Heidenheim Opera Festival

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The Heidenheim Opera Festival has been held in Heidenheim an der Brenz since 1977 . The events take place in the uncovered ruins of the knight's hall of Hellenstein Castle (or in the Heidenheim Congress Center in cool weather) and in the Heidenheim concert hall .

Castle ruins "Schloss Hellenstein" in Heidenheim. Here: Knight's Hall south exterior view
Alternative location Congress Centrum
Heidenheim concert hall

history

Minstrels are said to have made music in the courtyard of Hellenstein Castle as early as the Middle Ages. In 1964 this singing tradition was remembered. The music director at the time, Helmut Weigel, organized the first castle serenades on a private basis. These were performed in the so-called knight's hall of the open castle ruins. Just five years later, the repertoire was expanded to include smaller game operas (by Pergolesi, Haydn and Mozart).

Modern times

In the mid-1970s, the city of Heidenheim took over the sponsorship of the castle serenades. In 1977 a major opera production was on the program for the first time: The Abduction from the Seraglio . From 1985 to 2009 Marco-Maria Canonica was the artistic director of the Heidenheim Opera Festival. The aforementioned focused entirely on opera. The picturesque walls of the great hall ruins serve as the backdrop. Since 1988 the music event has officially been called the Heidenheim Opera Festival . In addition to the opera performances, gala evenings, open-air concerts and other musical events are held in the city during the festival season. Canonica's successor was the Heidenheim-born conductor Marcus R. Bosch .

Well-known soloists have performed at the Heidenheim Opera Festival so far, including: Anna Maria Kaufmann , Karl-Friedrich Dürr , Clemens Unterreiner , Matias Tosi-Socolov , Amanda Mace , Marcela de Loa , Katerina Sokolová-Rauer , Wendy Waller , Emilio Ruggerio , Angela Rudolf , Lee Kwang-Keun , Melba Ramos , Brigitte Wohlfarth . Renowned directors were responsible for the opera productions such as Nicolas Trees , Bruno Berger-Gorski , Gilles Gubelmann , Patrick Bialdyga and Philipp Harnoncourt .

From 1985 to 2012 the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra was the festival orchestra of the Heidenheim Opera Festival. This function has been taken over by the Stuttgart Philharmonic since 2013 .

On January 27, 2006, the 250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , the Young Opera Heidenheim was brought into being. Its aim is to inspire young people and children for musical theater, to promote young opera soloists and, in general, to expand the range of cultural offers for young people in the Heidenheim region. Performances by the Heidenheim Young Opera take place every year in a tent in the Heidenheim palace gardens.

In 2010, the Heidenheim Opera Festival was the first festival in Germany to implement a social media concept. The “Opernwerkstatt” reports on incidents that tend to take place in the background and around the opera festival.

Opera productions

Stage design for Turandot, Opera Festival 2013
Stage design for Bajazzo, Opera Festival 2014
Stage design for Macbeth, Opera Festival 2015
Stage design for La Bohème, Opera Festival 2016
Stage design for The Flying Dutchman, Opera Festival 2017. This season, the opera was played on the open-air stage for the first time on the last day

Web links

Coordinates: 48 ° 40 ′ 32.4 "  N , 10 ° 8 ′ 55.6"  E