Aida, the Arena di Verona’s flagship opera, comes back in Franco Zeffirelli’s famous production, which transforms the stage into a magnificent Ancient Egypt. A great pyramid, monumental settings, multicoloured stones and precious fabrics provide the backdrop for a production featuring hundreds of mimes, extras, dancers and singers from the chorus.
Maria José Siri takes on the role of Aida, the Ethiopian princess, a slave at the court of the pharaohs. At her side, in the role of Radames, is Jonas Kaufmann, for the only performance scheduled at the Arena di Verona Festival in 2026. Rounding out the love triangle is Clémentine Margaine, as the Egyptian princess Amneris. The production also features the Étoile and Principal Dancer of La Scala, Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko, who perform in choreographies by Vladimir Vasiliev.
Two key works of the Romantic era are performed at the Vienna Konzerthaus: Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 and Franz Schubert’s ‘Great’ Symphony in C major. On stage are the Vienna Symphony Orchestra with their principal conductor, Petr Popelka. Both works combine grand forms, inner dignity and musical expressiveness. Johannes Brahms, who made Vienna his home, also engaged deeply with the musical legacy of Franz Schubert. Brahms spent the last 25 years of his life in Vienna, living on Karlsgasse, not far from the Vienna Konzerthaus. It is here that Yulianna Avdeeva, winner of the 2010 International Chopin Competition, now shines in Brahms’s First Piano Concerto in D minor.
She is a legendary pianist, a ‘lioness at the piano’, renowned for her spirited playing: Martha Argerich is the protagonist of the ‘Martha Argerich Festival’, named after her, which will took place for the eighth time in 2026. Alongside conductor Sylvain Cambreling and the Symphoniker Hamburg, Argerich presents a programme focused on dialogue. The first part highlights one of the most beloved piano concertos of all time, the Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major by Beethoven. In the second, the orchestra showcases the full range of its sound with the Concerto for Orchestra by Bartók, a work where each instrumental section has the chance to show its virtuosity.
Written during the tumult of the Napoleonic Wars, Beethoven’s fifth and final piano concerto is both epic and moving. Young Austrian pianist Lukas Sternath plays as soloist with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, conducted by Constantinos Carydis. The programme continues with a selection from Skalkottas’ 36 Greek Dances, composed between 1931 and 1936, to go back to Austrian classicism, with Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 and the elegant and graceful ballet from the opera Idomeneo. The concert took place in Athens, with a view of the ancient Acropolis.
With acclaimed debuts at the Vienna Musikverein, the Salzburg Festival and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Elim Chan is one of the most sought-after artists of her generation. For her debut with the Munich Philharmonic, the young rising star is joined by Augustin Hadelich, an artist who has long been counted amongst the most successful in his field. Alongside Tchaikovsky’s famous Violin Concerto and the finely nuanced music of Noriko Koide, the programme features Edward Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’.
Vissi d’arte – ‘I lived for art, I offered song to the stars and the heavens,’ sings Floria Tosca in the second act of Puccini’s opera, before she attempts to extract the release of her lover Cavaradossi from the despot Scarpia by any means necessary. The famous aria will be performed by soprano Krassimira Stoyanova as the highlight of a gala concert featuring arias, duets and orchestral works by Giacomo Puccini and Franz Lehár, also known as the ‘Puccini of operetta’. The audience in Trieste will also hear other earthly and heavenly songs from the opera stars – alongside Stoyanova, tenor Francesco Meli. These include the popular Vilja song from the operetta The Merry Widow, from which the symphony orchestra will also play the waltz Ball-Sirenen, along with other instrumental delicacies such as Puccini’s precocious, sumptuous Preludio Sinfonico.
The Sound of Neuschwanstein” tells the story of a place that, like no other, embodies the fusion of art, architecture, and vision. King Ludwig II once had Neuschwanstein Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, built as a resonant stage for Richard Wagner’s music – a place where his longing for an ideal world was to be fulfilled. Yet this dream remained unfulfilled. After decades of silence, Neuschwanstein is being rediscovered today as an extraordinary open-air concert venue. The film chronicles the revival of the Neuschwanstein Concerts while also tracing their origins back to King Ludwig II, his passion for music, and his radical vision of art. Through striking imagery, international soloists, and behind-the-scenes glimpses, a multifaceted portrait emerges: of a king caught between reality and fantasy, of a castle straddling myth and the present, and of artists who are bringing this place to life with new sounds today. In this way, Neuschwanstein itself becomes a stage – and a centuries-old dream finally comes to life.
In this intimate staging of Bellini’s masterpiece opera, Asmik Grigorian’s highly anticipated debut as Norma is “one of the best things to happen to Vienna’s opera stages in a long time” (FAZ). Set in a dictatorship of the 20th century, Grigorian’s Norma is the forewoman of a clay foundry. Vasily Barkhatov’s “convincingly concentrated, intimate staging” (Kronenzeitung) underscores the drama of the love triangle between the three central characters. Grigorian masters the notoriously difficult role with bravura: “Grigorian is a true Callas successor because every gesture and facial expression merges with her musical expression” (Kleine Zeitung). In Aigul Akhmetshina as Adalgisa, “she found a counterpart who has one of the richest mezzo voices of our time” (Die Presse). Freddie De Tommaso as Pollione completes the three-way conflict with his “clean and beautifully sounding” tenor (Oper News). Rounding out the evening musically are the “magnificent in every respect” Arnold Schoenberg Chor (Salzburger Nachrichten). “All in all, a breathtakingly thrilling evening with a perfect interlocking of stage and pit” (Van Magazin).
“vocal luxury was the order of the day”(Die Deutsche Bühne) In this new production of Verdi’s Don Carlo, director Kirill Serebrennikov sets the opera in a historic costume research institute, blending history with the present. Silent actors in historic costumes symbolize self-aggrandizement and emotional confinement. Conductor Philippe Jordan is praised for his sensitivity. Joshua Guerrero effectively portrays Don Carlo, while Etienne Dupuis’s Posa is a charming freedom fighter. Roberto Tagliavini stands out as Filippo II, and Eve-Maud Hubeaux impresses alongside Asmik Grigorian, who shines in her role debut as Elisabetta, delivering a powerful performance that resonates deeply with the audience.
Barrie Kosky, one of the most innovative opera directors of our time, creates a new interpretation of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (which he believed should be renamed Susanna) at the Vienna State Opera with a very young ensemble: Andrè Schuen and Hanna-Elisabeth Müller in the roles of Count and Countess Almaviva, Peter Kellner as Figaro, Patricia Nolz as Cherubino and Ying Fang as well as Eva Nazarova as Susanna. Ying Fang is acting on stage with a perfect lip sync to Eva Nazarova singing from the orchestra pit, as she could not sing herself due to a vocal cord haemorrhage. Philippe Jordan conducts the Orchestra of the Wiener Staatsoper and together they “deliver an ideal mixture of elegant lyricism and concentrated expression – each and every one” (Wiener Zeitung). “Beauty and pointedness are combined in the noblest way.” (Der Standard)
