2017
Bregenz Festival in February
Never before did a festival season start this early: In February already, Brigitte Fassbaender invited those interested to a publicly held masterclass as part of the third Opera Studio at the Bregenzer Festspielhaus. The singer helped young talents prepare for Le nozze di Figaro.
Passionate love, Spanish heat, rhythms that sweep you off your feet: Carmen,
After 1974 and 1991/92, Georges Bizet's world-famous melodies resounded from the Seebühne for the third time in 2017. Carmen was staged by the Danish director Kasper Holten. 28 performances attracted more than 199,000 visitors. In total, more than 260,000 people visited Bregenz Festival in 2017. 2014 was the only year in which more people came to see the summer festival at Lake Constance that was founded in 1946.
Nearly 1.9 million people saw the live TV broadcast of George Bizet's opera.
Es Devlin - The Magician behind the stage
"What I want to tell everybody - and this is very important to me - is the role that Bregenz plays for us stage designers. Every stage designer that I have ever talked to told me it was their biggest dream to get the chance to work here one day. (...) When I worked with Kanye West, he showed me pictures of Andrea Chénier and said 'I want something like this'. Bregenz is considered a spectacle all around the world. I don't know whether the people here are aware of this."
Es Devlin
Es Devlin designed the stage. She calls herself a die-hard Bregenz fan and had wanted to work here for a long time. Her portfolio reads like a Who's Who of the pop, rock, fashion and theater world. She creates shows for Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, the Rolling Stones, Adele and many more. She designs stage sets for famous theaters and operas worldwide. In 2012, she was in charge of the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in London.
Puppet theatre at the Festspielhaus and at the Werkstattbühne
"What is fascinating is that the blend of real figures, a miniature puppet theatre and the light and video show does not appear trivial or unnatural but rather seems organic and therefore touching in an odd way. The individual elements increasingly depend on each other."
Salzburger Nachrichten
More than 4,600 people saw the Opera at the Festspielhaus, Mosè in Egitto, staged by Lotte de Beer and in cooperation with the theater group Hotel Modern. Gioachino Rossini's work, which deals with themes of the Old Testament, was shown at the Oper Köln in April 2018. At the Werkstattbühne, the theater group from the Netherlands then presented an exotic opera of quite different dimensions - a well-rounded concept: The Ring in 90 minutes, which included insect puppets. Finally, after four years, a play was included in the programme again: The Situation at the Kornmarkttheater. The "play of the year 2016" performed by the Berlin-based Maxim Gorki ensemble was the beginning of a new era: From now on, plays were annualy included in the programme.
Grand Finale
Thanks to two recent accessions to the programme, Bregenz Festival celebrated a grand finale in the last week of its 72. season: After more than three years of preparation, the Opera Atelier finally staged its first performance at the Werkstattbühne with the commissioned piece To the Lighthouse. La nozze di Figaro at the Kornmarkttheater completed the Da-Ponte-Cycle, which had been set up in 2015 by the newly formed Opera Studio.
Insights give an idea of the development
In May 2014, the artists were invited for talks for the first time. One year later the first insight gave an idea of how the opera was being put together and in August 2017 To the Lighthouse premiered at the Werkstattbühne. Initiated by the artistic director Elisabeth Sobotka and in cooperation with the Kunsthaus Bregenz, the Opera Atelier's aim is not only to create new musical theatres but also to answer the question of how an opera develops. Composer Zesses Seglias, director Olivier Tambosi, dramaturge Olaf A. Schmitt and stage designer Jakob Kolding, who designed the room concept - it was his first time working for a theater-, took a close look at Virgina Woolf's novel of the same title. Vibeke Andersen designed the costumes and Claire Levacher was the musical director.
Premiere in honour of Ernst Binder
The libretto was written by Ernst Binder, who died in January 2017. He had also worked on the directorial concept. The theater maker, who was born in 1953 in Feldbach (Styria), was one of the founding members of Bregenz's Opera Atelier. The premiere was dedicated to him.