An absolute highlight of Salzburg’s Mozart Week with “highest art of sound and riding“ (Kronenzeitung): the French equine artist and theatrical genius Bartabas presents Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem. Horses and riders from the formidable Académie Équestre de Versailles join forces with the Musiciens du Louvre, conducted by Marc Minkowski, the Salzburger Bachchor and “an excellent quartet of soloists“ (Kurier), namely Genia Kühmeier, Elisabeth Kulman, Julien Behr and Charles Dekeyser, to place the Requiem into a new theatrical context. Restoring the Felsenreitschule’s original purpose – a riding school – and at the same time including its impressive architecture of arcades into the musical dramaturgy, the production is a breath-taking synthesis of the arts. By meticulously refining the skillfully regulated interactions between humans, animals and music, Bartabas and his horsemen have created a production which is much more than a great show riding choreography: it’s a moving exploration of the interconnectedness of existence. A piece of art with an “exceptional power of attraction” (Schwäbische Zeitung), “a requiem for all senses“ (Kronenzeitung).
Hamlet
This production “offers all an Italian-opera-lover could possibly desire” wrote the FAZ after the revival of this “forgotten gem” at the Bregenz Festival. The festival continued ist rediscovery series with “Amleto/Hamlet”, an opera by Verdi contemporaries Franco Faccio and Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. Premiered in 1865 in Genoa and restaged in 1871 at Milano’s La Scala, “Hamlet” was only revived in 2014 concertante in the US before ist “triumphal rebirth” (Deutschlandradio Kultur) at the Bregenz Festival, where the opera was also recorded for the first time ever. Faccio, who conducted the first performance of Verdi’s Aida in Italy and the world premiere of Otello, and Boito, Verdi’s librettist of Otello and Falstaff, skillfully and effectively challenge the conventions of Italian opera, which they wanted to revitalize by infusing it with the spirit of Shakespeare’s drama. Anticipating the musical language of later Italian verismo composers, the opera combines lovely musical interludes with superb vocal writing. Heading a supreme cast, Pavel Cernoch as Amleto delivers superbly, “using his colorful tenor skillfully to develop the transformation of the insecure youngling to the ice-cold avenger” (NZZ) and “granting the work large scale” (Abendzeitung). Under the baton of Paolo Carignani with the Vienna Symphoniker and Prague Philharmonic Choir “it carried terrific punch (The Telegraph)”. Olivier Tambosi’s “excellent staging served it well, with a clear focus on the high points (The Telegraph)”. “In the intermission and at the end there was vociferous enthusiasm of the audience for the late first encounter with this music” (Neue Musikzeitung). “There is a lot of exciting music to discover in this opera…What an amazing richness in ideas! This opera is worth to be rediscovered.” (SZ) // “Faccio’s opera is the one that should be performed, and if plans are not already afoot to bring it to the land of Shakespeare, they certainly should be.“ (The Telegraph) // “The Shakespeare year now has a breathtaking Shakespeare rediscovery. Yes, the musically convincing, pompous Hamlet opera does exist!” (FAZ)