Life in a Foreign Land Can Be a Golden Oppor- Tunity
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3 2| Life in a foreign land can be a golden oppor- poignant intimacy reflects the bitter-sweet tunity or a crushing penance. For Aida, the existence of one who has lost everything but Ethiopian Princess taken into slavery, exile can still give thanks for his survival. When brings her agonisingly close to the man she the thugs of the Soviet Composers Union loves but may not have. She and Radames condemned him for „abstract humanism“ are slaves to passion who can only find their (a formulation likewise employed by the Na- freedom „in a strange land“. As the „death zis!) they little realised the compliment they boat“ makes its astonishing journey into the were paying! heavens they sing „O terra addio“ . We celebrate his survival and his ability For Mieczysław Weinberg, whose asto- through his testing life to continue to com- nishing creativity provides the main focus pose an unbroken stream of music. The col- of our festival programme, exile was both an lapse of the Soviet Union has almost buried opportunity and a curse. As a Polish Jew it Weinberg, but this summer we mount a re- saved his life from the advancing Germans, surrection - a joyous rebirth of an astound- but plunged him into the terror of Stalin's ing talent. Come and join us by the lake, in anti-semitic purges. His father in law's mur- the theatre, at our concerts - experience the der in 1948 was the starting pistol of this rainbow of music and culture that we offer brutal pogrom, and he himself was arrested our thirsty visitors! in 1953, saved only by Stalin's timely death. His response to ever present danger was a David Pountney, artistic director life-long outpouring of music - music whose A magic open air location At the Bregenz Festival, an evening at the opera begins long before the cond uctor raises his baton. Ships bring visitors across the water and moor directly at the See- bühne, becoming themselves part of the scenery of the magic of a balmy summer evening on the shore of Lake Constance. When dusk begins to fall, one can feel the unique atmosphere of open-air theatre surrounding the Festspielhaus. And as the smouldering red sun sinks into Lake Constance, as though it were happening specially for the thousands of spectators who have taken their seats in the auditorium, everyone will realise that dramatic spectacle at Bregenz does not stop at the edge of the Seebühne. During four weeks of the summer, visitors to the Bregenz Festival can find their very own personal cultural highlight: the Seebühne stands for spectacular pro- ductions in an unparalleled setting; the Festspielhaus presents jewels of the ope- ra repertoire in a new light. In addition, the Bregenz Festival offers orchestral concerts, guest performances by theatre companies, contemporary arts at the Werkstattbühne, the Festspielhaus and the Kunsthaus Bregenz as well as a num- ber of events in the crossculture programme for young people. 4| 5 Opera on the lake AIDAby Giuseppe Verdi 7| 6 Aida is one of the most performed operas in the repertoire – a tale of a legendary love stronger than death, and a very modern parable about nationalism, bellige- rence and hatred of the enemy. Giuseppe Verdi’s monumental opera is returning to the spectacular Seebühne at Bregenz in summer 2010. The story of the tragic love between the Ethiopian princess Aida – once brought Opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to the Nile as a slave – and the Egyptian commander Radames was a triumph at Libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni its premiere in Cairo in 1871. Since then it has become one of the most popular Sung in Italian with German surtitles and most performed works in the entire opera repertoire. Verdi conceived Aida as an opera that would have no equal. It has grandiose choral scenes and rousing rhythmic marches, gorgeous arias and romantic duets all brought harmonious- Premiere ly together, their effect further enhanced by the exotic flavour of the music. The July 22 – 9.15 p.m. fa mous triumphal march with its blaring fanfares and stirring choruses is one of the musical and dramatic highpoints of „grand Italian opera”. Further performances July 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30 and 31 – 9.15 p.m. Director Graham Vick and stage designer Paul Brown were keen to make use of August 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, Lake Constance in Aida, not just as a grand backdrop but as an integral part of 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 – 9.00 p.m. the production. With ships and platforms, parts of the stage set that emerge from 1 Duration: about 2 ⁄4 hours, no interval under the water, and entry points for the performers which are both on and under the water – the stage set for Aida comes into being during the performance itself Seebühne/Festspielhaus before the eyes of the audience. Prices: see page 17 Introductory talk: 7.00 and 7.30 p.m, Festspiel- haus, EUR 6 Aida King Vienna Symphony Orchestra Whom do I weep for? Whom do I Bradley Garvin, Kevin Short Prague Philharmonic Choir pray for? What power binds me to Amneris Bregenz Festival Chorus him? I am doomed to love him Liuba Sokolova, Iano Tamar, Guang Yang Stage music: In cooperation with the though he is a stranger, an Aida Vorarlberger Landeskonservatorium enemy! Tatjana Serjan, María José Siri, Indra Thomas Dancers Aida Radames Actors Rubens Pelizzari, Arnold Rawls, Philip Webb Stunt Performers: VIPstuntcam Ramphis Sorin Coliban, Andrew Gangestad, Musical director: Carlo Rizzi, Gareth Jones Tigran Martirossian Director: Graham Vick Amonasro Stage & Costumes: Paul Brown Quinn Kelsey, Dimitri Platanias, Vittorio Vitelli Choreography: Ron Howell Messenger Light: Wolfgang Göbbel David Danholt Sound: Wolfgang Fritz Priestess Director Bregenz Festival Chorus: Elisabetta Martorana, Talia Or Benjamin Lack Cast in alphabetical order. The cast-lists for the evening performances will be published in mid July 2010 on www.bregenzerfestspiele.com 8| 9 Aida longs for a world that is lost - an Eden which is lost. And that is what I get when I look up at the sky at night: I look at something that is distant, that I can not ever attain, but I can dream about. So the blue and the stars are about longing, and loss and passion. Paul Brown, stage set Aida I want people to love opera. Not the opera house or going to the opera, but the art form itself. That's why I find the opera on the Floating Stage so fabu- lous, because those two barriers don't exist: there's no opera house and no opera audience. I love the atmosphere here; I love the weather, the coaches and the 7,000 spectators every evening. Many of them have no fixed idea of what opera should be or what it should mean, and that's just what I find so wonder- ful! Graham Vick, director of the opera on the lake 11| 10 11| Tatiana Serjan María José Siri Indra Thomas For the Russian singer Tatiana Serjan, New to the club of Aidas is the young sopra- Soprano Indra Thomas from the USA Aida is the third opera on the lake after no María José Siri, who was born in Uruguay. enchanted the Bregenz audience last sum- Tosca and Il Trovatore. Why does she keep She first trained as a concert pianist and disco- mer – and not only in the role of Aida. She coming back to Lake Constance? „I just vered opera singing only by chance, through a was also able to show her jazzy side in a really like coming to Bregenz! Not only mix-up in her lesson timetable. Since then her summer night concert with songs by George because it's summer and there's the lake, singing career has developed rapidly. María Gershwin. When she is not singing on the but also because I really enjoy returning José Siri appears at the major opera houses of Seebühne at Bregenz, Indra Thomas can be to places I know.” Before appearing as South America and Europe such as the Teatro seen at the world's major opera houses, in- Aida again at Bregenz, she will perform Colon in Buenos Aires, the Gran Teatre del cluding the New York Met, the Gran Teatre the roles of Lady Macbeth in Brussels and Liceu in Barcelona, Dresden's Semperoper and del Liceu in Barcelona, Hamburg State Munich as well as Tosca at Deutsche Oper La Scala Milan, where she has performed the Opera, Lyric Opera Chicago and the New Na- Berlin. part of Aida under the baton of Daniel Baren- tional Theatre in Tokyo. boim. It's the tops! At a height of 55 metres above Lake Constance a human couple, Eschewing opulent display devoid of soprano and tenor, hover and glide in a meaning, Vick and Brown underline reed boat suspended from a tower crane, the fact that Verdi's Aida can be in fact where they sing to the very last sigh as the most stirring anti-war piece in the they bid farewell to this earthly vale of entire repertoire of music theatre. (...) tears for an imaginary Egyptian king- The actual closing tableau – Amneris dom of death. Aida does not end like this (...) A feast pleading for peace at the feet of the A spectacular stage for Aida. in Verona, or even before the Pyramids wrecked statue of liberty – leaves the for the eyes and the ears. (...) A desert – and definitely not in an ordinary opera spectator deep in thought. opera on Lake Constance – nothing is house.