Bregenzer Festspiele


Bregenzer Festspiele is a performing arts festival which is held every July and August in Bregenz in Vorarlberg.
It features the world's largest floating stage which is situated on Lake Constance.

Festival Basics

Founded in 1946, one year after World War II, the festival presents a wide variety of musical and theatrical events in several venues:
The Festival became an international event in its first year 1946. People from Germany, Switzerland and France came to the festival. Two stages were created out of floating barges. One barge for the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the other barge for carrying stage structures.
The Vienna Symphony Orchestra is the biggest contributor to the Festival. This orchestra has a performance spot every year since the beginning of the festival. They have their own stage area and other venues used thorough out the festival. Every year the orchestra has a different conductor for each piece because it is considered the conductors performance. Kornmarktplatz, vorarlberg museum is the venture they are using for the 2016 Festival.
In 2001, the festival created a handful of contemporary arts events to go along with their usual performances. These events were a new collaboration with the Kunsthaus Bregenz that revolved around the theme of "America of the 20th century", and The Art of Our Times program, also known as KAZ, that brought together contemporary theatre with Workshop Theatre while collaborating with Hamburg’s Thalia Theater. Other add-ons that the festival created for more variety and entertainment are the Children's Festival, the opera and band workshops, and family and school-group concerts.
From December 2003 until 2014, David Pountney has been the artistic director of the festival.
Over April and May 2008, scenes for the 22nd James Bond film Quantum of Solace were filmed on the Seebühne during a performance of Tosca and in June 2008 the German broadcasting corporation ZDF hosted its 2008 European Football Championship live broadcast studio on the floating stage.
In 2010, the festival offered about 100 performances that drew an audience of close to 200,000.
2015 was the first year for Elisabeth Sobotka as artistic director. She started with 80 events and by end of August 2015, further founded the Opera Studio with the goal "to help young singers with their professional and personal development in a highly professional environment and also to create a staging that the audience will really enjoy".
The season of year drew an audience of approx. 257,000. Carmen proofed to be very popular and was mostly fully booked with a total audience number of 193,642 people, already including the dress rehearsal and crossculture night. In 2018, the Bregenz Festival broke its own record: With 270,000 visitors in only 5 weeks, the festival attained a new attendance record. It attracted 400,000 people in total when the programme featured Bizet's Carmen in 2017 and 2018.
The Bregenz Festival continues to show a series of popular Puccini works. La Bohème was the first Puccini performance in 2001/02, followed by Tosca in 2007/08 and most recently Turandot in 2015 and 2016, Madame Butterfly in 2021/22 will be the fourth opera by the Italian composer to be performed in Bregenz.
The festival offers guided tours from May to August.
The Bregenzer Festspiele had to cancel the 2020 festival due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. The performances of Rigoletto and the opera Nero have been postponed to 2021.

Plays performed

Throughout the seasons, the festival puts on many different performances; from operas to plays and orchestral pieces. The performances range in theme and story and many are performed in consecutive seasons. The full list of shows performed is as follows:
YearSpiel auf dem See Festspielhaus
2021Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini
Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi 		Nero by Arrigo Boito
2020Rigoletto by Giuseppe VerdiNero by Arrigo Boito
2019Rigoletto by Giuseppe VerdiDon Quichotte by Jules Massenet
2018Carmen by Georges BizetBeatrice Cenci by Berthold Goldschmidt
2017Carmen by Georges BizetMosè in Egitto by Gioachino Rossini
2016Turandot by Giacomo PucciniAmleto by Franco Faccio
2015Turandot by Giacomo PucciniThe Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach
2014The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus MozartTales from the Vienna Woods by Heinz Karl Gruber, originally by Ödön von Horváth
2013The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus MozartThe Merchant of Venice by André Tchaikowsky
2012André Chénier by Umberto GiordanoSolaris by Detlev Glanert
2011André Chénier by Umberto GiordanoMiss Fortune by Judith Weir
2010Aida by Giuseppe VerdiThe Passenger by Mieczysław Weinberg
2009Aida by Giuseppe VerdiKing Roger by Karol Szymanowski
2008Tosca by Giacomo PucciniKarl V by Ernst Křenek
2007Tosca by Giacomo PucciniDeath in Venice by Benjamin Britten
2006Il trovatore by Giuseppe VerdiThe Fall of the House of Usher by Claude Debussy
2005Il trovatore by Giuseppe VerdiMaskarade by Carl Nielsen
2004West Side Story by Leonard BernsteinThe Protagonist and Royal Palace by Kurt Weill
2003West Side Story by Leonard BernsteinThe Cunning Little Vixen by Leoš Janáček
2002La Bohème by Giacomo PucciniJulietta by Bohuslav Martinů
2001La Bohème by Giacomo PucciniOf Mice and Men by Carlisle Floyd
2000A Masked Ball by Giuseppe VerdiThe Golden Cockerel by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
1999A Masked Ball by Giuseppe VerdiThe Greek Passion by Bohuslav Martinů
1998Porgy and Bess by George GershwinL’Amore dei tre re by Italo Montemezzi
1997Porgy and Bess by George GershwinThe Demon by Anton Rubinstein
1996Fidelio by Ludwig van BeethovenLe roi Arthus by Ernest Chausson
1995Fidelio by Ludwig van BeethovenThe Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
1994Nabucco by Giuseppe VerdiFrancesca da Rimini by Riccardo Zandonai
1993Nabucco by Giuseppe VerdiFedora by Umberto Giordano
1992Carmen by Georges BizetLa damnation de Faust by Hector Berlioz
1991Carmen by Georges BizetMazeppa by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
1990The Flying Dutchman by Richard WagnerLa Wally by Alfredo Catalani
1989The Flying Dutchman by Richard WagnerSamson and Delilah by Camille Saint-Saëns
1988The Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques OffenbachSamson and Delilah by Camille Saint-Saëns
1987The Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques OffenbachErnani by Giuseppe Verdi
1986The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAnna Bolena by Gaetano Donizetti
1985The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus MozartI puritani by Vincenzo Bellini
1984Der Vogelhändler by Carl ZellerTosca by Giacomo Puccini
1983Kiss Me, Kate by Cole PorterDer Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber
1982The Gypsy Baron by Johann Strauss IILucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti
1981West Side Story by Leonard BernsteinOtello by Giuseppe Verdi
1980Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Wolfgang Amadeus MozartFalstaff by Giuseppe Verdi