Hollywood in Vienna is the world’s first and unique film music gala concert, celebrating the most renowned film composers of our time. This year’s gala is dedicated to the motto “A Night at the Oscars” and to Gabriel Yared. Under the direction of Keith Lockhart, the ORF Radio Symphonieorchester Wien undertakes a glamorous journey through eight decades of film music. Gabriel Yared furthermore treats the Viennese audience to one of his rare public performances on the piano. Featuring music from The English Patient, Chocolat, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain, The Lives of Others, Jaws, Black Panther, Forrest Gump and many more
Red Ribbon Celebration Concert 2016 – Orpheus and Eurydice
On the occasion of the Red Ribbon Celebration Concert, Vienna’s famous charity concert for the benefit of HIV and AIDS aid projects, some of the world’s greatest opera stars made their appearance at the venerable Burgtheater. Anna Netrebko, Piotr Bezcala, Juan Diego Flórez and Thomas Hampson took part in this festive concert evening which revolved around the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. With excerpts from corresponding operas by Claudio Monteverdi and Christoph Willibald Gluck, works by W. A. Mozart and Franz Liszt, the audience is taken on Orpheus’ journey to the underworld, from where he desperately tries to take his love Eurydice back to the world of the living by the help of his singing.
Iolanta
“Lyrical, rich, uplifting, moving” (Die Presse) In a production that is truly “a feast for the eyes” (Salzburger Nachrichten), director Evgeny Titov sets the story of the blind princess Iolanta in a visually magnificent but mysterious flower garden. The musical performances complete this baroque painting come to life, led by Sonya Yoncheva with her “gloriously rich” (Opera Now) soprano. The orchestra under Tugan Sokhiev convices with a “sonically intense” interpretation (Kronenzeitung). “Titov’s staging received heroic performances from all concerned, led by Yoncheva who absolutely sang her heart out as Iolanta. Her top was thrilling, matched in duet by tenor Dmytro Popov, and her acting was utterly believable” (Opera Now)
Popelka conducts Schönberg
“Schönberg is one of my heroes”, conductor Petr Popelka said in an interview (Der Standard) – and you can really hear his dedication to the composer as he leads the well-oiled machine of 400 musicians, consisting of the Wiener Symphoniker, three choirs and 5 soloists in their interpretation of Gurre-Lieder: “Perfectly organised, always striving for a balance between pointillist precision, a sense of the grotesque and romantic emphasis” (Die Presse). The soloists shone, above all Vera-Lotte Boecker as a “youthfully blossoming Tove with a bright, secure high register” (Die Prse) PROGRAM: Schönberg: Gurre-Lieder
Kublai Khan
In April 2024, the Komische Oper Cublai, gran kan de’ Tartari by Giambattista Casti celebrate its world premiere with music by Antonio Salieri from 1786 at the MusikTheater an der Wien. Kublai Khan, grandson of the dreaded Genghis Khan, at least still has quite a bit of trouble on his hands. Things are not going well in the great empire: backward economy, cultureless people of barbaric customs. At least that’s the European view of the two Italian emigrants, who are supposed to lead the court into the civilized age of the Enlightenment. To make matters worse, the succession to the throne is also shaky. The son of the Khan is anything but fit to rule and the Indian princess refuses to marry. Director Martin G. Berger places the question of tradition and transformation at the centre of his production. In today’s Vienna, Berger and his production team Antonio Salieri now go in search of traces of how social coexistence between the tried and tested and reimagined is possible in the 21st century and finally help the composer to give his world premiere after all. Conductor Christophe Rousset, who has been committed to Antonio Salieri’s music for many years and will now rehearse the original Italian version, will provide the musical enjoyment.
The Seasons
With The Seasons, the aged Joseph Haydn composed a great secular oratorio about man’s integration into the cycle of nature. This inspired choreographer Martin Schläpfer to create his first full-length dance piece for the Wiener Staatsballett, in which 80 dancers are joined by three singers of the Wiener Staatsoper’s ensemble and the Arnold Schoenberg Chor. Scenes from real life are juxtaposed with gripping musical depictions of nature, grand oratorio scenes with popular singspiel full of wit and crude humour. “The State Opera Orchestra flourishes under the baton of Adam Fischer, who is very familiar with Haydn and his music. […] It is a constantly mood-changing flow of life […] brilliantly realised in dance.” (Die Welt) “What a stunner: the entire ballet ensemble with a large orchestra and choir! It’s an evening for all the senses.” (Die Presse)
L’Elisir d’amore
“A soothing love potion for the ears and eyes that you’ll want to sip again and again.” (onlinemerker.de) In his iconic production of L’elisir d’amore for the Wiener Staatsoper, legendary director Otto Schenk works with a great attention to detail. Together with his congenial set designer Jürgen Rose, they bathe the stage in a warm, southern light and create a Mediterranean flair. Bogdan Volkov in the role of Nemorino “is not only an outstanding singer with a bright, ingratiating tenor voice, finely audible in his parade aria “Una furtiva Lacrima”, but also a pleasure to perform”. Maria Nazarova “is an enchanting and charming Adina and captivates with her crystal-clear soprano, sparkling coloratura and some inlaid high notes.” (onlinemerker.de)
Where the Wild Things Are
Based on Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are, one of the world’s best selling and most beloved children’s books, this opera will enchant children and adults alike. To turn his story about a young boy who travels to a faraway island full of wild creatures into an opera libretto, author Maurice Sendak let his imagination run riot. He invented, for instance, a new language for the wild creatures that Max meets on the island. This inspired British composer Oliver Knussen to what is probably his most adventurous music: It whistles, squeaks, sparkles, shines, entices and dances with delightful lightness. This production at the MusikTheater an der Wien “captivates as a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk” (Kurier). With loving attention to even the smallest detail, director and puppet virtuoso Nikolaus Habjan and his team created fabulous life-size puppets for Max and his “wild things”. The singers are in the bodies of the puppets and puppeteers handle the gestures and facial expressions. “The result is a visually stunning round dance of monsters” (Kleine Zeitung).
Les Martyrs
Love, faith, death and the question of what people are prepared to risk for their values and convictions. Gaetano Donizetti deals with these themes using the example of Christian martyrdom. An outrage for the Italian censors of the 1830s, prompting Gaetano Donizetti to switch to France and enlist the help of librettist Eugène Scribe to publish the opera he had been planning, Poliuto, as a grand opéra. Under the title Les martyrs the work had its premiere in Paris in 1840 and included, among other things, a ballet scene, an innovative score structure that presaged the music-drama form, and a spectacularly reworked tenor part. Today, it is one of Donizetti’s lesser-known and rarely performed works, but for Polish director Cezary Tomaszewski it is nevertheless “the best Donizetti opera. A hybrid of bel canto and grand opéra. A masterpiece, thrilling, cinematic with multi-layered and exciting characters”. He transfers the plot to a fantastic, amorphous and futuristic world that focuses on the attempted domination of power over the body. American tenor
John Osborn is debuting in the demanding bel canto part of Polyceute (“heroic, confident in the heights, and supple the Polyeucte of John Osborn”, Der Standard). He is joined by Roberta Mantegna as Pauline (“her singing is enchanting – firm, yet soft and radiant tones with sparkling coloratura”, klasikaplus.cz) The ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Jérémie Rhorer, a specialist in historically informed performance practice. “An absolute event is the […] consummately singing Arnold Schoenberg Choir.” (Kurier)v
Andris Nelsons conducts Mahler
Mahler’s unusually extended five-movement Symphony No. 7 is one of his most ambiguous and enigmatic and is therefore considered by many performers to be the most difficult. This recording is part of a Mahler cycle that Andris Nelsons, “one of the most celebrated conductors of our time” (Salzburger Nachrichten), and the Wiener Philharmoniker, the orchestra that Gustav Mahler himself conducted many times, have already been working on for a few years now and that will be continued for the next few years. Under Nelsons’ direction, the orchestra “performed magic in the Golden Hall. […] Magnificent strings, fabulous winds, accomplished melodic dialogues were heard in all five movements of the symphony. […] Rarely has one heard this work so finely chiselled, so dynamically balanced. An event.” (Kurier)