With its spectacular Lake Stage, the Bregenz Festival celebrates its 80th anniversary with a series of sold-out performances, each offering breathtaking visual experiences before nearly 7,000 spectators. Damiano Michieletto’s staging of Verdi’s La traviata, set in the Roaring Twenties, captures a broken woman’s shattered life through a mirror tilted towards the sky. Marjukka Tepponen’s outstanding Violetta showed “intimate heart through sheer force of personality, expressive intelligence and vocal beauty” (OperaWire). By her side, Julien Behr interprets Alfredo “with lyrical warmth and palpable passion” (Orpheus Magazine), whilst Vladimir Stoyanov performs the role of Giorgio Germont with such “naturalness, elegance, grace and vocal expressiveness that he can be regarded as the baritone of choice for this role” (OperaTeatro). Conducting the excellent Wiener Symphoniker, Kirill Karabits proves to be a very sophisticated Verdian conductor, “bringing extraordinary dynamic and tonal subtlety to the score” (InterClassical). A production that was “visually ambitious, theatrically sophisticated and, at its best, genuinely poetic” (OperaWire).
Münchner Philharmoniker, Shani and Seong-Jin Cho in Tokyo
Filmed in Tokyo’s legendary Suntory Hall in April 2026, Lahav Shani and the Munich Philharmonic are joined by the brilliant Seong-Jin Cho in a programme focusing on two groundbreaking firsts: Beethoven’s exuberant, expansive First Piano Concerto and Mahler’s vividly pictorial First Symphony – a work that redefined what the symphony could be as the 19th century approached its end. With Mozart’s Overture to Die Entführung aus dem Serail as an arresting curtain-raiser, this concert presents more than a century of music central to the Austro-German tradition, performed at the very highest level. PROGRAMME: Mozart – Overture to Die Entführung aus dem Serail K.384; Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15; Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D major “Titan”
Les Pêcheurs de perles
In his new production of Bizet’s early opera Les Pêcheurs de perles, Ersan Mondtag brings the pearl fishers’ working world to the forefront, transposing it into a contemporary setting governed by the logic of fashion. The distinguished cast featured several opera stars. Juan Diego Flórez brought elegance and musicality to the role of Nadir, with OperaWire praising his ‘brilliant and secure high notes’ and ‘excellent phrasing’. As Zurga, Ludovic Tézier displayed both the beauty of his voice and his innate nobility, while the remarkable bass Ivo Stanchev completed the cast as Nourabad, the high priest of Brahma. Daniele Rustioni led the Orchestra of the Wiener Staatsoper in a thoughtful and finely detailed interpretation of the score. He brought out the music’s sensuality through a transparent, mellow sound that acknowledged its Orientalist colouring without overemphasising it.
Hélène Grimaud at Ruhr Piano Festival
With Hélène Grimaud at the piano, the audience is always in for more than just a concert. They get to experience an artist who never stands still, who never simply reproduces but always creates something new. Those who get to hear her will immediately sense they are in the presence of someone who does not regard music as mere decoration but rather as an existential adventure. She is a sound seeker, a cross-over artist, which is what makes every evening with her so thrilling. PROGRAM: BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Sonata No. 30 in E major, op. 109 (1820); BRAHMS (1833–1897) Three Intermezzi, op. 117 (1892), Fantasies, op. 116 (1892); BACH (1685–1750) Chaconne from the Partita for Violin No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 (arr. Ferruccio Busoni)
Mitridate, re di Ponto
The Staatsoper Berlin invited Marc Minkowski and his brilliant orchestra Les Musiciens du Louvre, for a new production of Mozart’s early work. Mozart was only 14 years old when he was commissioned to compose a large, full-length opera seria. The story of a declining king and warlord whose two very different sons love the same woman, who is also his bride, inspired Mozart to write music that knows strong passions as well as deeply felt emotions. He drew on tradition and yet already showed himself to be at a height that more than foreshadowed what was to come. The premiere at the end of 1770 became a triumph for the youthful composer. Minkowski and his incredible cast and ensemble made it again a complete showcase of all Mozart operas. The Japanese production team led by director Satoshi Miyagi immerses Mozart’s Mitridate in an enchanting ambience that lets different worlds converge. “Marc Minkowski and his brilliant orchestra Les Musiciens du Louvre […] a real coup.” (Tagesspiegel)
Capriccio
Capriccio by Richard Strauss is an opera about opera as an art form: it describes the creation of a musical drama with wise cheerfulness and full knowledge of this genre of theatre. The “conversation piece with music” is Strauss’s last complete stage work, his farewell as an opera composer, the cultivated conclusion of a well-considered life’s work. The composer worked closely with the Semperoper Dresden for six decades, and nine of his operas were premiered on the Elbe. To this day, the house and its orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, celebrated worldwide as the “Strauss Orchestra”, cultivate his work with a unique intensity and quality. The celebrated Strauss interpreter and principal conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden, Christian Thielemann, leads a top-class ensemble with star soprano Camilla Nylund as the Countess, Georg Zeppenfeld as La Roche, Daniel Behle as Flamand, Nikolay Borchev as Olivier, Christa Mayer as Clairon and Christoph Pohl as the Count. In Jens-Daniel Herzog’s new production, the plot unfolds in full poetic power and impressive imagery.
The Nutcracker
Because of Tchaikovsky’s imaginative music, “The Nutcracker“ is one of the most popular works of the ballet repertoire, instantly bringing to mind scenes of a splendidly decorated Christmas room, dancing snowflakes and the waltz of the flowers. The plot of “The Nutcracker“ is based on a novella by E.T.A. Hoffmann. While the masterful fairytale virtuously jumps back and forth from a dream to reality, in its adaptation as a ballet libretto by Alexandre Dumas and Marius Petipa, it lost much of its dark romantic fantasy. Christian Spuck attempts to distance himself from the Dumas/Petipas version in his choreography and puts the literary origin at the heart of his ballet, emphasizing the fantastical nature of the original rather than the delightful Christmas fairytale and bringing back the fairytale of the princess Pirlipat, who turns into a nut monster, as told by E.T.A. Hoffmann. In Rufus Didwiszus’ stage setting, the workshop of the godfather Drosselmeier turns into an old revue-theater, where the characters of the ballet come to life. Spuck’s choreography plays with the richness of characters in Hoffmann’s narrative cosmos, the absurdity and overwrought humor that inhabit them while at the same time looking down into the dark abyss of Romanticism.
Macbeth
Giuseppe Verdi’s powerful opera “Macbeth” received a fulminant staging at the newly reopened Staatsoper Unter den Linden by legendary stage director Harry Kupfer. In this new production superstars Plácido Domingo and Anna Netrebko were singing the title roles. Maestro Daniel Barenboim led the Staatskapelle Berlin portraying the many-layered motives of the opera’s characters “at their very best” (NZZ). This “magical moment of opera” (NZZ) was an “exhilarating success” (SZ). While Domingo “still fascinates the audience after decades” (rbb24), Netrebko performed “perhaps the best role of her life” yet (rbb24). Kwangchul Youn and Fabio Sartori shone as Banquo and Macduff. With monumental choral scenes, the Staatsopernchor did not only sing, but also play ist acting role brilliantly. With ist black marble halls and ist larger-than-life-projections, the stage design by Hans Schavernoch was striking. “A lot of cheering for this evening of legends.” (BR Klassik)
Bach, Weihnachtsoratorium (Christmas Oratorio) BWV 248
This production of Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” was recorded at two highly exceptional places: Palestine and Israel, the authentic, historical locations of the Christmas story. The recording of the work’s first three cantatas took place in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, and the second set of cantatas at the Evangelical Church in Jerusalem on Christmas Day. Conductor Riccardo Chailly leads the Zurich Opera’s acclaimed early-music ensemble along with a roster of top soloists. The program is interspersed with shots of various historical sites of Israel and Palestine.
La Traviata
Within only a few years, Anna Netrebko has become one of the most acclaimed performers of our time, whose popularity transcends by far the boundaries of classical music. With her CDs garnering phenomenal sales and her stage appearances causing worldwide box-office stampedes, Anna Netrebko is on her way to becoming the new diva assoluta. This recording of Verdi’s “La Traviata” from the 2005 Salzburg Festival – the uncontested and hopelessly sold-out highlight of the festival season – captures the triumphal performance not only of Anna Netrebko as Violetta Valéry, but also of Rolando Villazón as her lover Alfredo. The glamorous Russian soprano and the heartthrob Mexican tenor have become the new dream team of the opera world.