Final of Salzburg Whitsun Festival

[ Din categoria News ] [ Data articol: 2016-05-16 ] [ Din localitatea Salzburg ] [ Tara Austria ]   Standing ovations and thundering applause from the audience marked the beginning of this year�s Salzburg Whitsun Festival on Friday evening. Stage designer George Tsypin transformed the Felsenreitschule into New York�s West Side for West Side Story: 50 tons of steel, 8 tons of acrylic glass, 8 tons of wood and innumerable screws were required to achieve this transformation. Forty-seven singers, dancers and musical performers, hand-picked in international castings, brought the tragic love story based on Romeo and Juliet to life. The costumes in the style of the 1950s were designed by Ann Hould-Ward. 270 costumes, each unique, were manufactured individually, requiring 60 tailors, 8, 000 hours of labour and 1, 800 metres of fabric! Under Gustavo Dudamel�s baton, the Sim�n Bol�var Orchestra of Venezuela offered not only fiery South American rhythms, but also accompanied Tony and Maria�s duets with sensitive tenderness. Patrick Woodroffe, who previously worked for the Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson and Elton John, provided the masterful lighting, and Liam Steel developed a new, spectacular choreography including acrobatic fighting scenes and breathtaking dances. Director Philip Wm. McKinley also blazed new paths with his production. The question of what becomes of Maria after Tony�s death is fundamental to his concept, and thus he cast two performers in the role of Maria. Michelle Veintimilla played Maria in the past, opposite Norman Reinhardt�s Tony, while Cecilia Bartoli as Maria, now grown up, sings and remembers her lost love decades after the events. This was the fifth Whitsun Festival under the artistic directorship of Cecilia Bartoli. In keeping with the motto Romeo and Juliet, the programme offered a broad range of selections in various artistic genres: twelve events � concerts, opera, ballet, a reading, three film screenings and a gala dinner � took place between May 13 and 16, 2016. During the reading Ein zartes Ding by Ben Power, Ilse Ritter, Hans-Michael Rehberg and narrator Michael Rotschopf touched the audience�s hearts at the Landestheater with a new perspective on the immortal lovers. In a text collaged from fragments of the play and excerpts from the sonnets, they portrayed a married couple nearing the end of a long life, thus opening a completely new and profoundly human view of the tragic lovers. The audience rewarded them with enthusiastic applause. Another occasion for extended ovations was the concert performance of the opera Giulietta e Romeo by Nicola Antonio Zingarelli. Countertenor Franco Fagioli was singled out especially by the audience for celebration along with his Giulietta, the Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg. Together with Xavier Sabata, Bogdan Mihai, Irini Karaianni and Juan Sancho as well as the orchestra and choir Armonia Atenea under George Petrou, they proved that Zingarelli�s unjustly forgotten opera can hold its own brilliantly next to settings by Berlioz and Gounod. Afterwards, sensuous creations based on recipes by the award-winning Italian chef Stefano Baioccco were accompanied by live music from the ensemble �Biagio Marini� at the exquisite gala dinner held at the Karl-B�hm-Saal. Extensive applause rewarded Julia Fischer and Milana Chernyavska after their chamber music matinee. Works by Anton�n Dvo��k, Bohuslav Martin�, Piotr Tchaikovsky were paired with those by the Spanish virtuoso and composer Pablo de Sarasate. The encore consisted of the Corelli Variations by Fritz Kreisler. �It is Shakespeare�s love story without words, a storm of feelings. There is unrestrained love, passion and devotion, the utmost happiness and most profound sadness, � says Friedemann Vogel, who portrays Romeo in John Cranko�s world-famous production of the ballet Romeo and Juliet, which was danced on Sunday evening at the Gro�es Festspielhaus to Prokofiev�s unique music, again rewarded with copious applause. Choral works in the polyphonic style were performed by The Tallis Scholars on Monday morning at the Kollegienkirche. The meditative beauty of these sacred works by Thomas Tallis, William Byrd and John Sheppard touched the audience in a special way. Special fare was also served at Das Kino, where three classic Romeo and Juliet film versions were screened on three days. Franco Zeffirelli�s 1968 version launched the series, followed by Baz Luhrmann�s 1996 version and John Madden�s Shakespeare in Love of 1998. The gala concert on the evening of Whitsun Monday capped this year�s Whitsun Festival programme with a final brilliant highlight: Angela Gheorghiu and the two tenors Juan Diego Fl�rez and Benjamin Bernheim sang arias and duets by Gounod, Tchaikovsky and Zandonai, among others. �Numerous voices were certain in advance that the Salzburg Festival audience would not esteem a programme including a musical. The risk of presenting Bernstein�s musical classic for the first time at the Festival anyway, however, was rewarded with an absolute run on tickets for this series of performances, which sold out immediately and was oversubscribed several times. The euphoric reaction of the audience, the standing ovations and the endless final curtain calls truly crowned this risky programming idea. The fact that the directorate supported the project enthusiastically from the very beginning and managed to steer us round a number of cliffs with a fighting spirit and wise foresight makes me grateful and shows that creative harmony can produce greatness�! Thanks a million! � Thus the summary of this year�s Whitsun Festival by Cecilia Bartoli, its Artistic Director. �The Whitsun Festival is a small miracle. Compact, concentrated, of the highest quality and dedicated to a different interesting theme every year: for a few special days, we enter a different world, and leave it truly enriched, � says Sven-Eric Bechtolf, Artistic Director of the Salzburg Festival. �Salzburg�s citizens and music lovers from all over the world formed an audience that stood out for its willing enthusiasm. In 2016, they followed the path sketched by Cecilia Bartoli once again with joy and much applause, � says Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler. The 2016 Whitsun Festival welcomed approximately 11, 400 guests from 42 nations to this year�s performances in Salzburg, more than 60 percent of them from abroad. After Austria and Germany, Italy moved to the third-largest group in the visitor statistics, leaving Switzerland in the fourth place. Under the artistic directorship of Cecilia Bartoli, Salzburg Whitsun Festival attendees from Europe are joined increasingly by those from overseas. This year they came from countries including Indonesia, Taiwan, India, China, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, Canada, the USA, Brazil and Uruguay. The overall rate of seats sold was 94 percent. The press office accredited 106 journalists from 17 countries all over the world for this year�s Salzburg Whitsun Festival. Rolex has been the main sponsor of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival and the Salzburg Festival since 2012. Without Rolex, a staged production could not be mounted during the Salzburg Whitsun Festival. In addition, Rolex enabled the production of West Side Story in 2016. The successful cooperation has been renewed until 2021. �The Salzburg Whitsun Festival is an annual highlight. The partnership between Rolex and the Salzburg Festival is inspired by the shared understanding of quality and elegance. We look forward to many years together, � says Arno Boetsch, Director of Communication and Image at Rolex SA. Giulietta e Romeo was recorded by ORF Radio and will be broadcast via its station �1 on May 21, 2016 at 7:30 pm. During the summer Festival, West Side Story will be revived. The premiere takes place on August 20, 2016 at 7:30 at the Felsenreitschule. The motto of the 2017 Salzburg Whitsun Festival is Wonne der Wehmut � Joy of Grief. Tickets go on sale on May 17, 2016.

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