You have been preparing for your first festival summer in Bregenz for almost two years now. What kind of spirit do you feel here?

Lilli Paasikivi: The Bregenzer Festspiele in its entirety – from the fantastic spectacle on the Seebühne to the chamber music concerts, from the contemporary works on the Werkstattbühne to the orchestral concerts and the Junge Festspiele – is a wonderful cultural celebration, a celebration of storytelling, music, creativity and artistic quality. At the same time, this festival is also a unique platform for international artists and their diverse ideas and voices. It is exciting to be a part of this world now!

The Seebühne is the heart of the Bregenzer Festspiele. What is your impression of it so far?

The Seebühne takes opera productions to the next level: Sometimes it feels like opera on steroids! The scale of the productions, and the overall effort in terms of manpower and infrastructure, the way it is embedded in the surrounding nature: It is a wonderful challenge to try and integrate a new production into this natural “set” and the everchanging elements every two years.

Next summer, Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz will be performed again.

I was able to follow the creative process behind Der Freischütz even before I became artistic director. It was a very brave artistic decision by my predecessor Elisabeth Sobotka and director Philipp Stölzl to take a completely new approach to such a well-known and popular opera. The audience embraced the production enthusiastically.

You invited some very exciting Nordic artists to Bregenz for the upcoming summer.

As the new artistic director, it is important for me to show the audience my own musical and artistic DNA. That is why I really wanted to bring the works of popular Nordic artists to Bregenz. There are so many great artists, and the choice was not easy. But I also want to present the colorful kaleidoscope of classical Finnish music and its esprit, including some peculiar phenomena such as our deep love for tango.

For my first season at the Bregenzer Festspiele I have curated a rich program with works by Jean Sibelius, Kaija Saariaho, Sebastian Fagerlund and Osmo Tapio Räihälä: a combination of Nordic heritage and exciting contemporary composers. Renowned conductors such as Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Hannu Lintu will be coming to Bregenz. And we will welcome not only wonderful artists from Austria and Germany but also the great US-American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, the famous Danish dramatic baritone Johan Reuter as well as aspiring singers such as the Tunisian-Canadian mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb and the Hungarian mezzo-soprano Dorottya Láng.

Your first Opera at the Festspielhaus will be George Enescu’s Œdipe. Why did you choose this opera?

I want to present the great works of the early 20th century with rich and colorful scores. Like Sophocles’ play, Enescu’s music for Œdipe is very expressive and dramatic. There are wonderful solos and magnificent choir scenes. This opus contains all the elements that make up a great operatic experience! I am excited for Andreas Kriegenburg’s timeless interpretation of this archaic Greek drama. The opera will be conducted by Hannu Lintu, who is known for mastering big and demanding scores: So, the musical part of Œdipe will be in very good hands.

We can look forward to three contemporary pieces on the Werkstattbühne. You invited the famous choreographer Tero Saarinen to Bregenz.