Lehár Festival Bad Ischl

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The Lehár Festival Bad Ischl is a theater festival primarily dedicated to the performance of operettas in the Upper Austrian spa town of Bad Ischl .

prehistory

The organization of a summer festival, which should perform light music and operetta, was considered from around 1950. In Bad Ischl, the performance of musical entertainment theater had been a tradition since the time of Emperor Franz Joseph . Developed from the tradition of summer theater for the spa guests, operetta festivals were created here.

However, the Second World War not only resulted in the fact that there were hardly any artists who specialized in operetta, as they emerged from the numerous operetta houses in Vienna, which were also closed at the time when the theater was dying, but there were also none in Bad Ischl adequate venue more.

A summer festival was planned as early as the early 1950s. Bad Ischl was predestined to become a center of the music theater scene - after all, the imperial city looked back on a long tradition of summer theater. In addition to the Salzburg Festival, which focuses on drama and serious music, there should be operetta festivals in Bad Ischl in the future.

However, the actual implementation of the operetta festival in the 1950s failed because, according to the initiators, there was a great shortage of sufficiently selected artists in Austria at that time. In addition, there was no venue. At the end of the 1950s, however, the international society for the maintenance and promotion of the operetta "The Operetta" was founded in preparation. The association should dedicate itself to the task of reviving the operetta and setting up a documentation center.

Opening of the Operetta Weeks (1961)

The start of the operetta festival was the constituent general meeting of the association “Die Operette” on April 29, 1961. The society's patronage was Kammersänger Maria Jeritza-Seery and Manfred Mautner-Markhof, the president was castle actor Josef Meinrad. The gala evening was a mixture of lectures on the subject of Bad Ischl and its relation to the operetta. A three-hour gala concert was then presented with the title “The operetta is alive”.

After the performance of an operetta concert, Eduard Macku was entrusted with the musical and artistic direction (artistic director) of the operetta weeks. He studied the following works:

The then 57 year old Johannes Heesters was the crowd favorite in his prime role as Count Danilo on stage. The program was supplemented with an operetta ball and a music festival in honor of the composer Johann Strauss. The final concert on August 27, 1961 presented exclusive works by living Austrian operetta composers under the title “Operetta Melodies of Today”.

The festival has been repeated annually since then.

Operetta Weeks 1961–1994 (Artistic Director: Eduard Macku)

The operetta weeks were continuously built up during the first few years. Both the number of performances and the period of time recorded have increased steadily. By the mid-1970s, the orchestra was enlarged from 17 to 40 musicians.

Even then, the operetta weeks were largely self-financed, as 75% of the costs were covered by ticket sales. In the early 1970s, federal subsidies were also approved.

The areas of responsibility of the “Die Operetta” association grew steadily and ended up being too broad. In 1967 the association was split up and the "Operettengemeinde Bad Ischl" was founded, the main purpose of which was to hold the annual operetta weeks.

During the first few years they always played in front of a sold out house. From the mid-1970s the space utilization leveled off at around 90%. The main target group were visitors from the region and all of Austria, but numerous international guests came in the 1960s and 70s, including regular guests from the USA.

Due to the structural design of the Kurhaus, the hall was used on the long side. Due to these difficult stage conditions, the operetta weeks became known for the "Ischler style". Ballet and choir scenes were only possible to a limited extent due to the space available, and for the reduced equipment, the resources of the Burgtheater were used. The productions were characterized by improvisation, naturalness and a unique atmosphere of direct experience. The performances thrived on ingenuity, idealism and enthusiasm.

Although the acoustic conditions in the Kurhaus were anything but easy, the quality of the Franz Lehár Orchestra was the main focus for the musical director Eduard Macku. The extensive supporting program therefore mainly consisted of gala concerts. In addition, the Operetta Weeks held an operetta ball every year until 1986. From 1987 this event was replaced by the sound fireworks “Operetten Air” event.

Eduard Macku also managed to bring big names to Bad Ischl: Marcel Prawy, Johannes Heesters, Dagmar Koller, Michael Heltau and Alfons Haider were regular guests at the operetta weeks. In addition, the only operetta premieres to date took place during the festival under his directorship in 1962 and 1963.

Operetta Festival 1995–1998 (Director: Silvia Müller)

The new name Operetta Festival appeared for the first time in 1993 in the programs. Under this new name, the long-time managing director Silvia Müller took over the management of the festival in 1995. Walter Erla was entrusted with the musical direction and Eduard Macku, who had previously shaped the festival, remained as honorary director.

After a long struggle, it was finally decided at the end of the 1990s to renovate the Kurhaus by the municipality of Bad Ischl. In 1998, therefore, only one operetta was performed, the performances took place in the Kaltenbachau ice rink.

Bad Ischl Operetta Festival 1999–2003 (Artistic Director: Martin C. Turba)

The renovation of the Kurhaus was completed in 1999. In the new Bad Ischl Congress and Theater House, the stage and the orchestra pit was located at the front of the hall, but the stage was not the only change: the festival was renamed “Operettenfestspiele Bad Ischl” and the new artistic director and managing director took over the management Martin C. Turba. He also changed the festival's logo for the first time.

The new stage conditions changed the quality of the performances, but the style remained traditional. The extensive accompanying program was also retained under his artistic directorship, with the exception of the fireworks display of “Operetten Air”. The orchestral concerts were dedicated to serious music and presented works by Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Schubert and Chopin.

Together with the German classical music label cpo, the festival has started to publish complete recordings of rarely performed operettas on CD under the artistic direction of Martin C. Turba.

Lehár Festivals Bad Ischl 2004–2016 (Artistic Director: Michael Lakner)

Under the direction of Michael Lakner, the festival has undergone its biggest change to date. He changed the logo again and renamed the festival Lehár Festival Bad Ischl. By focusing on the composer, he wanted to make the festival unmistakable and thus position it prominently in the Austrian theater landscape. But the festival has not only changed externally under Michael Lakner.

Lakner attached great importance to bringing modern operetta productions to the Ischl stage. Especially the director Leonard Prinsloo, who staged one of the two main pieces every year, presented operettas in the style of the present. In addition, from 2013 Michael Lakner added classical musicals to the program for the first time in addition to the operetta.

Among the audience favorites under Michael Lakner were Dolores Schmidinger and Ulrike Beimpold as well as the artist couple Helga Papouschek and Kurt Schreibmeyer. In 2011, Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz appeared on stage as Sigismund Sülzheimer in Benatzky's “Im Weisses Rössl”.

The cooperation with the German classic label cpo was continued under Michael Lakner. Up to and including 2016, the festival organized the “Night of the Emperors” together with the tourism association during the Imperial Days. The EU-funded child and youth project EurOperette took place from 2005 to 2008. With the Matura project Etterepo, the children and youth work of the festival was continued from 2008.

Despite the subsidies from the federal, state and local authorities, the festival generated 60% to 75% of the costs from ticket sales alone.

Michael Lakner received three awards in 2017 for his 13 years of work at the operetta festival. Michael Lakner received the culture medal from the state of Upper Austria. The municipality of Bad Ischl has awarded him the town's cultural emblem. The festival association has also made him an honorary member.

Transitional season 2017

In March 2016 it became known that Michael Lakner will be artistic director of the Baden stage. Five months later, Thomas Enzinger, who has been director of the Lehár Festival Bad Ischl since May 2017, was therefore presented at a press conference. However, he only managed the first season on behalf of his predecessor. Due to the late start of the contract, the program for the summer of 2017 was still fully prepared and planned by Michael Lakner.

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