Bregenz Festival

Automatically saved draft

Scene from the rehearsals.

(Bild: Bregenzer Festspiele / Karl Forster)

On Monday, the Bregenz Festival will present the one-act operas "The Marriage Contract" by Gioachino Rossini and "Gianni Schicchi" by Giacomo Puccini at the Landestheater in Bregenz.

"Incomparable" or "unique" - this is how the singer, teacher, artistic director and stage director Brigitte Fassbaender is described, and that is no exaggeration. As the child of an artist couple, she survived the bombing in Dresden at the age of five. Trained by her father Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender, she went on to enjoy a global career as a mezzo-soprano, only to celebrate success as a director after the end of her active singing career.

From 1999 to 2012, Fassbaender was artistic director of the Tiroler Landestheater, where she impressively proved that the best musical theater is also possible (almost) without stars and without directorial gimmicks: "Province is not a given, it only takes place in people's minds," she said at the time in one of the interviews that the writer of these lines was able to conduct with her, and who carries with her almost lifelong memories of Brigitte Fassbaender. For example, of her early years in Munich, where Brigitte Fassbaender floated through Günter Rennert's "Ring" as the "Third Daughter of the Rhine" or attracted attention in Strauss' "Rosenkavalier" in the small role of Annina.

Brigitte Fassbaender (right) with Festival Director Elisabeth Sobotka recently at the Festival's Press Day.

(Bild: anja koehler | anjakoehler.de)

She was to celebrate her triumphs as Octavian in the same work a little later. I witnessed the premiere of this epoch-making production, conducted by Carlos Kleiber, from the standing room at the Bavarian State Opera in 1973. And when I went to Salzburg to study singing, which I financed by working in a music shop, Fassbaender was a customer there. Once I had the honor of wrapping a gift that she wanted to give to her colleague Gundula Janowitz for her birthday. I tied the little bag and Ms. Fassbaender smiled and put her finger on the button.

And every Vorarlberg music lover knows how close Brigitte Fassbaender was and is to the Schubertiade. She has many unforgettable recitals to her credit, including being one of the first women to interpret Schubert's "Winterreise", which is actually reserved for men - "trans" has been around for a long time in the classical music world, think of the trouser roles.

 Brigitte Fassbaender remained loyal to Gerd Nachbauer's festival even after her active singing career, giving master classes and, one may assume, acting as an advisor. And now, as part of the Bregenz Festival Opera Studio, she is presenting her direction of the two one-act operas "The Marriage Contract" by Rossini and "Gianni Schicchi" by Puccini. Both works are "about love and greed", Fassbaender explains, adding that both works are very humorous. However, "the comic is usually much more difficult to bring to the stage than the dramatic". This applies to the direction just as much as to the young singers, some of whom are singing several roles under the direction of conductor Claire Levacher. You can look forward to it!