Interview

Whitsun Festival: La Bartoli never says never

Cecilia Bartoli is also head of the Whitsun Festival in 2024.

(Bild: Kristian Schuller / Decca)

Cecilia Bartoli will also take center stage at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival in 2024 - The 57-year-old Italian in an interview with "Krone" about the challenge of Mozart and new paths.

Her day must have more than 24 hours. This year, Cecilia Bartoli has not only taken over the program planning as director of the Whitsun Festival, but also two opera roles. In addition to all the planning and rehearsals, she also found time to chat a little about "her" festival with the Krone.

Ms. Bartoli, Mozart is not exactly underrepresented in Salzburg. What prompted her to dedicate the Whitsun Festival to our genius loci in addition to Mozart Week & Co.

In Salzburg, you can't avoid Mozart anyway, no matter when and in what context, and that was initially my playful and ironic idea, Mozartkugeln included. However, since I became artistic director of the Whitsun Festival in 2012, I've never actually focused on Mozart, so I thought "now, or never!": it's a challenge, but also a little crazy, to depict the world of Mozart in just four days. But at least we are presenting the audience with one fine example from each of the most important genres of his oeuvre.

The production of "Un folle journée" is a tribute to Mozart and his congenial librettist Da Ponte

(Bild: D-Wok & Giò Forma)

In addition to "La clemenza di Tito", you are actually showing a second example from the opera genre.

Yes, "Une folle journée", the homage to Mozart and his congenial librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, will be fantastic - also in the literal sense. Originally conceived as a concert performance with various arias and scenes, the evening has morphed over the last few months and weeks into a real opera production, a crazy pastiche of the works that made the two so immortal.

You are also on stage in this production. Could you imagine staging it yourself one day as well as singing?

Well, I don't have any such plans at the moment, but I don't just say: "now, or never", but also: "never say never" (laughs). And with a project like "Une folle journée", where you try to foist a few of your own ideas on the director in a "Mozart frenzy" with your boisterous colleagues, you can get a taste for it.

Interview: Larissa Schütz