Under the heading “Party in the Felsenreitschule,” the Munich daily Münchner Merkur boldly proclaimed: “Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra guests at the Salzburg Festival – and delivers the biggest audience hit of the summer.” Two days after the concert reviewed by the Merkur, the ensemble united its massive forces once again for a spectacular concert in the Grosses Festspielhaus – another unqualified success! Rarely has an orchestra reached out and grabbed its audience in such a visceral manner; and even more rarely has such a feat been accomplished by an orchestra of youngsters between the ages of 12 and 26! The Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, the Salzburg Festival’s resident orchestra of 2008, is a product of the “Sistema de Orquestas” set up to allow children of all social levels to learn a musical instrument and play in an ensemble.
Mozart 22 Documentaries
Mozart22’ is an enterprise of utterly unique dimensions, the musical project of the century: all of Mozart’s stage works presented over the course of six weeks during the 2006 Salzburg Festival. The project brought together the greatest Mozart singers, conductors, stage directors and ensembles of the day. To make this extraordinary artistic achievement accessible to a broad public, the entire ‘Mozart22’ cycle was recorded with the highest-quality HD technology and 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. Each work in the cycle is also examined in documentaries containing excerpts from rehearsals, interviews with artists, and background reports that shed light on the meticulously elaborated, multilayered concepts of the musical interpretations and stage productions.
Vec Makropulos
With the “breathtakingly grandiose” (Salzburger Nachrichten) Angela Denoke in the lead role, this emotionally powerful opera is given a superior treatment at the hands of the Wiener Philharmoniker under Esa- Pekka Salonen and in an ingenious staging by Christoph Marthaler. Denoke gives a winning account of the sensual, tormented leading role. While Salonen lets the Wiener Philharmoniker alternate between powerful accents, filigree textures and mighty outbursts of raw emotion, Marthaler charms the viewer with his typical witty, naturalistic details.
Theodora
A highlight of the Handel commemorative year (250th anniversary of death) was the Salzburg Festival’s first-ever staging of Handel’s oratorio “Theodora” of 1750. Christof Loy, who was voted “director of the year” three times by the prestigious journal “Opernwelt”, created a production that is, in his words, “almost as an installation”, and groups his characters around the remains of a gigantic organ in situations that echo the libretto’s tragic dilemma of love, faith and virtue. His concept is supported by the vigorous Ivor Bolton and the Freiburger Barockorchester playing on original instruments, the Salzburger Bachchor, and, above all, by a fine cast. It is led by the luminous Christine Schäfer as a Theodora who “perfectly encapsulates the heroine’s combination of fragility and defiance” (AFP), and countertenor Bejun Mehta, who “excels as Theodora’s lover Didymus” (The New York Times).