(Credit: Michael Gregonowits) On August 23, tenor Andrew Owens saved a performance of “La Bohème” at the Festspielhaus Baden Baden. The company revealed that shortly after Act one of the opera began, tenor Benjamin Bernheim was unable to continue singing due to health reasons. Owens, who happened to be in the audience, spontaneously stepped in to sing the role of {…}
The Festspielhaus Baden Baden has announced its 2027 East festival. Joana Mallwitz conducts a new production of Beethoven’s “Fidelio” with Krzysztof Warlikowski directing. The cast includes Vera-Lotte Boecker, Sean Panikkar, Manuel Winckhler, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Franz-Josef Selig, and Chelsea Zurflüh. Performance Date: March 20-28, 2027 Klaus Mäkelä conducts Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” with Chen Reiss, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Andrew Staples, and William {…}
Arte.TV is set to present Wagner’s “Lohengrin” on April 5 from the Festspielhaus Baden Baden. The production by Johannes Erath is set to be conducted by Joana Mallwitz. The cast will star Piotr Beczała in the title role, Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Elsa von Brabant, Wolfgang Koch as Telramund, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner as Ortrud, Kwangchul Youn as König Heinrich der Vogler, and Samuel {…}
(Credit: Martin Sigmund) The Festspielhaus Baden-Baden has released an apology to tenor Piotr Beczala after a technical glitch on opening night of “Lohengrin” on March 28. The company took to social media and said, “We would like to formally apologize to Piotr Beczala. Following yesterday’s premiere, during the well-deserved solo applause for this exceptional artist, there was an unfortunate technical {…}
The Festspielhaus Baden-Baden has announced the Easter Festival for 2026. Joana Mallwitz conducts a new production of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” by Johannes Erath. The cast includes Piotr Beczała in the title role, Rachel Willis-Sørensen, and Samuel Hasselhorn. Performance Dates: March 28 & 31, 2026 Klaus Mäkelä conducts Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion. Performance Date: March 30, 2026 Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem is {…}
The Festspielhaus Baden-Baden has announced its 2025 season. Here is a look at the vocal performances. Camilla Nylund, Andreas Schager, and Pietari Inkinen perform an evening of Wagner, Strauss, Kálmán, Lehar, Performance Dates: Jan. 12, 2025 Zum Rahmenprogramm des Festivals Gianandrea Noseda, Hanna-Elisabeth Müller, and Philharmonia Zürich lead an all-Strauss program. Performance Dates: Feb. 22, 2025 Andris Nelsons conducts Mahler’s {…}
The Baden-Baden Festival has announced its 2024-25 season. Here are the vocal performances. Mark Elder conducts Richard Wagner’s “Parsifal,” Prelude and Good Friday Music, and “Tristan und Isolde,” Act two. The concert will include soloists Jonas Kaufmann, Camilla Nylund, Sasha Cooke, Christof Fischesser, and Todd Boyce. Performance Date: August 25, 2024 Le Grand Gare Festival The Singfest with members of the {…}
The Baden-Baden Festival has announced that it will expand its European vision in 2026 as it will partner with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra for three years. In a statement Festival director Benedikt Stampa said, “Music lovers can look forward to top-class opera and concert evenings in Baden-Baden. The orchestras are also leaders in cultural communication. {…}
The Berlin Philharmonic will return to Salzburg Easter Festival starting in 2026. The news comes as the orchestra announced that 2025 will be its last year at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival. In a statement, Nikolaus Bachler said “the Salzburg Easter Festival will once again have a permanent resident orchestra from 2026: the Berlin Philharmonic. Herbert von Karajan founded the Easter {…}
(Credit: Julian Hargreaves) After the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden announced its season, General Director Benedikt Stampa said he would be welcoming back Anna Netrebko. The director said, “We invite artists to Baden-Baden who do not explicitly support Putin.” The festival director also noted that Valery Gergiev is not invited because of his closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said, “It’s definitely {…}
The Baden Baden Festspielhaus has announced that its annual Osterfestspiele Baden-Baden and its Whitsun Festival have been canceled due to extended COVID-19 restrictions. The German festival was expected to open reopen in early May and had rescheduled an originally planned production of Tchaikovsky’s “Mazeppa” in concert form. The work was supposed to be performed twice and feature the Berlin Philharmonic {…}