Bregenz Festival
July 22 - August 23
Bregenz Festival
July 18 - Aug 20 2018
Lake Stage Opera: Carmen
July 19 - Aug 20
By Georges Bizet
Opera 4 Acts - 1895
Sung in French with German surtitles
Music Director: Paolo Carignami, Jordan de Aouza
Stage Director: Kasper Holton
Carmen: Gaelle Arquez, Lend Belkina, Annallsa Strappa
Don Jose: Daniel Johansson Arnold Rawls, Martin Muehle
Prague Philharmonic Choir
Bregenz Middle school children’s choir
7 categories of tickets starting at Euro 30
Our 14 Day Austria Travel Guide
The Barber of Seville
Gioachino Rossini
Two Acts 1868
Monday Aug 13 7:30 pm
Tuesday 14 7:30 pm
Thursday 16 7:30 pm
Sat 18 7:30 pm
Saturday 7:30 pm
Theater am Kornmarkt
Euro 27 - 50
The Hunting Gun
Thomas Larcher
Opera 3 Acts
Libretto by Friederike Goesweiner
From the Hunting Gun by Yasushi Inove 1949
Wednesday Aug 15th 8:00 pm
Friday August 17th 8:00 pm
Saturday Aug 18th 8:00 pm
Euro 32
At the Werkstattbuhne
Concerts
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Festspielhaus
July 23 7:30 pm
Conductor Andres Orozco - Estrada
Music of Antonin Dvorak
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
July 29th 11:00 am
Conductor David Afkham
Music of Richard Strauss and Maurice Ravel
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Conductor - Karina Cancellakis
Music of Thomas Larcher “ Alle Tage”
and Ludwig von Beethoven
Aug 6th 7:30 pm
Festspielhaus
Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Gerard Korsten
Aug 19 11:00 am
Tenor Mark Padmore
Music of Benjamin Britten and Ludwig van Beethoven
Brengenz Festival 2017
Festival Opening Mass July
10:00 am at Pfarrkirche Mariahilf
Vorarlberg Symphony
Lake Stage Opera: Carmen
The Marriage of Figaro
Wolfgang Amadeus Vorarlberg Landestheater
4 Acts
Aug 14/ 15 17 / 19 7:30 p.m
Italian in German surtitles
27 - 48 Euros
3.5 hrs inc interval
Musical Director: Helmut Keil
Stage Director: Jorg Lichtenstein
Vienna Symphony Performances Festspeilhaus
Conductor Antonio Mendez
Iberia. Night in the Gardens of Spain
The Three Cornered Hat
July 24 7:30 pm
1:50 min, talk 45 min prior
Conductor: Phillippe Jordan
July 30 11:00 am
Siegfried Idyll, Walkure
The Ring of the Nibelung
1:40 min , talk 45 min prior
Conductor : Constantinos Carydis
Aug 7 / 7:30 pm
Syphonie fantastique
1:40 , 45 min talk before performance
Conductor: Gerard Korsten
Aug 20 11:00 am
1889
Cesar Franck’s Symphony in D minor
1:40 min 45 min prior open talk
July 20th - August 21st 2016
Lake Stage Opera
Hamlet
Franco Faccio’s Amlete – Hamlet ( 1865)
Four acts
Libretto by Arrigo Boito
In Italian with German subtitles
Conductor Paolo Carignani
Stage director Oliver Tambosi
Stage designer Frank Philipp Schlossmann
Costume designer Gesine Voellm
Also continuing from last year:
Turandot
By Giacomo Puccini
With three acts and five scenes
Libretto – Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni
In Italian
2 hours with no intermission
Stage backdrop is modeled on the Great Wall of China
featuring terracotta warriors.
Orchestral Concerts
July 24 Festival Mass at Herz Jesu Church
Featuring the Province of Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra
July 24 Festspeilhaus 11:00 am
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Phillippe Jordan , Ludwig van Beethoven’s 7th Symphony
As well as works of Mahler and Schubert
July 31st
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
11:00 am Festspielhaus
Festival debut for Finnish conductor Sussana Maelkki
Includes to Beethoven’s Opera Fidelio, as well as works of
Otto Miroslav Zykan and Johannes Brahms
Aug 8th Festspeilhaus
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
7:30 pm
Conductor Enriique Mazzola
Prague Philharmonic Choir
Bregenz Festival Chorus
Works by
Verdi, Dontoni, Donizetti
Aug 21 Festspeilhaus
11:00 am
Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra
conductor Gerard Korsten
Local acclaimed pianist
Featuring work of Miroslav Srnaka, Mozart, Richard Strauss,
July 22nd - August 23rd 2015
Lake Stage Opera: Turnandot - 23 performances
Marco Arturo Marelli is the stage designer and director.
The Vienna Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Paolo Carignani .
This opera by Giacomo Puccinni’s will premier July 22 2015
Orchestral Concerts: Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Festspeilhaus: This years opera directed by Stefan Herheim is
‘ The Tales of Hoffman’, by Jacques Offenbach , music director Stefan Johannes Debus. Five performances
For a Complete Travel Itinerary of Austria to make the most of your Austrian Experience
See: Austria Travel Guide
Bregenz is the provincial capital of Vorarlberg the most western Austrian province. Pop 30 000, 400 m
Sitting at the most western point of the country Bregenz is uniquely situated between the intersection of Germany, Austria and Switzerland at the Eastern most point on the beautiful Lake Constance / the Bodensee the largest lake in Europe.
From Bregenz one could spend a few wonderful days or a week to make a great holiday around the great performance at the Bregenz festival.
Please see one of our itineraries - the Alps and Bregenzer Wald offer great scenery
Recharge and relax in the incredible mountains of the wonderful province of Vorarlberg and perhaps the nearby Tirol.
Some History of the Bregenz Festival
1946
The idea to hold an opera, a theatrical production of any kind seemed a bit crazy at the time considering that Bregenz didn’t even have a theater or opera house at all
As it would turn out the idea to make use of the most spectacular part of the Bregenz – the Bodensee / Lake Constance meet with great success and set the future of the Bregenz Festival.
Located at the crossroads of Switzerland Germany and Austria the original organizers sought to bring in a large audience from the entire region and they succeeded
Just one year after the war the 1st Bregenz Festival was held.
Two barges were used, one as stage for Mozart’s Bastien et Bastienne
The second barge provided the platform for the orchestra.
1949 saw the Patrons of the Bregenz Festival established, a Bregenz residents organizations
That became the organizer of the festival.
The stage designer Walter von Hoesslin created the foundation of the philosophy of the set design of future festival
And that was that the lake was not just scenery but was incorporated as part of the production itself.
1950 The Bregenz festival off shore stage was constructed on wooden piles where operettas and ballets were performed
The open air auditorium could seat 6500
1955 The first theater in Bregenz was opened, the Kornmarktheather – a converted grannery.
Opera and ballets could be performed
Became the home of the Vorarlberg Regional Theater that would host the Vienna Burgtheather
Volkstheather and Josef Theater as well as numerous other German theatre companies giving guest performances during the Festival
In the 1960’s the Festival grew every year. Chamber music concerts and Haydn operas were performed at Hohenems palace
Since 1972 open air concerts have been held in Martin Pl.
1979 Opening of the Festival and Congress Hall / Festspeilhaus
Connected to the See buhne / Lake stage 1700 of the 4500 in attendance, could if necessary see a indoor performance
A new Lake Stage was build with a concrete structure for the most important infrastructure and the orchestra pit
Wooden piles surround the concrete core and support the foundation of the stage.
1985 was the beginning of a new era for the festival, ushered in by the great success of ‘The Magic Flute’ – afterwards all Seebuehne / lakestage productions would run for two seasons
A new Bregenz style of popular theatre became the artistic philosophy for the festival. The ambition was to create opera productions for all that would be easier to comprehend and appreciate and maintain great artistic standards.
The impressive stages sets of the opera themes would add greatly to this effort.
1988 Was the year that the Festival started to stage operatic rarities, staged in very well done modern productions receiving international acclaim
which added to the festivals reputation
1993- 1994
Verdi’s opera Nebucco exceeded expectations, additional viewing stands were set up. There were over 300 000 in attendance over the two seasons
2006 renovation of the Festspeilhaus
2007 Audiences were very enthusiastic over of Puccini’s opera Tosca, as was the production company of the James Bond movies
The modern architecture of the Festspelhaus, the unique location of the lakeside along with an impressive high tech set
impressed producer Barbara Broccoli and director Marc Forter, so much that they would bring Bond to Bregenz the next year.
Giacomo Puccini’s opera thriller Tosca – 2008
A very exciting production by Philipp Himmelmann and a fantastic set design by Johannes Leiacker
Featuring an enormous blue Eye, that couldn’t have been more perfect for a James Bond film.
The new sound system –Bregenz Open Acoustics, received great reviews
One review cited that the sound now matched the spectacular set !
2007 saw spoken theater with guest performance, Dangerous Liaisons
A Midsummer Nights Dream. As well as a British program that included the operas ‘The Shops,’ and the football opera ‘Playing Away’, by Ben Mason directed by David Pountney
2008 The famous lake stage was made into a TV studio for the European Cup. The German network ZDF set up a Tv studio set up on stage and the auditorium was a public viewing arena by 160 football fans over 3 weeks
James Bond made an appearance at the Bregenz festival.
In 7 min action scene in the Festhaus and on the Seebuhne stage
The opera was featured in the film. The film crew worked for ten days in May shooting several scenes for Quantum of Solace
2009 Lake Stage Opera director Graham Vick and designer Paul Brown
Set Verdi’s monumental desert opera Aida on the water
Singers and extras also preformed in the water.
Three operas were held at the Festspielhaus.
Shostakovich’s housing estate comedy – Cheryomushki
Goerge Gershwin’s presidential satire Of thee I sing
and Skin Deep by David Sawer
Several international composer were hired to create a production of the Sound World of Vorarlberg in a concert titled My Musik
2010 Guiseppe Verdi’s opera Aida was held for the second season.
The lake stage set had a pair of enormous feet depicting that of a fallen monument as well as an elephant.This opera drew the greatest numbers of spectators in the history of the festival
2013 The Lake stage performances were completely sold out
There were no cancellations due to rain.
The festival was a great success with over 250 000 in attendance
The Opera – the Magic Flute premiered on July 17th and was sold out for the season within a few days.
202 000 spectators attended the 28 performances
The Magic Flute had comparable success to that of Aida in 2009 which had the great largest opera attendance ever.
The first performance of the Merchant of Venice was held
at the Fest Spielhaus and was attended by 3800 people
Written by the Polish composer Andre Tchailkowsky (1935-1982)
the stage set was particularly impressive.
2014 Lake Stage Opera Season two of The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Also, Tales from the Vienna Woods
Orchestral Concerts: Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Festspeilhaus: Opera by HK Gruber
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