The Salzburg Festival presented Bluebeard’s Castle in a double bill evening together with Carl Orff’s De temporum fine comoedia. In his staging of the two works, Romeo Castellucci, reveals the profound connections in their juxtapositio between interiority and explosion of violent power.
Salzburg Festival 2022: Il trittico
Il trittico was premiered in New York on 14 December 1918, composed while the First World War was still raging in Europe. At first glance, the three one-act operas Gianni Schicchi, Il tabarro and Suor Angelica seem to have no connection with each other; their common denominator is solely the entanglement of man in a fateful destiny that only exceptionally, for a moment, seems to promise a happy outcome to the “adventure of life” — a set of themes that in its complexity seems to be in such good hands with few directors as with Christof Loy. The main female roles in the three opera acts are performed by the Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian, a very rare and tremendous feat, but once again connects the works to each other. “Grigorian is […] a wonderful, intense performer: a gracefully graceful Donna fragile as Lauretta, a feverishly longing for love while tormented by guilt Giorgetta, and a desperately lost Angelica rebelling with defiance.” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
Salzburg Festival 2024: Mozart Matinee with Fischer & Sternath
Hungarian born Adam Fischer is one of the most important conductors working today, chief conductor of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker. He joins this Mozart Matinee in company of pianist Lukas Sternath, winner of several international piano competitions such as 63rd International Ferruccio Busoni Piano Competition in Bolzano, the 14th International Schubert Competition in Dortmund and the 17th European Piano Competition in Bremen. Program: Mozart: Maurerische Trauermusik in C minor K. 477 (479a); Piano Concerto in D minor K. 466 (solo cadenzas by Ludwig van Beethoven); Symphony in C major K. 425 — ’Linz’.
Salzburg Festival 2024: Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts Berlioz
Canadian maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a regular collaborator with the esteemed Vienna Philharmonic since 2010, is making a comeback to the world-famous Salzburg Festival in 2024 to conduct a spectacular performance of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique with them! This symphony, composed by a 26-year-old Berlioz who was captivated by actress Harriet Smithson, his future wife, depicts an artist haunted by an all-consuming love that evolves from innocence to horror, including opium-induced dreams and a sinister witches’ sabbath.
Salzburg Festival 2024: Dudamel & Grigorian – Vienna Philharmonic
The promise of a Strauss double-bill with the Wiener Philharmoniker would be enough to have most concertgoers swooning – add in audience favourite Asmik Grigorian and Maestro Gustavo Dudamel, and the Salzburg audience could not be more ecstatic. Grigorian interpreted Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder with “penetrating intensity” (VN), capturing the fleeting emotions of each song: “She effortlessly savours Strauss’s soaring flights of fancy and lavishes herself on his wide-ranging cantilenas” (BR Klassik). After this moving performance, Dudamel and the orchestra take the audience on a musical hike with Strauss’ tone poem Eine Alpensinfonie. “Gustavo Dudamel’s interpretation…is so vividly real. The orchestra once again delivers a brilliant performance of expressive, joyfully committed playing” (Opera Online).
Salzburg Festival 2024: Mozart Matinee with Gonzalez-Monjas & Pogorelc
The rising American soprano Emily Pogorelc is considered one of the most gifted singers of her generation, and is celebrated for her captivating stage presence. Under the baton of the new appointed conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Roberto González-Monjas, an entire Mozart program is presented to the audience of Salzburg Festival. Program: W. A. Mozart, Ballet music to the opera Idomeneo K. 367 (extracts); Se il padre perdei, Ilia’s aria from the oprera Idomeneo K. 366; Solitudini amiche — Zeffiretti lusinghieri, Ilia’s recitative and aria from the oprea Idomeneo K. 366;Entr’actes to the drama Thamos, König in Ägypten K. 345 (336a,; Schon lacht der holde Frühling, Aria for soprano and orchestra K. 580; Voi avete un cor fedele, Aria for soprano and orchestra K. 217; Bella mia fiamma, addio — Resta, o cara, Recitative and aria for soprano and orchestra K. 528
Salzburg Festival 2024: Maxime Pascal conducts Nono and Dallapiccola
The Salzburg Festival features an extraordinary concert of Nono’s *Il canto sospeso*, which leaves the audience “speechless.” The composition, based on farewell letters from political prisoners, narrates actor Tobias Moretti amidst challenging music executed flawlessly by Maxime Pascal, the RSO, and the Bayerischer Rundfunkchor. The second half showcases Dallapiccola’s *Il prigionero*, with baritone Georg Nigl delivering a powerful performance. The concert concludes with the audience giving both reverent applause and standing ovations. “The burning humanity of Nono’s vision seemed to possess all who listened (and played)”(Seen and Heard)
Salzburg Festival 2023: Roberto González-Monjas conducts the Mozarteum Orchestra
Roberto González-Monjas, designated principal conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra, “put an interpretive exclamation mark on his Festival premiere with a purely sacred programme”: Mozart’s Coronation Mass, the main work of the evening, is combined with two church sonatas, the famous motet “Exsultate, jubilate” for soprano and orchestra and the equally famous choral work “Ave verum corpus”. Together with a young quartet of singers led by soprano Nikola Hillebrand (in her “Exsultate” she is “crystal-clear in sound, technically precise and sensitive in interpretation”), González-Monjas provides “youthful and cheeky pathos and a breath of fresh air” (Salzburger Nachrichten)
Salzburg Festival 2023: Nelsons conducts Berg, Bach and Mahler
In this concert, the Wiener Philharmoniker under the baton of Andris Nelsons are focusing on a “heavenly” pairing of works: Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto, entitled “To the Memory of an Angel” is combined with Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, in the last movement of which the poem “Das himmlische Leben” (Heavenly Life) is set to music. With this performance, young German-American violinist August Hadelich gave his debut at the Salzburg Festival and thrilled the press: “The fabulous Augustin Hadelich filled the difficult solo part with emotion and fragility, his performance was sensitive and yet glowing.” (Die Presse) With Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, Andris Nelsons performs “a Mahler miracle of quiet tones” (Volksblatt) – together with German soprano Christiane Karg (“subtle and with beautifully coloured soprano”, Kurier) as the soloist of the finale of the symphony. The concert is part of the Mahler cycle of the Wiener Philharmoniker and Andris Nelsons.
Salzburg Festival 2023: Matinee with Antonello Manacorda & Golda Schultz
The Mozart Matinees, concerts given at the Great Hall of the Mozarteum Foundation at the weekends during the Salzburg Festival, were established in 1921 and have in the meantime assumed legendary status. In this Mozart Matinee, Italian conductor Antonello Manacorda at the podium of the Mozarteumorchester and South African soprano Golda Schultz present a fine selection of arias that Mozart composed to texts by Lorenzo Da Ponte. The arias are framed by Mozart’s First Symphony and the “Jupiter” Symphony, his very last.