2009
Cultural Brand of the Year
„a consistend and distinctive brand identity"
Cultural Brands Award Jury
On Thursday evening, Bregenz Festival was honoured "cultural brand of the year 2009" in Berlin. The "consistent and distinctive brand identity" made the jury decide on Bregenz Festival as award winner. 37 nominees from the German-speaking area took part in the competition including renowned institutions such as the Ruhrtriennale or the MuseumsQuartier Wien.
The Cultural Brand Award honours the most successful marketing strategies of cultural projects in the German-speaking area since 2006. The event is hosted by the Berlin-based agency Causales. The German newspaper "Die Zeit" is one of their partners.
This year, famous institutions and projects such as the Komische Oper Berlin, the MuseumsQuartier Wien, the cultural capital Linz 2009 or the Ruhrtriennale were among the applicants.
Unconventional interpretation of Aida impresses media and audience alike
Without further ado, director Graham Vick and stage designer Paul Brown moved Verdi's colossal opera Aida, originally set in the desert, into the water. Guests and critics alike were enthralled by the unconventional interpretation: for the singers, choir members and extras the lake was not only part of the stage scenery, sometimes it was the stage itself. The stage resembled a statue shattered into pieces. Every evening, as the opera evolved, the pieces were put together by two huge cranes in front of the audience. In its first summer at Lake Constance, the opera Aida came to be the most popular opera production on the Seebühne, ranking only slightly behind the musical West Side Story in 2003 in terms of the number of visitors.
Oper at the Festspielhaus: King Roger
At the Festspielhaus, the opera King Roger by the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski was staged. Not only David Pountney's production on the stage designed by Raimund Bauer but also the musical realization by the Wiener Symphoniker under the direction of Sir Mark Elder were deemed "excellent", granting visitors a "true Festivel evening".
Love, residential housing, skin smoothness: brilliant guest performance by the Opera North Leeds
Thanks to a brilliant guest performance by the English Opera North Leeds, not just one but three operettas were performed at the Festspielhaus in 2009. Shostakovich's dynamic Russian operetta about residential housing, Moscow, Cheryomushki, Gershwin's cutting presidential satire Of Thee I sing and the most recent work by the British composer David Sawer, Skin Deep, were shown.
Kunst aus der Zeit with veterans, young stars and a focus on Vorarlberg
In 2009, the contemporary programme series Kunst aus der Zeit for the first time fully bore the trademark of its new curator Laura Berman. To be heard and seen on stage were the latest works of British composer legend Sir Harrison Birtwistle (Semper Downland & The Corridor) and those of the Berlin-based group Nico and the Navigators together with the Music Banda Franui (Anaesthesia). At the center of the programme was My Musig, a project in which three international artists took a closer look at the sounds and the music of Vorarlberg.