Tosca

Giacomo Puccini provides a musical rollercoaster of emotions – from Tosca’s poignant ‘Vissi d’arte’ to Cavaradossi’s powerful ‘Recondita armonia’ and Scarpia’s sombre aria ‘Ha più forte sapore’. A firework display of emotions with captivating melodies that find the perfect echo in the rocky landscape of the St. Margarethen quarry. The production, led by director and set designer Thaddeus Strassberger and costume designer Giuseppe Palella, will take us to the heart of Enlightenment Rome with its Baroque traces. The musical direction of the Tosca production in the St. Margarethen quarry will once again be taken on by Italian conductor Valerio Galli.

Arena di Verona Festival 2026: Aida

Aida, the Arena di Verona’s flagship opera, comes back in Franco Zeffirelli’s famous production, which transforms the stage into a magnificent Ancient Egypt. A great pyramid, monumental settings, multicoloured stones and precious fabrics provide the backdrop for a production featuring hundreds of mimes, extras, dancers and singers from the chorus.

Maria José Siri takes on the role of Aida, the Ethiopian princess, a slave at the court of the pharaohs. At her side, in the role of Radames, is Jonas Kaufmann, for the only performance scheduled at the Arena di Verona Festival in 2026. Rounding out the love triangle is Clémentine Margaine, as the Egyptian princess Amneris. The production also features the Étoile and Principal Dancer of La Scala, Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko, who perform in choreographies by Vladimir Vasiliev.

The Excursions of Mr Broucek

Staged at the Festspielhaus in Bregenz, the rarely performed satiric opera The Excursions of Mr Broucek tells the story of Matej Broucek, a man who finds the world outside too loud, too complicated, too exhausting. He seeks peace, but life has other plans: Broucek is first catapulted to the moon, then into 15th-century Prague: an odyssey with grotesque societies, bizarre trials, and a past that feels strangely unfamiliar. At a time when societies are increasingly closing themselves off from one another, Broucek’s journey feels more relevant than ever. Inspired by Dadaism and the Theater of the Absurd, US-American director Yuval Sharon brings Janácek’s rarely performed opera to the stage, in a production as bold as it is visually striking. Aesthetically compelling, musically vibrant, and theatrically daring, Janácek’s original opera stands as a satirical masterpiece of existential depth.

Magic Moments of Music – A John Williams Celebration

Sometimes, just a few notes are enough – and the cinema begins to play in our minds. A spaceship glides through space. A shark approaches from the deep. A child on his bicycle lifts off into the sky. Few composers have shaped our cinematic memory as profoundly as John Williams. This music film invites audiences to discover one of the most influential film composers of our time. At its heart is the gala concert A John Williams Celebration, performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on September 30, 2014. Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a program spanning the full range of Williams’ work – from sweeping symphonic soundscapes to intimate, deeply human compositions. Between the musical highlights, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Itzhak Perlman, Sarah Willis, Cameron Carpenter, Ramin Djawadi, Chloé Dufresne, Braimah Kanneh-Mason, and Alex Komlew share personal memories of the man behind the melodies: an artist whose modesty matches his extraordinary creative power. The evening reaches its emotional climax when Dudamel invites Williams himself to the podium to conduct the iconic Imperial March from Star Wars. When Darth Vader appears on stage, pop culture and concert tradition meet in a playful, unforgettable moment. Five Oscars, 27 Grammys, and countless other honors mark a remarkable career. But John Williams’ greatest legacy may be his music itself – a sound that has grown over decades and continues to connect generations.

Vienna Prater Picnic 2026

The Wiener Symphoniker give an open-air concert in front of the spectacular backdrop of the Wiener Riesenrad! Around 5,000 visitors joined the concert and took a seat on their picnic blankets in front of the stage. Under the musical direction of Holly Hyun Choe, soprano Ilia Staple, tenor Rolando Villazón and Austrian singer-songwriter Teya take the audience on an extremely special musical journey!

Bregenz Festival 2026: La traviata

With its spectacular Lake Stage, the Bregenz Festival celebrates its 80th anniversary with a series of sold-out performances, each offering breathtaking visual experiences before nearly 7,000 spectators. Damiano Michieletto’s staging of Verdi’s La traviata, set in the Roaring Twenties, captures a broken woman’s shattered life through a mirror tilted towards the sky. Marjukka Tepponen’s outstanding Violetta showed “intimate heart through sheer force of personality, expressive intelligence and vocal beauty” (OperaWire). By her side, Julien Behr interprets Alfredo “with lyrical warmth and palpable passion” (Orpheus Magazine), whilst Vladimir Stoyanov performs the role of Giorgio Germont with such “naturalness, elegance, grace and vocal expressiveness that he can be regarded as the baritone of choice for this role” (OperaTeatro). Conducting the excellent Wiener Symphoniker, Kirill Karabits proves to be a very sophisticated Verdian conductor, “bringing extraordinary dynamic and tonal subtlety to the score” (InterClassical). A production that was “visually ambitious, theatrically sophisticated and, at its best, genuinely poetic” (OperaWire).

Münchner Philharmoniker, Shani and Seong-Jin Cho in Tokyo

Filmed in Tokyo’s legendary Suntory Hall in April 2026, Lahav Shani and the Munich Philharmonic are joined by the brilliant Seong-Jin Cho in a programme focusing on two groundbreaking firsts: Beethoven’s exuberant, expansive First Piano Concerto and Mahler’s vividly pictorial First Symphony – a work that redefined what the symphony could be as the 19th century approached its end. With Mozart’s Overture to Die Entführung aus dem Serail as an arresting curtain-raiser, this concert presents more than a century of music central to the Austro-German tradition, performed at the very highest level. PROGRAMME: Mozart – Overture to Die Entführung aus dem Serail K.384; Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15; Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D major “Titan”

Peteris Vasks – The 80th Birthday Concert

To mark the 80th birthday of Peteris Vasks, Sinfonietta Riga and the Grammy Award winning Latvian Radio Choir, conducted by their long-standing chief conductor Sigvards Klava, are staging two extraordinary concert events: on the composer’s birthday, a concert featuring his works will take place at St. John’s Church in his hometown of Aizpute, followed a week later by a concert in the magnificent Riga Cathedral. The programme features exclusively works by Peteris Vasks. Among them: Sava tauta; The Fruit of Silence; Cosa devo fare; Agnus Dei and more.