Two premieres

Exciting finale at the Bregenz Festival

Artistic Director Elisabeth Sobotka (2nd from left) in conversation with Brigitte Fassbaender (2nd from right)

(Bild: ©anja koehler | anjakoehler.de)

In the last week of this year's Bregenz Festival season, two exciting premieres await the audience: "Hold Your Breath" and the performances of the Opera Studio. With them: David Pountney and Brigitte Fassbaender. 

Eighteen performances of Carl Maria von Weber's "Der Freischütz" have already taken place on the lake stage this year - and that's actually true, as no performance has had to be canceled due to rain. Philipp Stölzl's production takes a very free approach to the work, introducing an electronic soundtrack, enhancing the figure of the devil and reinterpreting the two female characters. Not all critics agreed with this, but the high quality of the vocal solos was undisputed. The house opera, Rossini's "Tancredi", in which director Jan Philipp Gloger's interventions in the original plot were completely convincing, met with great approval. The brilliant ensemble of singers also contributed to the success.

The Vienna Symphony Orchestra played the orchestral part in both operas, and the "Festspielorchster" has already given three orchestral concerts, most recently on Monday with the "Prague Philharmonic Choir" and conductor Petr Popelka. On this evening, Artistic Director Elisabeth Sobotka also bid farewell to her festival orchestra.

As is well known, she will lead the Berlin State Opera "Unter den Linden" alongside Christian Thielemann from 2024/25. Incidentally, Sobotka's predecessor in Berlin, Matthias Schulz, is moving to the Zurich Opera House - so the merry-go-round continues. Of course, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra will still play all of the "Freischütz" performances, but the musicians of the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra will be at the podium for the other events of the final week of the festival.

On Monday, for example, the orchestra will perform two one-act operas, Rossini's "Ehevertrag" and Puccini's "Gianni Schicchi", directed by Brigitte Fassbaender under Claire Levacher as part of the "Opera Studio". Together with Sobotka, the great singer and director founded the "Opera Studio" to bring young singers together with "important works that will accompany them throughout their careers" - including master classes.

Shira Patchornik, who will sing and act in the "Opernatelier" performance, is one example of singers who return to Bregenz again and again after taking part in the studio. The "Opernatelier" is another project close to Sobotka's heart and is unique in its kind. Three creative people, a visual artist, a musician and a librettist will be brought together as a team by the Festival in collaboration with the Kunsthaus Bregenz to create a musical theater. On August 15, a largely participatory audience will experience "Hold Your Breath", composed by Irish artist Ena Brennan to a libretto by David Pountney, the former Festival director. The Portuguese artist Hugo Canoilas contributes the stage design.

Incidentally, one of the vocal soloists in this work is baritone Scott Hendricks, who has already performed on the lake and in the house in Bregenz. So Bregenz really is one big family.