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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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