Four OPER! Awards for the Opera Pasticcio HOTEL METAMORPHOSIS

(SF, 24 February 2026) Cecilia Bartoli, Nadezhda Karyazina, Barrie Kosky and Gianluca Capuano personally accepted their awards on Monday evening at the Regensburg Theatre. KS Dr. h.c. Cecilia Bartoli, Artistic Director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, expressed her gratitude after receiving the Award for Best Production of the Year 2025: “I am absolutely delighted that the OPER! Awards jury decided to bestow not one, but four prizes in different categories on our Salzburg production of Hotel Metamorphosis. This illustrates that a musical theatre project can only become successful when it is collaborative and when everyone works with the same passion and spirit of commonality. For me personally, it is extremely rewarding to see that since 1999, when my first CD with opera arias by Vivaldi was released, this composer has become a household name in the international opera world. Having been brought back to our attention piece by piece, today Vivaldi’s wonderful operatic music forms a natural part of playbills at repertory theatres and major festivals all over the world. Moreover, I was particularly gratified to share the stage with several generations of magnificent musicians in this production. It is they who guarantee that the torch of our mission will not fade in days to come!”

The original jury statements:

HOTEL METAMORPHOSIS won  

BEST PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR 2025

“How to expand the repertoire without driving composers to burnout? The baroque era had a clever answer to this question: pasticcios – the reassembling of existing arias, duets and choruses with a few libretto adjustments into a new opera. It is a trick that still works today. And it is especially effective when you have strong material from the compositions of Antonio Vivaldi at hand, as well as an excellent directing team, outstanding singers and musicians, then use this concentrated artistic power to tell a story connecting central cultural myths with the present day. The OPER! Award for Best Performance goes to Hotel Metamorphosis at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival.”

 

Nadezhda Karyazina was honoured as

BEST NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR 2025

“It is, of course, a wonderful thing being able to shine, at a young age, in a major role at a significant festival. But to go beyond that, to radiate authority and vocal brilliance in the iconic part of Marfa in Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina – a sort of death-obsessed Russian Erda usually reserved for older singers –, to garner rave reviews and applause at an event like the Salzburg Easter Festival: that is a truly a special achievement! Just a few weeks later, she repeated that feat as a substitute – chosen quite likely due to the earlier success –, ‘checking in’ as Minerva, Nutrice and Juno at the Hotel Metamorphosis in the same city for the Whitsun Festival. She is, quite simply, overwhelmingly good: our Newcomer of the Year, Nadezhda Karyazina.”

 

Barrie Kosky was honoured as BEST DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR 2025

“He is a director whose work is always very good, and frequently fantastic. This time, he did even more than just direct: he played a decisive role in developing the plot of a cleverly executed ‘instant opera’ that channelled the melodic genius of Antonio Vivaldi into a modern, dramatised and philosophically seasoned narrative based on Ovid’s mythological classics – all set within a transitory, temporary space. The audiences at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival enthusiastically accepted his invitation to the Hotel Metamorphosis, where he allowed four wonderful singer personalities to shine. For this reason, the OPER! Awards Director of the Year is the one and only: Barrie Kosky.”

 

Gianluca Capuano was honoured as BEST CONDUCTOR OF THE YEAR 2025

“An Italian conductor who – in addition to organ, composition and conducting – also studied philosophy in Freiburg is a rarity in itself. For several years now, he has been surprising the classical music world both as the leader of his own vocal ensemble, Il Canto di Orfeo, and as the chief conductor of Les Musiciens du Prince – Monaco with outstanding, historically informed interpretations. In 2025, he delivered a compelling first at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, a performance of Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold that combined authentic orchestral sound, textual clarity and a keen sense for vocal lines. It was followed by another sensation at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival with Hotel Metamorphosis – a new opera pasticcio by director Barrie Kosky, consisting of compositions by Antonio Vivaldi, for which our Conductor of the Year acted as lead curator: Gianluca Capuano.”

 

Photographs are available at: https://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/en/photos/hotel-metamorphosis

 

The 2026 Salzburg Whitsun Festival takes place from 22 to 25 May.

Under the title „Bon Voyage“, Artistic Director Cecilia Bartoli invites the audience to Gioachino Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims. This production will be directed by Barrie Kosky.

View the other performances on this Whitsun weekend by visiting https://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/en/