. The excellent Bachelor Salzburg and a top-class quartet of soloists with Golda Schultz, Christa Mayer, Sebastian Kohlhepp and René Pape make the concert a dignified commemoration of the dead. “Mozart’s Requiem sounded at the highest level, with great balance and attention to well-dosed, rather restrained, even reverent sound architecture. Here one realised once again how wonderful it can be when conductor and musicians are so unconditionally attuned to each other.” Kurier. PROGRAM: Mozart Requiem K. 626