OPERA
Jacques Offenbach LES CONTES D´HOFFMANN
Sergei Prokofiev THE GAMBLER
Mieczysław Weinberg THE IDIOT
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart DON GIOVANNI
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart LA CLEMENZA DI TITO
Ambroise Thomas HAMLET (Concert Performance)
Richard Strauss CAPRICCIO (Concert Performance)
Luigi Dallapiccola IL PRIGIONIERO / Luigi Nono IL CANTO SOSPESO (Concert Performance)
Georg Friedrich Haas KOMA (Concert Performance)
Beat Furrer BEGEHREN (Concert Performance)
Jacques Offenbach LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN
Mariame Clément, photo Elise Haberer
The French director Mariame Clément makes her Salzburg Festival debut. Benjamin Bernheim sings the title role; Kathryn Lewek embodies not just his (ex) lover Stella, but also the other female figures into which Hoffmann divides her: Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta.
Kathryn Lewek, photo Simon Pauli
In another case of quadruple casting, Christian Van Horn sings the roles of Lindorf, Coppélius, Le docteur Miracle and Dapertutto. Kate Lindsey is La Muse resp. Nicklausse. Marc Minkowski leads the Vienna Philharmonic in this opéra fantastique.
Benjamin Bernheim, photo Edouard Brane
The new production premieres on 13 August at the Großes Festspielhaus, followed by five further performances through 30 August.
Sergej Prokofjew THE GAMBLER
The Gambler will be performed for the first time at the Salzburg Festival. It was Sergei Prokofiev’s first great opera, the first adaption of a Dostoyevsky work for the opera stage. Due to political upheaval, it was premiered in Brussels in French in 1929. The first Russian production took place only in 1974, almost 20 years after the composer’s death.
Peter Sellars, photo SF
Peter Sellars, who directed Idomeneo and La clemenza di Tito recently at the Festival, directs the production, in which Peixin Chen sings the former General and Asmik Grigorian his stepdaughter Polina. Sean Panikkar and Violete Urmana appear as the private teacher and Antonida Vasilyevna Tarasevicheva, known as Babulenka.
Peixin Chen, photo Simon Pauly
Timur Zangiev makes his debut at the Salzburg Festival and at the helm of the Vienna Philharmonic. The premiere is scheduled for 12 August at the Felsenreitschule; five further performances follow through 28 August.
Asmik Grigorian, photo Olivia Kahler
Mieczysław Weinberg THE IDIOT
This opera is performed for the first time at the Salzburg Festival. The Polish-Soviet composer Mieczysław Weinberg transformed Dostoyevsky’s novel The Idiot (1869) into his seventh and last opera. After Henze’s The Bassarids, Strauss’ Elektra and Verdi’s Macbeth, the Polish director Krzysztof Warlikowski presents his fourth Festival production.
Krzysztof Warlikowski, photo SF/Anne Zeuner
Throughout his life, Dmitri Shostakovich championed the oeuvre of the young Jewish composer from Poland, and Weinberg dedicated his opera The Idiot to his memory. Ausrine Stundyte sings the role of Nastasya Filipovna Barashkova; Bogdan Volkov and Vladislav Sulimsky appear as Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin and Parfyon Semyonovich Rogoshin.
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, photo Frans Jensen
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla conducts the new production in Salzburg, leading the Vienna Philharmonic. The new production premieres on 2 August at the Felsenreitschule; four additional performances follow through 23 August.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart DON GIOVANNI
The old myth of Don Juan underwent countless new interpretations from the beginning of the 18th century. Da Ponte and Mozart took it further, developing it into a highly nuanced work in which tragedy and comedy co-exist.
Romeo Castellucci, photo Luca del Pia
Romeo Castellucci directs. Davide Luciano sings the title role, side by side with Nadezhda Pavlova as Donna Anna and Federica Lombardi, a graduate of the 2015 Young Singers Project, as Donna Elvira. Kyle Ketelsen takes on the role of Leporello, Dmitry Ulyanov that of the Commendatore. Julian Prégardien is Don Ottavio; Ruben Drole sings Masetto. Anna El-Khashem makes her Festival debut as Zerlina.
Teodor Currentzis, photo Alexandra Muravyeva
Teodor Currentzis conducts the Utopia Orchestra and the Utopia Choir. The premiere of the revised production takes place on 28 July at the Großes Festspielhaus. Five further performance take place through 19 August.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart LA CLEMENZA DI TITO
Mozart was commissioned to write this work for the crowning of Leopold II as the King of Bohemia.
Robert Carsen, photo Tommaso de Pera
Robert Carsen directs; Cecilia Bartoli appears in her stage role debut as Sesto, which took place at the Whitsun Festival; Alexandra Marcellier and Mélissa Petit sing the roles of Vitellia and Servilia. Daniel Behle takes on the title role, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo that of Publio.
Cecilia Bartoli, photo Kristian Schuller/Decca
Gianluca Capuano conducts Les Musiciens du Prince – Monaco and Il Canto di Orfeo. The revival premieres on 1 August at the Haus für Mozart, followed by five further performances through 13 August.
Ambroise Thomas HAMLET (Concert Performance)
Inspired by a plot that focuses exclusively on Hamlet’s revenge and its effects on Ophelia, the French composer Ambroise Thomas wrote this work. Stéphane Degout takes on the title role, alongside Ève-Maud Hubeaux (La Reine Gertrude) and Lisette Oropesa (Ophélie) and others. Bertrand de Billy conducts the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and the Philharmonia Chorus from Vienna. The concert performances of this opera will take place at the Felsenreitschule on 16 and 19 August.
Richard Strauss CAPRICCIO (Concert Performance)
Based on an idea by Stefan Zweig, Richard Strauss’s Capriccio, his final work for the stage, circles around a problem that is as old as the genre of opera itself: the relationship between words and music. Set in Paris around 1775, the plot combines an aesthetic debate with the rivalry between the poet Olivier and the musician Flamand, who are both wooing Countess Madeleine. The cast includes Elsa Dreisig and Bo Skovhus as Countess and Count, Sebastian Kohlhepp (Flamand), Konstantin Krimmel (Olivier), Mika Kares (La Roche), Ève-Maud Hubeaux (Clairon), Regula Mühlemann (An Italian Singer) and Josh Levell (An Italian Tenor). Christian Thielemann conducts the Vienna Philharmonic. Capriccio will be performed in concert at the Großes Festspielhaus on 26 and 31 July and 4 August.
Luigi Dallapiccola IL PRIGIONIERO und
Luigi Nono IL CANTO SOSPESO (Concert Performance)
Created in the 1940s, Dallapiccola’s short opera Il prigioniero is a poignant statement of resistance against fascism, politically as well as aesthetically, where shattered hope becomes the cruellest torture. Luigi Nono wrote music of equally gripping power for the voices of murdered victims in Il canto sospeso, which is based on passages from farewell letters written by captured European resistance fighters sentenced to death. Two of the most important works of the 20th century. The concert performance takes place at the Felsenreitschule on 25 July.
Georg Friedrich Haas KOMA (Concert Performance)
Georg Friedrich Haas’s opera Koma, which received its world premiere in Schwetzingen in 2016, explores the condition of a patient caught between life and death. Michaela has suffered a traumatic brain injury and remains in a vegetative state. She is here – and at the same time unbelievably far away, trapped in a limbo of light and darkness. Through Haas’s evocative music, composed to a libretto by Händl Klaus, this shadowland is made palpable. Michaela is sung by Sarah Aristidou; Bas Wiegers conducts the Klangforum Vienna. The concert performance takes place at the Main Auditorium of the Mozarteum Foundation on 24 July.
Beat Furrer BEGEHREN (Concert Performance)
“Shadow” is the first word in Beat Furrer’s musical theatre work Begehren, based on texts by Cesare Pavese, Günter Eich, Ovid and Virgil. And it is from the shadows that the sounds emerge: two people set out from the underworld, hoping to see daylight again. The decision to turn around, to look back, is also an emotional turning point: one that freezes this tragic moment in time, to be relived over and over again. The concert performance takes place at the Kollegienkirche on 29 July.
(After Press materials)
Marijan Zlobec
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