Opera Camps

In the opera camps, music-loving children and teenagers aged 9 to 17 become immersed in the world
of opera and spend a week at Arenberg Castle with artists and experienced teaching professionals. Here they engage with material from great operas and conclude the week by performing their own interpretations of the works, assisted by members of the Vienna Philharmonic, in front of an audience.

In cooperation with the Vienna Philharmonic and with the support of the Salzburg Foundation of the American Austrian Foundation (AAF).
Supported by
UNIQA · Würth-Gruppe · Raiffeisen Salzburg

On the drama Jedermann (Everyman) by Hugo von Hofmannsthal
For teenagers aged 10 to 16
Camp language: German

Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Jedermann (Everyman) lies at the very heart of the Salzburg Festival. ‘The entire city holds its breath for this play’, wrote Max Reinhardt during the 1930s, ‘even the children act out Jedermann’. Indeed, the children back then did perform Hofmannsthal’s ‘Play of the Rich Man’s Death’ for their own amusement. Just as in the 1930s, the children and young people who take part in the Jedermann camp will experience the original version and present their own play after an intensive week of preparation. The incidental music composed especially for the Jedermann camp also offers exciting challenges for instrumentalists. The alternation between choral singing, instrumental music, acting and stage design will enable participants to slip in and out of different roles and rise to the various tasks that are vital in putting on your own theatre production.

On the drama Le nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
For teenagers aged 15 to 17
Camp language: German, English

Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) is considered one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s most successful comic operas and at the same time a devastating critique of an amoral nobility that abuses
its power. Figaro and Susanna, a servant couple, are planning their forthcoming wedding. A number of obstacles and odd turns are placed in their way by a domineering count, a betrayed countess, a love-crazed teenager and a lawyer escorted by his scheming housekeeper. The happy couple must be careful not to get entangled up in their plans for rescue and revenge. The participants of the opera camp will sing, act, make music and develop their own take on the work by experimenting with the opera’s characters, plot and music.

On the opera Orfeo ed Euridice by Christoph Willibald Gluck
For teenagers aged 9 to 12
Camp language: German, English

According to the ancient myth, Orpheus’ singing bewitched people, gods, animals and even plants. No wonder that his lament at the loss of his beloved Eurydice touches the gods so much that Jupiter allows the bard to descend into the underworld to bring his wife back to the realm of the living. One condition is attached to this favour: Orpheus must not look back at her until they are both out of the underworld. With Orfeo ed Euridice, Gluck created a work that dispenses with complicated intrigues, and firmly focusses on the character of Orpheus and his feelings. In the opera camp, the children will accompany Orpheus on his journey. With singing, orchestral playing and acting scenes, they will defy lightning, thunder and darkness, dare to cross the river of he underworld, appease the Furies and accompany Eurydice back to the world of the living.

On the opera Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi
For teenagers aged 13 to 16
Camp language: German, English

With his last opera, Falstaff, Giuseppe Verdi produced a wonderfully comic work based on William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. Sir John Falstaff is shameless, gluttonous, drunken, cash strapped and — in his own opinion — irresistibly charming. In an attempt to ease his financial woes, he tries to reel in two rich married ladies by writing them two identical love letters. Too bad that the two ladies are acquainted and read the letters to each other — meaning that their husbands get wind of his advances. Falstaff has plainly made too many enemies. The young people will engage with Verdi’s music by taking on roles as orchestral musicians, chorus singers, stage designers and stage actors, connecting the themes of the opera with their own range of experiences.