Christian Thielemann

World-class conductor conducts premiere opera in Salzburg

Christian Thielemann conducts Strauss' Capriccio in Salzburg.

(Bild: APA/DIETER NAGL)

With the German star conductor Christian Thielemann, an international great is conducting the first opera at the Festival this year. The dress rehearsal of Strauss' Capriccio promises great things.

"A world-class conductor will conduct the Festival's opening opera this year" - with these grand words, Festival Director Markus Hinterhäuser announced conductor Christian Thielemann at the Terrace Talk. Thielemann has just finished the dress rehearsal of Richard Strauss' Capriccio, the first opera of the summer, and is convinced: "It's going to be great."

Book about Strauss
With the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and an ensemble of singers led by Elsa Dreisig and Sebastian Kohlhepp behind him, that's easy to say. In Thielemann, the festival has appointed the Strauss expert par excellence to the podium, a man who raved about the composer and his "incredible orchestral virtuosity" even as a teenager.

"He quickly leads you down the wrong track and has set a whole host of traps. To understand the opera, you have to know Strauss well," says the Berliner, who can definitely say that of himself. It is no coincidence that a book about the composer will be published in September, in which Thielemann shares the lessons he has learned from decades of working on Strauss and wants to protect other musicians from the traps and mistakes he himself has made. "I think it turned out quite well," summarizes Thielemann, artistic director of the Easter Festival in Salzburg until 2022, with his unmistakable Berlin snark.