The opening premiere of the 2019 Salzburg Festival is Wolfgang A. Mozart’s opera Idomeneo. In 2017 Teodor Currentzis and Peter Sellars staged Mozart’s late opera La clemenza di Tito at the Salzburg Festival as a touching vision of the power of justice and reconciliation.
Theodor Currentzis, photo Olya Runyova
Now the ingenious duo dedicates itself to another opera seria by Mozart during the upcoming Festival summer, the utopian work of a 25-year-old telling the world: “We must talk about the future. The time is ripe for a serious change.“ (Peter Sellars) The premiere of Idomeneo takes place on July 27 at the Felsenreitschule. Teodor Currentzis conducts the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the musicAeterna Choir of Perm Opera. Russell Thomas (Idomeneo), Paula Murrihy (Idamante), Ying Fang (Ilia), Nicole Chevalier (Elettra) and Jonathan Lemalu (Nettuno / La voce) take the principal roles. The Samoan-born artist Lemi Ponifasio, whose career spans the world, will be responsible for the choreography.
Russell Thomas (Idomeneo), photo Fay Fox
Luigi Cherubini: Médée
In Luigi Cherubini’s opera Médée of 1797, Medea is portrayed as a passionate, strong, intelligent woman with the ability to love. Simon Stone, whose production of Aribert Reimann’s Lear provided a highlight of the 2017 Salzburg Festival, explores the reasons for Medea’s actions in a modern context, tracing the figure’s inner development from the beginning to the final catastrophe.
Sonya Yoncheva, photo Dario Acosta
The new production has its premiere at the Großes Festspielhaus on 30 July. Thomas Hengelbrock conducts the Vienna Philharmonic and the Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus. Sonya Yoncheva, the celebrated Poppea in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at the 2018 Festival, takes on the title role. She is joined by Pavel Černoch (Jason), Vitalij Kowaljow (Créon), Rosa Feola (Dircé) and Alisa Kolosova (Néris).
George Enescu: Œdipe
It was a scream which George Enescu could not forget: the scream of Oedipus as he was blinded in a performance of Sophocles’ tragedy at the Comédie-Française in 1909. Shortly thereafter, in 1910, he began to sketch the music for an opera. However, it was only 26 years later, on 13 March 1936, that Œdipe, his tragédie lyrique, was first performed in Paris – proving itself a masterwork of 20th-century opera literature. Achim Freyer is responsible for directing the new production at the Felsenreitschule, as well as its sets and costumes.
Achim Freyer, photo Monika Rittershaus
Ingo Metzmacher conducts the Vienna Philharmonic, the Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus and the Salzburger Festspiele und Theater Kinderchor. The role of Œdipe is sung by Christopher Maltman. Further roles feature John Tomlinson (Tirésias), Brian Mulligan (Créon), Vincent Ordonneau (Le Berger), David Steffens (Le Grand Prêtre), Gordon Bintner (Phorbas), Tilmann Rönnebeck (Le Veilleur), Boris Pinkhasovich (Thésée), Michael Colvin (Laïos), Anaïk Morel (Jocaste), Clémentine Margaine (La Sphinge), Chiara Skerath (Antigone) and Anna Maria Dur (Mérope). The premiere takes place on 11 August 2019.
Jacques Offenbach: Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld)
Accustomed to success, shortly before his 40th birthday Jacques Offenbach had run into financial turbulence with his theatre near the Champs-Élysées in 1858. His revision and setting of a libretto about Orpheus by Ludovic Halévy and Hector Crémieux brought the much-needed coup: with Orphée aux enfers, he created the prototype of the “Offenbachiade” – and saved his theatre from ruin. The version Barrie Kosky has created for Salzburg essentially keeps to the form of the two-act opéra-bouffon of 1858, with the addition of some elements from the 1874 version which Offenbach had inserted in reaction to the change in social circumstances.
Barrie Kosky, photo Jan Windszus
Barrie Kosky makes his Salzburg Festival debut with Orphée aux enfers, as does the conductor Enrique Mazzola. In addition to the Vocalconsort Berlin and the Vienna Philharmonic, Kathryn Lewek sings the role of Eurydice and Joel Prieto that of Orphée. The cast also includes Marcel Beekman (Aristée), Martin Winkler (Jupiter), Max Hopp (John Styx), Anne Sofie von Otter (L’Opinion publique), Peter Renz (Mercure), Vasilisa Berzhanskaya (Diane), Frances Pappas (Junon), Lea Desandre (Vénus) and Nadine Weissmann (Cupidon). The new production at the Haus für Mozart premieres on 14 August.
Giuseppe Verdi: Simon Boccanegra
Simon Boccanegra may be Giuseppe Verdi’s most personal work; it is certainly his darkest and most pessimistic one, in which familiar and political conflicts keep clashing: “The human heart is a fount of never-ending woe”. Andreas Kriegenburg, who garnered rave reviews with his production of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District in 2017, directs Giuseppe Verdi’s opera at the Großes Festspielhaus.
Luca Salsi (Simon Boccanegra), photo Fabrizio de Blasio
Valery Gergiev returns to the Salzburg Festival as an opera conductor, leading the Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus and the Vienna Philharmonic. Luca Salsi sings the role of Simon Boccanegra, Marina Rebeka that of Amelia Grimaldi and René Pape that of Jacopo Fiesco. The cast also includes Charles Castronovo (Gabriele Adorno), André Heyboer (Paolo Albiani) and Antonio Di Matteo (Pietro). The premiere takes place on 15 August.
George Frideric Handel: Alcina
Directed by Damiano Michieletto and featuring Cecilia Bartoli in the main role, George Frideric Handel’s Alcina is a revival from the Salzburg Whitsun Festival and premieres at the Haus für Mozart on 8 August. Gianluca Capuano conducts Les Musiciens du Prince – Monaco and the Salzburg Bach Choir. Cecilia Bartoli is joined on stage by Sandrine Piau as Morgana, Kristina Hammarström as Bradamante, Christoph Strehl in the role of Oronte and Alastair Miles as Melisso. Philippe Jaroussky sings the role of Ruggiero, which Handel tailored to the voice of castrato Giovanni Carestini in 1735.
Philippe Jaroussky (Ruggiero), photo Marc Ribes
Richard Strauss: Salome
Audience and media agreed that the 2018 production of Richard Strauss’ Salome would go down in Festival history as an overwhelming experience. In 2019 we offer three further performances of the production by Romeo Castellucci (director, sets, costumes and lighting). The cast is the same as last season: the incomparable Asmik Grigorian is joined by John Daszak (Herodes), Anna Maria Chiuri (Herodias), Gábor Bretz (Jochanaan) and Julian Prégardien (Narraboth), among others. The Vienna Philharmonic performs under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst. The premiere is scheduled for 25 August at the Felsenreitschule.
Asmik Grigorian (Salome, 2018), photo SF/Ruth Welz
Operas in Concert
Francesco Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur
Francesco Cilea’s opera Adriana Lecouvreur is performed in concert three times with Anna Netrebko in the title role at the Großes Festspielhaus. Yusif Eyvazov sings the role of Maurizio, Count of Saxony; Anita Rachvelishvili embodies Adriana Lecouvreur’s adversary, the Princess de Bouillon. The cast also includes Nicola Alaimo (Michonnet), Mika Kares (Prince de Bouillon) and Andrea Giovannini (Abbot of Chazeuil). Marco Armiliato conducts the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and the Philharmonia Chorus Vienna. The performances take place on 28 and 31 July and on 3 August.
Yusif Eyvazov, photo Vladimir Shirkov
Giuseppe Verdi: Luisa Miller
Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Luisa Miller, based on Schiller’s Kabale und Liebe, will be heard in two concert performances on 25 and 31 August at the Großes Festspielhaus: Plácido Domingo sings the role of Miller; Piotr Beczala is heard as Rodolfo and Nino Machaidze as Luisa; together they face the merciless severity of Conte di Walter, sung by Roberto Tagliavini. The cast also includes Teresa Iervolino (Federica) and John Relyea (Wurm). James Conlon makes his Festival debut, conducting the Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus and the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. (After press materials).
Roberto Tagliavini, photo Victor Santiago
Marijan Zlobec