Schwetzingen Festival


The Schwetzingen Festival is an early summer festival of opera and other classical music presented each year from May to early June in Schwetzingen, Germany.
In 1952 the broadcaster Süddeutscher Rundfunk founded the festival in the Schwetzingen area. It is located in a beautiful 250-year-old palace and park, Schwetzingen Castle, near the famous city of Heidelberg. The main venue is the historic Schlosstheater Schwetzingen. Nowadays, the successor organization is the Südwestrundfunk and it organises many international concerts and music theatre events every year.

List of major premieres and rediscoveries

One of the festival's characteristics is the world premiere of a new opera, as well as at least one rediscovered opera from former centuries, performed on period instruments.
YearWorld premieresEarly rarities
2000Karl-Wieland Kurz: gute miene böses spielGiovanni Legrenzi: La divisione del mondo
2001Manuel Hidalgo: Bacon 1561–1992Joseph Haydn: L'anima del filosofo
2002Salvatore Sciarrino: MacbethGeorg Benda: Il buon marito
2003Frederik Zeller: Irma VepIgnaz Holzbauer: Il figlio delle selve
2004Adriana Hölszky: Der gute Gott von ManhattanGiovanni Paisiello: Il re Teodoro in Venezia
2005Frederik Zeller: ZaubernAlessandro Scarlatti: Telemaco
2006Salvatore Sciarrino: Kälte Joseph Martin Kraus: Proserpina in German
2007Bernhard Lang: Der Alte vom BergeGiovanni Legrenzi: Il Giustino
2008Adriana Hölszky: Hybris/NiobeAgostino Steffani: Niobe, regina di Tebe
2009Wolfgang Rihm: ProserpinaGeorge Frideric Handel: Ezio
2010Michael Jarrell: Le PèreAndré Grétry: Andromaque
2011Georg Friedrich Haas: BluthausChristoph Willibald Gluck: Telemaco
2012Enno Poppe: IQ. TestbatterieAnton Schweitzer: Rosamunde
2013Georg Friedrich Haas: ThomasTommaso Traetta: Ifigenia in Tauride
2014Bernhard Lang: ReigenJohann Adolph Hasse: Leucippo 1747
2015Hèctor Parra: WildeLeonardo Vinci: Didone abbandonata,
2016Georg Friedrich Haas: KomaFrancesco Cavalli: Veremonda, l’amazzone di aragona 1652
2017Annette Schlünz: Tre Volti - Drei Blicke auf Liebe und KriegNicola Porpora: Mitridate

Concerts

Concerts have featured well-known artists such as Gidon Kremer, Jorge Bolet and Cecilia Bartoli, as well as young artists at the start of their careers. Singers of the caliber of Barbara Hendricks, Fritz Wunderlich and Teresa Berganza have performed at the festival as beginners and have all gone on to major careers.