(Photo: Birgit Gufler) At the final curtain call of the Innsbruck Early Music Festival’s splendid production of Vivaldi’s only surviving oratorio, “Judtha Triumphans,” the loudest acclamation was reserved for its conductor, Alessandro De Marchi. After 13 years as its artistic director, he is stepping down from the position. The genuine warmth the festival audience showed towards De Marchi was clearly {…}
(Photo: Birgit Gufler) After 13 years in the post, Alessandro De Marchi brings his tenure as the artistic director of the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music to a close with a program dominated by the Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi. Not only do many of the festival’s events feature his music, including the festival’s closing concert “Lieto Fine,” but all three {…}
The Innsbruck Festival of Early Music has announced the program for its 47th season. Running from July 11 to August 29 and featuring 48 events across 14 venues, this season will mark the last under Artistic Director Alessandro de Marchi after 14 years with the festival. Among the highlights are three works by Antonio Vivaldi: Stefano Vizioli directs “Olimpiade,” with a {…}
(Photo: Die Fotografen) The Innsbruck Early Music Festival’s Cesti Competition, now in its 13th year, continues to cement its standing as a prestige international singing competition for baroque specialists. The final, which took place in Innsbruck’s Haus der Musik in front of an enthusiastic audience, consisted of 10 singers from six countries, comprising two countertenors, five sopranos, two tenors and {…}
(Photo: Birgit Gufler) Whenever Silvia Paoli’s name is listed as the director for a forthcoming production, one can be fairly certain that it is not going to disappoint. Over the past few years, OperaWire has reviewed a number of her productions, all of which were not just marvelously entertaining, but also very insightful. She has the not-so-common ability to get {…}
The Innsbruck Festival of Early Music announced its plans for a new artistic direction beginning in Sept. 2023. The focus is a structural reformatting to increase the longevity and resilience of the festival. First, the festival plans to implement a three to five-year rotation for its management team. Currently heading the projects are Ottavio Dantone who will act as Musical {…}
(Credit: Innsbruck Festival of Early Music official website) The Innsbruck Festival of Early Music has announced its 2022 season, featuring three operas and a number of concerts. For the purpose of this article we will focus on the vocal works. Here is a full slate. Operas Carl Heinrich Graun’s opera “Silla” spotlights Bejun Mehta, Eleonora Bellocci, Valer Sabadus, Roberta Invernizzi, {…}
(Photo: Birgit Gufler) Following on from the previous evening’s heavy and unremittingly dark production of Mattheson’s “Boris Goudenow,” the Innsbruck Early Music Festival continued with a fresh, vibrant, and colorful performance of Telemann’s one-act serenata “Pastorelle en Musique,” written between 1713 – 1716, based on Mollière’s “Les Amants magnifiques.” As with “Boris Goudenow” the work was lost and has only {…}
(Photo: Birgit Gufler) In 1874 Mussorgsky’s ‘Boris Godunov’ received its premiere at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre. Yet, he was not the first to write an opera of that name, 164 years earlier in 1710 Johann Mattheson completed his version of “Boris Goudenow,” but for reasons which are now unclear it was not performed during the composer’s lifetime, and ended up {…}
(Photo: Birgit Gufler) Bernardo Pasquini (1637 – 1710) is not a particularly well-known name in opera circles, yet in his day he was considered the foremost composer of dramatic works for the stage in Rome, with his high point coming in the 1670s and 80s, after which he was slowly displaced by, amongst others, Alessandro Scarlatti. As well as 15 {…}
(Photo: Birgit Gufler) Each year Innsbruck’s Festival of Early Music presents Oper:Jung, a work performed by younger singers, which gives them the chance to essay substantial roles in front of the festival audience. This year the choice of opera was Alessandro Melani’s “L’Empio Punito,” to a libretto by Acciaiuoli and Appoloni. Premiered in Rome in 1669, it has the distinction {…}