The Abduction from the Seraglio

A seventeen year old travels from London to the Austrian Alps to attend the legendary Mozart boarding school. There, he discovers a centuries-old forgotten passageway into the fantastic world of Mozart's "The Magic Flute".

Agathe von Trapp, the eldest daughter of a well-known musical family, overcomes many obstacles to pursue her musical career and move to the United States.

In the life of TV presenter Lisa, everything revolves around her talk show, celebrities and the ratings. There is just as little room for love as there is for her mother Maria. When the 66-year-old loses her memory after a fall in her apartment and wakes up in the hospital, she can only remember that she has never been to New York and sets off immediately. Lisa goes in search of Maria with her makeup artist Fred. She struck gold on a cruise ship that was just leaving for New York. As stowaways, the three have no choice but to earn the passage. While Fred is hired as an assistant by the Greek on-board magician Costa, Lisa and Maria have to work in room service. The crossing soon takes surprising turns for mother and daughter: Maria falls in love with the charming dancer Otto, who supposedly knows her from before, and Lisa takes a liking to the widowed statistician Axel Staudach, who is traveling with his son Florian.

A musical and visual account of the life and exceptional and immortal work of the French composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937).

For years, *The Magic Flute* has been one of the most frequently performed operas at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. After an eight-year absence, Mozart’s work is now back on the programme. Clément Cogitore interprets the plot as a modern coming-of-age story: Tamino and Pamina leave the world of childhood behind and enter a reality in which beauty is fragile and truth is uncertain.

The Pygmalion Ensemble, led by conductor and countertenor Raphaël Pichon, is renowned for its refined sound on period instruments. Together with vocal stars Sabine Devieilhe, Lea Desandre, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Julian Prégardien, and Daniel Behle, the ensemble delves into rarely performed works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Inspired by hearing performances of Handel's oratorios during his visits to London, Haydn composed Die Schöpfung ('The Creation') in 1798. Through a series of accompanied recitatives, arias, duets and choruses, the music depicts the creation of the universe and the carefree existence of Adam and Eve. Haydn drew on the full complement of his symphonic and vocal prowess which reach peaks of almost operatic intensity. With rich harmonies and sonic magnificence in abundance, Die Schöpfung represents the apex of the Viennese oratorio tradition.

Prince Tamino promises the Queen of the Night that he will rescue her daughter Pamina from the enchanter Sarastro. He begins his quest, accompanied by the bird-catcher Papageno – but all is not as it seems… Tamino and Papageno discover Sarastro is a wise and kind leader. They undergo three ordeals. By the end they are united with their true loves: Tamino with Pamina, and Papageno with his Papagena.

Mozart’s Requiem – his final and unfinished masterpiece – is an extraordinary work. Discover the piece at the Salzburg Festival in the hands of conductor Teodor Currentzis, the ensemble musicAeterna, Anna Prohaska (soprano), Katharina Magiera (contralto), Mauro Peter (tenor), and Tareq Nazmi (bass). Few musical works are as steeped in legend as Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, K. 626. Commissioned anonymously by the eccentric count Franz von Walsegg, the funereal oeuvre would become Mozart’s last: when he died on December 5, 1791, only the Requiem aeternam and Kyrie movements were fully composed and orchestrated. Completed by other composers (Mozart’s student Franz Xaver Süssmayer in particular) using Mozart’s sketches and notes, the resulting work weaves the emotions we associate with death into a timeless musical exploration of every human being’s destiny, and constitutes a powerful final testament to its creator’s genius.

Mozart did not write the Requiem as despairing funeral music for his impending death. Rather, the piece proclaims eternal light and redemption. Together with a first-class quartet of soloists, the choirs of the Bavarian and Swedish radios and the distinguished musicians of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Claudio Abbado uncovers this more hopeful and forgiving essence of the Requiem

Simon-Pierre Bestion celebrates the musical and cultural heritage of Paris' Notre-Dame with the La Tempête ensemble and a host of guests like Sabine Devieilhe and Olivier Latry, among others.

This Salzburg Festival production of Le nozze di Figaro (2020) offers a radical reinterpretation of Mozart's opera, directed by Martin Kušej, who continues his exploration of Mozart’s works following Don Giovanni (2002) and La clemenza di Tito (2003). The turbulent comedy, laden with erotic entanglements, exposes themes of patriarchal dependency, sexual exploitation, betrayal, and emotional emptiness. French conductor Raphaël Pichon, renowned for historically informed performances, conducts his first opera at Salzburg after his debut at the festival in 2018.

Having disposed of his enemies, Lucio Silla is now all-powerful. He wants to marry Giunia, but underestimates how much she hates him. After all, he has not only had her father murdered, but has also banished her beloved, Cecilio. At first, Giunia is misled into thinking that Cecilio is dead; with the help of Cinna, however, the lovers manage to meet up again. The power of love and Cinna’s machinations finally persuade Silla to relinquish his power.

Philippe Herreweghe, principal conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, has devoted himself for over ten years to fresh and invigorating readings of the (pre-) Romantic repertoire. Together with the Collegium Vocale, founded in 1970 by Philippe Herreweghe himself, and superb soloists they perform Dvorak’s Requiem. A modern and stylistically flexible symphony orchestra, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic demonstrates an artistic flair which allows for a variety of styles and occupies a unique position in Flanders. Collegium Vocale Gent were one of the first ensembles to use new ideas about baroque performance practice in vocal music. Their authentic, text-oriented and rhetorical approach gave the ensemble the transparent sound with which it would acquire world fame and perform at the major concert venues and music festivals all over the world.

Hans Werner Henze’s “The Raft of the Medusa” is directly inspired by Théodore Géricault’s famous painting. The German composer sets to music the fate of 150 people who have been shipwrecked and abandoned to their destiny. This is a radical work that fluctuates between hope and inevitability, agony and sudden bursts of life. The Raft of the Medusa is an oratorio that was first performed in 1968. Fifty years on, the Italian director Romeo Castellucci underscores its immense modernity, drawing a striking parallel between Hans Werner Henze’s work and the current migrant crisis in the Mediterranean.

Since it's premiere in a tiny suburban theatre in Vienna, Die Zauberflote has delighted audiences young and old for over 200 years. Mozart's Singspiel seamlessly alternates seriousness and jollity, and combines philosophical ideas with a fairytale world of wondrous animals and magical musical instruments. Emanuel Schikaneder's original production was theatrically inventive, and this new interpretation from director Simon McBurney emulates that in fresh and current terms. Fusing music, technology and stagecraft, this exciting production gives Die Zauberflote a refreshing new treatment that is both thrilling and simple in it's approach. Following an overwhelming success on stage, McBurney's unique production received five-star reviews in the Dutch press: 'a feast for the eyes and the ears' (Het Parool) and 'Delicious!' (Trouw).

The Spanish crown princess receives a very special present: a little person. To everyone’s amusement, he is unaware of his small stature. Before long feelings develop between the pair, but what chance do they have in a world where appearance is everything? Based on a story by Oscar Wilde, Der Zwerg (The Dwarf) is perhaps Zemlinsky’s best-known and most powerful opera. The performance marks both the first production of rising star Lorenzo Viotti as principal conductor at Dutch National Opera and the operatic debut of film and theatre director Nanouk Leopold. The heldentenor Clay Hilley performs the title role, while Infanta Clara is interpreted by soprano Lenneke Ruiten.

A spectacular chase between the prince and the monster opens the scene, featuring a love story with a kidnapped princess, two warring antagonists—the Queen of the Night and Sarastro—, "funny characters" like Papageno and Papagena, and, last but not least, the magical instruments of flute and glockenspiel... The enchanting music and fairytale motifs make "The Magic Flute" the perfect introduction to the world of opera for young and old.

Christian Thielemann conducts the Staatskapelle Dresden in this performance of Wagner's opera recorded live in 2013. The performance was held for the Salzburg Easter Festival and featured vocalists including Johan Botha, Michaela Schuster, Stephen Milling and Wolfgang Koch.

The Chorus and Orchestra of Teatro Alla Scala conducted by Marc Minikowski; Teatro alla Scala, Milan, March 2015

Take a philandering and arrogant Count who is no match for his wily servant Figaro and his soon-to-be-wife Susanna, as manipulative as she is charming. Add in one beautiful, disillusioned Countess and one irrepressible, testosterone-laden teenage boy Cherubino. Mix with the genius of Mozart and you have one of the most perfect operas ever written.

The soldier Wozzeck (Christian Gerhaher) flits through a world that he is unable to decipher. The doctor torments him with absurd medical experiments; the captain humiliates and ridicules him. And Wozzeck’s lover, Marie (Gun-Brit Barkmin), with whom he has a child, cuckolds him with the drum major. Wozzeck becomes a murderer, stabbing Marie to death. Georg Büchner’s drama fragment, on which Alban Berg based his first opera, is an unflinching case study of social injustice and human suffering. But it is also a grotesque piece that thrives on exaggeration – and in which only a fine line separates the unfathomable from the ridiculous. Accordingly, director Andreas Homoki forgoes all realism.

The Galilean Princess Salome is one of the mythical female figures in Western cultural history. Her erotic dance in front of her stepfather Herod is already mentioned in the gospels of the Bible, for whom she has the severed head of John the Baptist brought on a bowl in return.

Franz Schubert's "Winterreise" is considered the pinnacle of German art song. Hans Zender (1936 - 2019) arranged the cycle in 1993, and his version for tenor and small orchestra brings to light emotions that pulsate beneath the surface in Schubert. Similar to Hans Zender, the choreographer Christian Spuck is also concerned with a journey into the interior of the human being.

Director Sven-Eric Bechtolf pulls off a brilliant coup with the high aesthetics of his intrigue, a masterful parody of the "everything is possible" of our time - flanked by an ensemble of exquisite vocal talents.

Jennerwein has barely started his job in Garmisch-Partenkirchen when a Danish ski jumper falls to his death, the president of the Winter Games Committee narrowly escapes an assassination attempt, and anonymous letters announce further crimes. Amidst suspicious villagers and vain local politics, Jennerwein must unmask a perpetrator who craves attention and is playing a deadly serious game.

Vienna, Austria, 1910. The young painter Egon Schiele is a rising artist, provocative and free, whose work, characterized by eroticism, shocks as much as it fascinates art lovers.

A universal theme: a story of people trapped in an inhuman network of power. The brutal circle of the Eurogroup meetings, who impose on Greece the dictatorship of austerity, where humanity and compassion are utterly disregarded. A claustrophobic trap with no way out, exerting pressures on the protagonists which finally divide them.

At the dawn of World War II, a young motorcycle courier in the Austrian army encounters a wounded fox cub and takes it with him to occupied France. The soldier and the fox develop an unlikely bond. Based on the true story of Franz Streitberger, director Adrian Goiginger’s great-grandfather.

When a young girl becomes trapped inside an airtight safe, firefighter Alex and her partner Jakob are called to a high-pressure rescue with minutes to spare. As oxygen runs out and the girl’s frantic parents demand action, cracks begin to appear in their story. What starts as a desperate life-saving mission quickly unravels into something far more sinister. With time slipping away, Alex and Jakob must uncover the truth behind the child, the couple and the safe itself — before the clock runs out.

1779. Eight-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven, called "Louis", is already known as a musical prodigy. He learns to go his own way - much to the dismay of the people around him. Some years later, he meets Mozart during times of political upheaval. The unconventional genius and French Revolution are sparking a fire in Louis' heart; he doesn't want to serve a master - only the arts. Facing times of family tragedies and unrequited love, he almost gives up. However, Louis makes it to Vienna to study under Haydn in 1792, and the rest is history. Who was this man, whose music has since touched countless hearts and minds? At the end of his life, the master is isolated by loss of loved ones and hearing. Surely though, he was way ahead of his times.

1938. Austria has been annexed by Nazi Germany, and Switzerland has closed its borders for Jewish refugees - a death sentence for thousands. But not all Swiss officials observe this inhuman order.

Even Franz Gasperlmaier had never seen anything like this before. He's seen a lot of things, after all, Gasperlmaier has been a police officer in Altaussee for more than twenty years. But a stabbed man on a Monday morning in the festival tent at the Altaussee Kirtag is too much even for a seasoned man like him. And so he makes a wrong decision, not his last one that day, and the dead man sitting in his own blood in the festival tent won't be the only victim.

Mozart did not write the Requiem as despairing funeral music for his impending death. Rather, the piece proclaims eternal light and redemption. Together with a first-class quartet of soloists, the choirs of the Bavarian and Swedish radios and the distinguished musicians of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Claudio Abbado uncovers this more hopeful and forgiving essence of the Requiem.

The famous story of Hamlet and Ophelia is played out between the opposite poles of real and feigned madness, love and avenge. After the murder of his father, Hamlet opposes the marriage of his mother and his uncle, at the expense of his beloved and himself. After their unanimously acclaimed Les Huguenots in 2011, Marc Minkowski and Olivier Py are continuing their highly personal exploration of the 19th-century French Grand Opéra repertoire.

Bach's seminal work of sacred art paints a monumental fresco of life's journey to redemption. Calixto Bieito, one of the most exciting directors of his generation, directs this dramatised oratorio. With the help of an excellent cast, the period orchestra Les Talens Lyriques and a group of amateur singers which form the chorus at the heart of the narrative, he leads us into dialogue with this work today to confront pain and death.