Praised as an “exuberant, intoxicating conductor” (Boston Globe), Grammy Award-winning Andris Nelsons is one of the most renowned and innovative conductors on the international scene today and his connection with the Vienna Philharmonic is something special: he has developed a physical language with the players whose musical partner he has been since 2010. At the 2021 Salzburg Festival edition, Andris Nelsons and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra continue their acclaimed Mahler cycle with the Third Symphony. PROGRAM Mahler: Symphony No. 3
Salzburg Festival 2021: Intolleranza 1960
Luigi Nono caused a riot at the premiere of his “scenic action” Intolleranza in 1961. The opulent work that collages singing, orchestra, film projections, dance and light has lost none of its actuality, neither in its form nor in its content: the odyssey of a nameless emigrant who is persecuted and tortured ends fatally in the floods of the river that separates him from his homeland. Jan Lauwers’ production in the impressive Felsenreitschule reflects his intense study of the meaning of political art. For Nono expert, conductor Ingo Metzmacher, Nono’s work and legacy are like a guideline that he still follows today. The performers and dancers of the NEEDCOMPANY, the BODHI PROJECT und SEAD – Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance create images of oppressive intensity in teeming tableaux. “The cast is superb, from Sean Panikkar’s eloquent, impassioned immigrant to Musa Ngqungwana’s harrowing torture victim.” Financial Times
Salzburg Festival 2021: Bruckner Symphony No. 7 (Chamber Version)
The first performance of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony in Leipzig 1884 was one of the few unalloyed triumphs of his career. Eisler, Stein and Rankl, all three involved in making the arrangement, were all Schönberg pupils. Their chamber version allows us to hear Bruckner’s ideas with an extraordinary refreshing clarity – a most sympathetic and touching tribute to Bruckner by three of Vienna’s most progressive musical modernists in the 1920s. “A summit victory without heavy baggage. Monumental orchestral work in fabulous chamber sound: Renaud Capuçon and friends thrilled with Bruckner’s 7th Symphony… More intensity is hardly possible.” (Salzburger Nachrichten). PROGRAM: Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 (Chamber Version), arranged by Hanns Eisler, Erwin Stein, Karl Rankl
Thielemann conducts Bruckner No. 5
To mark Anton Bruckner’s bicentenary in 2024, Christian Thielemann, the Wiener Philharmoniker and Unitel are recording the first Bruckner cycle with a single conductor in the orchestra’s history. Under Christian Thielemann’s baton the sound is resonant and glowing, the buildup of tension and release perceptively handled and each solo is impeccably played by some of the world’s best musicians. “The interpretation of the Fifth may also be considered a milestone. The way the musicians realized this work was simply magnificent.” Kurier
Bregenz Festival 2019: Rigoletto
Bregenz Festival staged for the first time Giuseppe Verdi’s masterpiece Rigoletto – compelling, blood-curdling and beautiful. The stage and film director Philipp Stölzl (Medicus & Goethe), known for his successful productions in Salzburg as well as for his music videos for Madonna or for the German band Rammstein, created a spectacular setting on the world’s largest stage on a lake, praised by critics as a unique technological masterpiece. The staggering show has attracted not only 200,000 visitors to 20 sold out performances but also close to 2 million TV-viewers in Germany, Austria and Swiss alone. “This Rigoletto on Lake Constance becomes a Hollywood spectacle.” (Handelsblatt); “The performance of the three main characters has been outstanding.” (Der Standard)
Salzburg Festival 2018: Salome
“Salome”, the masterpiece of Richard Strauss, who conducted the very first opera in the history of the Salzburg Festival, finally returns to Salzburg after 25 years. To witness Franz Welser-Möst, a Strauss conductor in a league of his own, at the helm of the Wiener Philharmoniker “makes you think you are hearing the piece in its most perfect incarnation yet.” (Financial Times). The Italian director Romeo Castellucci has the extraordinary gift of creating images pulsating with knowledge of the subconscious, he is responsible for directing and designing stage sets, costumes and lighting. “Asmik Grigorian sweeps all in her wake in the title role of Strauss’s opera. […] Hers is a Salome to end all Salomes. […] In total, it is stunning…” (Financal Times)
Salzburg Festival 2018: Die Zauberflöte
Mozart’s timeless masterpiece at the Salzburg Festival – it doesn’t get much better than this! Especially when “The Magic Flute” receives such a “spectacular and virtuosic staging” (Le Figaro) by American director Lydia Steier. Her colourful, fairy-tale production conjures up magical scenes and revolves around Hollywood star Klaus Maria Brandauer as grandfather, who reads the fantastical story of Tamino’s quest to his three grandchildren. The Three Boys are sung “technically flawlessly and expressively by three members of the Wiener Sängerknaben, a pure joy” (Spiegel Online). Constantinos Carydis leads a young ensemble of world class singers and draws “precise phrasing and plenty of crisp articulation from the Wiener Philharmoniker” (Financial Times). A delight already enjoyed by over one million TV viewers in Germany alone!
Salzburg Festival 2017: Aida
“Passionate and unconditionally dedicated” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), Anna Netrebko makes her role debut as Aida at the Salzburg Festival, joined by Francesco Meli as Radamès and Ekaterina Semenchuk as her rival Amneris. In the pit: no other than Verdi expert Riccardo Muti, “our finest Verdi conductor” who “creates effects you didn’t quite think possible” (NY Times). This Aida is the first opera staging by award-winning Iranian film-maker, photographer and video artist Shirin Neshat, known for her critical examinations of gender roles and religious fundamentalism. “Lyric sensitivity and searing power – Ms. Netrebko is ready for Aida!” (New York Times)
Bregenz Festival 2015: Turandot
Mention Giacomo Puccini’s name and opera-lovers all over the world will think of grand opera and passionate love stories. One of the world’s most famous arias comes from the composer’s final opera, Turandot: “Nessun dorma” – none shall sleep because by morning the Chinese princess is determined to have discovered the name of the unknown prince. The work is remarkable for its Chinese local colour, its opulent crowd scenes, its powerful choruses and its characters overwhelmed by their emotions. Enthusiastically acclaimed by its audiences, the present production combines spectacular and touching scenes on the Bregenz Festival’s vast lakeside stage. “Melodies for millions, impressively staged” bringing “a bit of Hollywood to Bregenz” (ZDF heute journal TV news programme).
Bregenz Festival 2015: Les Contes d’Hoffmann
“The opera visit of the year – Bregenz is showing a Tales of Hoffmann that makes you forget everything you saw before.” (FAZ) Sparkling with creativity, Stefan Herheim’s new staging of Jacques Offenbach’s opera Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Bregenz Festival, starring Kerstin Avemo, Mandy Fredrich, Rachel Frenkel, Daniel Johansson and Michael Volle, was received by an enthusiastic audience with standing ovation and frenetic applause. The international press agreed wholeheartedly: The New York Times praised the “thoughtfulness and creativity” of the new production, devised by the director as a search for one’s own self in a sparkling drag show.