Bregenz Festival: An opera rarity as a warm-up for the “blockbusters”

“Be strict, that goes down well”, Grete said to Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen yesterday before his speech at the opening of the Bregenz Festival. The words of the hand puppet, with which figure theater player and moderator Nikolaus Habjan led through the ceremony, were actually followed by a striking scolding of the party by Van der Bellen.

The round dance, which will be conducted by the Viennese Elisabeth Sobotka until 2024 (designated successor is the Finn Lilli Paasikivi), opened artistically yesterday evening in the Festspielhaus with a rarity: Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Ernani” (1844), given to him six years before he “Rigoletto” set to music, brought the breakthrough as a composer. In terms of its aggressive emotionality, the four-act play is hardly inferior to that of domestic politics. Central motives are revenge and power. Three men, rebel leader Ernani, Spain’s King Don Carlo and the offended Silva, all want one thing: Elvira. An intrigue unfolds, based on the material of an excellent observer of human nature: Victor Hugos (“Les Miserables”) play “Hernani ou l’Honneur castillan” (1830).

“I know that the opera is rarely played, although the music is really great”, said director Lotte de Beer. The work offers “little naturalism”but sharply told grotesques. “Ernani”-Conductor Enrique Mazzola also bears the musical responsibility for the “Lake Constance blockbuster”which goes into the second round: “Madam Butterfly”. In 2022, the occupancy rate of the Puccini Opera was 100 percent with almost 167,000 visitors. This year, Bregenz offers more than 70 events until August 20, for which 215,000 tickets have been issued – at least 90 percent were booked before yesterday’s start.

A special Austrian premiere (July 27) is waiting for you: The opera “The Fagots and Their Friends Between Revolutions” is based on the cult book (1977) by the American Larry Mitchell, which propagates sexual and social diversity in the form of a weird utopia.

To the lake stage

The floating stage stands on 119 spruce and steel poles driven into the ground. The set for “Madame Butterfly” weighs 300 tons. It is 23 meters high and consists of 117 scenery parts. The construction time is ten months, members of the stage design team are trained industrial climbers. The grandstand was renovated and fitted with 6,659 new folding chairs.