Jean-Jacques Rousseau hailed “Platée” as “the best musical play ever to be heard in our theatres.” In Robert Carsen’s production, the mythological events take place in the world of Parisian haute couture and Jupiter is portrayed as the fashion god Karl Lagerfeld (1933-2019) – who has now really been transferred up to Olympus. This ingeniously apt transposition of this satirical opera into the modern day has long been a hit! The renowned specialist in baroque music, William Christie, conducts his Les Arts Florissants, the Arnold Schoenberg Chor and a fantastic cast. “A candy-coloured baroque dream” Salzburger Nachrichten // “A must-see – and not only for fashion freaks!” Bühne BONUS: Interviews with Marcel Beekman, Nicolas Paul (Choreographer), Gideon Davey (Set and Costume Designer), William Christie and Robert Carsen
Christian Thielemann – Wiener Philharmoniker at Salzburg Festival
Christian Thielemann is a compelling advocate for German music, and his Salzburg Festival 2020 programme with the Wiener Philharmoniker is smack-dab at the heart of his favoured repertoire. For his long-awaited return to the Summer Festival, he opens with Wagner’s Wesendock Songs, considered musical sketches for the opera Tristan und Isolde, with terrific Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca as soloist. The centerpiece is Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4, the Romantic. Storms of applause. “Together with an orchestra that breathes with her, Elina Garanca proved that she currently represents the non plus ultra in the mezzosoprano category. Grandiose the fusion of intensity and noble sound” Der Standard “An event with goose bumps“ Kurier PROGRAM Wagner: Five Poems for female voice and piano “Wesendonck Lieder”; Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 “Romantic”
Jedermann (Everymen)
It is the centrepiece of the Salzburg Festival and an incontrovertible institution: For it’s 100th anniversary, the Salzburg Festival offered an opulent interpretation of Jedermann (Everyman) by Hofmannsthal. “Tobias Moretti plays with great commitment, Caroline Peters gives a brilliant performance” (Salzburger Nachrichten). On 22 August 1920, the first Salzburg Festival opened with Jedermann in a production by Festival founder Max Reinhardt against the breathtaking backdrop of the baroque Salzburg Cathedral. Since then, no other piece has more closely been connected with the 100-year history of the Festival than this play about the transience of the world, fame and money. BONUS: Documentary: The Great World Theatre – Salzburg and it’s Festival A high-quality docufiction about the dramas and unknown events behind the scenes, from its founding in 1920 to the present day showing unseen footage from 30 archives worldwide and numerous private films.
Teatro alla Scala Opera Box
FIVE OUTSTANDING OPERAS FROM THE LEGENDARY TEATRO ALLA SCALA: AIDA: “A perfect coup de théâtre” (Giornale della musica). A “stellar cast” (La Stampa) I DUE FOSCARI: The Financial Times was deeply moved by Domingo’s performance, calling his interpretation of the role “sublime” DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE: Ádám Fischer “gets the best out of the Academy Orchestra with delicate execution and humane phrasing” (Die Presse) LE NOZZE DI FIGARO: “… when Diana Damrau enters as the Countess, we get a performance of special gravitas. Even the orchestra, under Franz Welser-Möst’s baton, melts to such grace.” (Financial Times) DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL: A „masterful use of light and silhouettes“ by Giorgio Strehler. (Milano Post) „Extraordinary, a wonder …“ (Corriere Della Sera)