(Credit: © SF/Marco Borrelli) The Salzburg Festival has announced that Hankyeol Yoon is the 2023 winner of the Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award. This is the 11th time that the award has been presented and it comes with a 15,000 euro prize. Yoon will also get the opportunity to conduct a Festival concert with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra {…}
Photo credit: © SF/Marco Borrell It might be unfair to name Purcell as the composer of “The Indian Queen.” The opera, left unfinished, has been restored from the composer’s fragments mostly through the efforts of Teodor Currentzis and Peter Sellars. They managed to give some theatrical shape to the arias and added music from elsewhere in Purcell’s corpus that made {…}
Photo credit: SF/Marco Borell This was a fancy recital: Renée Fleming and Evgeny Kissin. The audience was also the “who’s who” of classical music. Just behind me, Cecilia Bartoli is seated with her mother, the emerita Silvana Bazzoni. Not far away, Jeanine De Bique and Sabine Devieilhe. Other non-operatic essential names pop all from the balconies. They all came to {…}
(Credit: Photo © SF/Bernd Uhlig) When Cecilia Bartoli enters the stage, all eyes are on her. The leading headliner in Salzburg has made herself a living legend. I know many music-lovers, of all ages, who have fallen in love with opera first and foremost because of Cecilia. Such talent has made legions of fans—myself included— to feel entitled to use {…}
(Photo Credit: SF/Matthias Horn) “Le Nozze di Figaro” in Salzburg is always a big challenge; it is Mozart’s city. The festival public is not conservative per se, but it does have high standards for Mozart, and will not willingly countenance simplistic approaches to the opera that would diminish Mozart and Da Ponte’s powerful message in name of some moralism. But {…}
(Photo: © SF/Marco Borrelli) If I had to define the Salzburg Festival in one word, it would be “tradition.” This has both good and bad implications. Revering tradition is an active attempt to make the past alive and present. The concertgoers sport their Dirndl and Lederhosen, traditional Tirol formal wear, with much pride, as they should. The claims of tradition, however, {…}
The Salzburg Festival has announced a conductor change for its production of Verdi’s “Macbeth.” In a press release the festival said, “With great regret, Franz Welser-Most must withdraw from conducting Macbeth due to acute orthopedic issues which require him to undergo medical treatment. However, he remains confident that he will be able to conduct his concerts at the Festival with {…}
The Salzburg Festival has announced the three finalists for the Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award 2023. Chaired by Manfred Honeck, Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the jury chose eight candidates (two female, six male) in February as semi-finalists for the eleventh edition of the renowned competition, which takes place every two years. This year, there were 323 {…}
The Salzburg Festival has announced the lineup for their 2023 youth program, “jung & jede*r”. Running from March 24 to August 28, 2023, the program will feature 53 performances for children and teenagers across 20 venues. Among the highlights are the following: Maurice Ravel’s “Das Kind und die Zauberdinge (L’Enfant et les sortilèges)” This new production will be held at {…}
Photo: Peter Rigaud A reported shift in the leadership responsibilities of the Salzburg Festival has removed Festival President Kristina Hammer from dealing with the press and media. After assuming Hammer’s responsibilities in these areas, Director Markus Hinterhäuser is now the Festival’s primary public representative. Hammer will focus on external representation and sponsor search. The move, however, is in keeping with {…}
The Salzburg Festival has announced its 2023 season featuring operas, concerts, recitals, and Mozart programs. Opera Raphaël Pichon will conduct Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” in a new production by Martin Kušej. Andrè Schuen, Adriana González, Sabine Devieilhe, Krzysztof Bączyk, and Lea Desandre star. Performance Dates: July 27-August 28, 2023 Verdi’s “Macbeth” will be conducted by Franz Welser-Möst and directed {…}