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| Salzburg – Hofstallgasse at Night (Photo: TSG Breitegger) |
For Markus Hinterhäuser, artistic director of the Salzburg Festival, the main theme of the 2025 Festival (18 July to 31 August 2025) can be summed up in Mary, Queen of Scot’s motto ‘in my end is my beginning’. But for all Hinterhäuser’s admirably coherent programming, 2025 is likely to be the year that Dmitri Tcherniakov directed Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto and Ulrich Rasch directed Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda. The opera selection is admirably catholic, there are also a new productions of Péter Eötvös’ Three Sisters and Schoenberg’s Erwartung along with a revival of Verdi’s Macbeth in Krzysztof Warlikowski’s production.
This will be Dmitri Tcherniakov’s debut at the Salzburg Festival but he will be teaming up again with conductor Emmanuelle Haim (conducting her own period-instrument ensemble), the two of them having worked on Tcherniakov’s Gluck Iphigenia project at Aix-en-Provence this Summer. In Giulio Cesare, the title role will be sung by Christophe Dumaux with Olga Kulchynska as Cleopatra, Lucile Richardot as Cornelia, countertenor Federico Fiori as Sesto and countertenor Yuriy Mynenko as Tolomeo. It will be interesting to see what version of the opera Tcherniakov and Haim come up with (ie what cuts they implement) as well as finding out how Tcherniakov deals with the dramaturgy of opera seria. One thing, however, is certain, it won’t be boring and Dumaux has long experience in the role of Cesare, we saw him way back in 2011 at Royal Theatre at Versailles [see my review].
The other highly anticipated event is undoubtedly Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda in a production directed and designed by the German theatre director Ulrich Rasche. Markus Hinterhäuser assures us that the production is going to be based around monumental architecture. Antonello Manacorda conducts, which means the music is in excellent hands, with the Vienna Philharmonic in the pit. Lisette Oropesa sings the title role with mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey as Elisabetta, plus Dkhzod Davronov, Aleksei Kulagin and Thomas Lehman. Also taking part will be dancers from SEAD – Salzburger Experimental Academy of Dance, and the choreographer is Paul Blackman.
Peter Sellars is directing Schoenberg’s Erwartung with designs by George Tsypin. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Vienna Philharmonic. Schoenberg’s opera is paired with Der Abschied, the final movement of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. Ausrine Stundyte sings Erwartung with Wiebke Lehmkul in the Mahler, though part of me wishes they had found a dramatic soprano capable of singing both roles! Remarkably the two works were both written around the same time (1908/9), and Sellars has a seductively coherent methodology for pairing the two. We are intrigued. Sellars, of course, directed his own iconic production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare back in 1990, set in contemporary Egypt with Cesar as a modern American president.
The young Russian director, Evgeny Titov will be directing the new production of Péter Eötvös’ Three Sisters with Dennis Orellana, Cameron Shahbazi and Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen [whom we saw last year in the title role of Handel’s Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne, see my review].
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| Salzburg – Felsenreitschule (Photo: SF_Andreas Kolarik) |
Revivals include Barry Kosky’s Vivaldi pasticcio, Hotal Metamorphosis with Cecilia Bartoli, Philippe Jaroussky and Lea Desandre, with Gianluca Capuano conducting, and Warlikowski’s production of Verdi’s Macbeth, conducted by Philippe Jordan with Asmik Grigorian and Vladislav Sulimsky as the Macbeths.
Other operas include a semi-staging of Mozart’s Zaide with music from Davide Penitente and Thamos, directed by Raphael Pichon with his ensemble Pygmaliion and Sabine Devieilhe as Zaide, and a semi-staging of Mozart’s Mitridate with Adam Fischer conducting the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg.
There is also Michael Jarrell’s monodrama Kassandra and most interestingly a concert of Salvatore Sciarrino’s Macbeth with Vimbayi Kaziboni conducting Klangforum Wien and Cody Quattlebaum and Alice Rossi as the Macbeths. Other concert performances include Giordano’s Andrea Chenier with Piotr Beczala in the title role, and Rameau’s Castor et Pollux with Teodor Currentzis directing Utopia choir and orchestra, so expect interesting fireworks. Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale is being presented in collaboration with the Salzburger Marionettentheater, which promises to be real fun.
Notable concerts include Henze’s The Raft of the Medusa with Ingo Metzmacher conducting, Luigi Nono’s Io, frammento dal Prometeo, and seven concerts devoted to the music of Shostakovich from symphonies and concertos to piano sonatas and string quartets, plus Igor Levit and Lukas Sternath in a four-hand piano transcription of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10. Similarly there are five concerts exploring Pierre Boulez with his music alongside that of his contemporaries like Stockhausen and Nono, and his influences.
Full details from the festival website.
