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18 July – 30 August

Harry Kupfer’s illustrious new production of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, had already had its first performance in 2014. The season was dedicated to the memory of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

The ‘elemental catastrophe’ of the 20th century was also reflected in productions of Karl Kraus’s Die letzten Tage der Menschheit/The Last Days of Mankind and Ödön von Horváth’s Don Juan kommt aus dem Krieg/Don Juan Comes Back from the War.

Der Rosenkavalier was just as impressive at its 2015 revival: Kupfer’s elegant staging, Schavernoch’s striking set, Welser-Möst and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with their ‘floating chamber-music approach’, the grandiose cast – first and foremost Krassimira Stoyanova and Günther Groissböck: such sensibility and buoyancy has rarely been heard in the Large Festival Hall – so transparent and clear.’1

Franz Welser-Möst was also in charge of the musical direction in 2015 of Beethoven’s Fidelio in Claus Guth’s much discussed staging, with Jonas Kaufmann and Adrianne Pieczonka. Le nozze di Figaro saw Sven-Eric Bechtolf completing his Da Ponte cycle begun in 2013.

1 Ljubiša Tošić: ‘Der Rosenkavalier’: Palais der suchenden Herzen, in: Der Standard, 21 August 2015