Mörbisch Lake Festival
The Mörbisch Lake Festival , originally: Mörbisch Lake Festival , are a place held annually in the summer months operettas - Festival in Mörbisch am See ( Austria ). With around 150,000 visitors, the Mörbisch Seefestspiele are the world's largest operetta festival. In addition to operettas, classical musicals are also performed at irregular intervals . Above all, the natural backdrop of Lake Neusiedl is always incorporated into the stage design. Since the natural conditions would not allow performances, a transmission technology specially developed for the Seefestspiele is used.
history
Economic-tourism basics
In the creation and development of the Mörbisch Sea Games, considerations of tourism policy dominated. When, starting in 1953, the aim was to expand Burgenland's tourism and to transform the visiting and transit area into a place to stay and relax, Lake Neusiedl and the lake communities were the focus of these efforts. In the municipality of Mörbisch am See, with strong support from the tourism department, the road between Rust and Mörbisch was expanded, a 1,800 m long lake dam, which opened up Lake Neusiedl to visitors to Mörbisch, was built and a lido was created. Alongside Rust, Neusiedl am See and Podersdorf am See, Mörbisch became the fourth major tourist community on the lake. In 1956, the Mörbischer invited to a two-day sea festival . Together with the Austrian Tourist Office , the community organized a so-called night and sea festival , which was attended by 6,000 guests. The program offered night trips in decorated motor boats, dance bands provided the music, Viennese artists played a full cabaret program, and folk song and folk dance groups performed.
In 1957, the Burgenland press announced the first high point in the development of Mörbisch into a Burgenland tourist center with the construction of a lake hotel and the holding of lake games, and the associated start of a new phase of economic and cultural growth in Burgenland.
Foundation, technical equipment
The initiative to that in the years 1955 - 57 , founded Seespiele went out from (among others) at the Vienna State Opera celebrated opera singer Herbert Alsen (1906-1978) from which, along with his wife, and just recently was in Berlin costume designer Gisela Bossert ( † 2012), who discovered the venue by chance in search of a vacation spot that was climate-friendly to his voice and which was permanently touched by the peculiar musicality of this landscape . Alsen's plans were enthusiastically received by the local council of Mörbisch and the representative of the state, Landesrat Hans Bögl (1899–1974), especially since the project fit into the tourism concept of the municipality and the state, and Alsen subsequently agreed to be the director of the lake games initially for five years to take over (with reference to any competition with the Bregenz Festival ), emphasizing that the Seespiele in Mörbisch did not want to be a festival that would increase the large number of festival venues.
After two years of preparation, the opening took place on July 6, 1957 with the operetta Der Zigeunerbaron by Johann Strauss .
The floating stage was built in a bay next to the Mörbischer bathing beach on hundreds of pilots according to the plans of architect Ferry Windberger (1915–2008), the designer of the first Bregenz floating floating platform. Their dimensions were 42 by 20 m; the auditorium created by the filling of the lake had 1,500 seats. After an expansion in 1959, 3000 people could be accommodated. Today the auditorium has over 6000 seats. In the following years, due to the great public response, there was constant expansion, both in terms of the number of performances and the size of the auditorium and stage. From the initial six performances with around 7,000 spectators (1957), there was an increase to over 30 performances in July and August.
In 2006 a new sound system, which was developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology and is also in use at the Bregenz Festival , was put into operation. This enables directional listening despite the size of the stage.
For several years, the premiere of the Seefestspiele was broadcast by ORF . With the 2013 season this practice was ended.
In 2018, specially staged performances for children were also shown for the first time. A one-hour adaptation by Countess Mariza was shown in June 2018 on a stage set up on the festival grounds in a total of six performances. There was room for up to 250 children per performance, and visitors were also given the opportunity to sing and dance along. The aim was to bring the operetta closer to children. The same soloists were to be seen on stage as in the regular performances. As part of the Austrian Music Theater Prize 2020 , the Seefestspiele were awarded the prize for the best youth and children's music theater production for Land of Smiles for Children .
Head of the Mörbisch Seefestspiele since it was founded
- 1957–1978: Herbert Alsen ( General Manager), Franziska Schurli (* December 1919 - † January 21, 1984 ) (Managing Director)
- 1979–1980: Fred Liewehr (Intendant), Franziska Schurli (Managing Director)
- 1981–1983: Franziska Schurli (Intendant and Managing Director)
- 1984–1989: Teletheater GmbH (artistic director), Heinrich Meyer (managing director)
- 1990–1992: Rudolf Buczolich (Intendant), Josef Wiedenhofer (Managing Director)
- 1993–2012: Harald Serafin (Intendant), Dietmar Posteiner (Managing Director)
- 2013–2017: Dagmar Schellenberger (General Manager), Dietmar Posteiner (Managing Director)
- since 2018: Peter Edelmann (Artistic Director), Dietmar Posteiner (Managing Director)
From 1995 to 2008 Rudolf Bibl was musical director, who was made an honorary member of the festival in 2013.
Performances, artists
Performances
With a total of twelve seasons, Der Zigeunerbaron is by far the most frequently performed operetta in Mörbisch.
The 2020 Festival had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria . The production of the West Side Story planned for 2020 is to be postponed to 2021.
Artists who have performed so far (selection)
literature
- Maria Awecker, Sabine Schmall, Heinz Hischenhuber (arrangement), Margret Dietrich (ed.): Theater history of Burgenland from 1921 to the present . Theater history of Austria, Volume 8: Burgenland , Issue 2, ZDB -ID 570996-9 . Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-7001-2208-X . - Table of contents (PDF) .
- Eva Deissen (Red.): Mörbisch - a festival makes operetta history. Accompanying materials: CD. Echomedia-Verlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-901761-62-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c New section of Burgenland's economic and cultural rise initiated. After the establishment of a lido, the municipality of Mörbisch built a lake hotel - Outstanding service to tourism in the country - Lake play community with the best future prospects - The performance of "Gypsy Baron", a resounding success - The identification of the lake games in the hands of a great artist, the chamber singer Herbert Alsen . In: Burgenland freedom . XXVII. Volume, No. 32/1957, p. 6.
- ↑ Awecker et al. : Theater history of Burgenland , p. 259.
- ↑ Awecker et al .: Theater history of Burgenland , p. 261.
- ↑ Free Burgenland. Communist weekly paper . No. 27/1957, July 7, 1957. Globus , Vienna 1957, ZDB -ID 1307715-6 , p. 9. - From: Awecker et al. : Theater history of Burgenland , p. 261.
- ^ Mörbisch am See: New center of tourism. The new Seehotel nearing completion - July 6th: Opening of the Seespiele - willingness to make sacrifices and idealism at work. (...) The lake games . In: Burgenland freedom . XXVII. Volume, No. 26/1957, p. 3, column 1, below.
- ↑ 25 years of the Mörbisch Sea Games . In: Burgenland freedom . LI. Volume, No. 31/1981, p. 35.
- ↑ Awecker et al .: Theater history of Burgenland , p. 263.
- ↑ Henning Köhler (Red.): The world's largest operetta stage sounds with Fraunhofer technology ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: iuk.fraunhofer.de , June 27, 2006, accessed on October 8, 2012.
- ↑ Wolfgang Fritz ( Memento of the original from September 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on the website of the Bregenz Festival on August 31, 2011
- ↑ Andrea Rössner (Red.): High ratings for ORF broadcast from Mörbisch . In: ots.at , August 5, 2001, accessed October 8, 2012.
- ↑ orf.at: Children's operetta for the first time in Mörbisch . Article from January 20, 2018, accessed on January 20, 2018.
- ↑ Placido Domingo honored the music theater prize. In: ORF.at . August 6, 2020, accessed August 7, 2020 .
- ↑ Burgenland Festival: Four venues - two directors . In: Burgenland freedom . IL. Volume, No. 10/1979, p. 45.
- ↑ The Burgenland Festival is on a new basis . In: Burgenland freedom . L. year, No. 47/1980, p. 48.
- ↑ Ernst Scherzer: Life for the operetta: Graz director Robert Herzl died. In: Kleine Zeitung , November 25, 2014. Kleine Zeitung , November 25, 2014, accessed on June 25, 2020 .
- ↑ Burgenland's influence on an even broader basis. A new festival era. Festival bodies . In: Burgenland freedom . LIV. Volume, No. 13/1984, p. 2, bottom right.
- ↑ Raise the curtain for the successor game . In: Burgenland freedom . LXII. Volume, No. 36/1992, p. 4 f.
- ↑ orf.at: Seefestspiele: Edelmann instead of Pichowetz . Article dated May 31, 2017, accessed May 31, 2017
- ^ Rudolf Bibl first honorary member of Mörbisch . Article dated July 12, 2013, accessed December 6, 2016.
- ↑ Awecker et al .: Theater history of Burgenland , p. 267.
- ↑ Second premiere in Mörbisch: A successful experiment . In: Burgenland freedom . XXVIII. Volume, No. 31/1958, p. 2, above.
- ↑ Awecker et al. : Theater history of Burgenland , p. 356.
- ↑ a b c d e f “Victoria and her hussar” triumphed over the storm and the cold . In: Burgenland freedom . XLIII. Volume, No. 31/1973, p. 21.
- ↑ Burgenland cultural summer canceled. In: ORF.at . March 24, 2020, accessed March 25, 2020 .
- ↑ Awecker et al .: Theater history of Burgenland , p. 266.
Remarks
- ↑ Also: The auditorium has space for 1,800 visitors . - See: Mörbisch am See: New center of tourism. The new Seehotel nearing completion - July 6th: Opening of the Seespiele - willingness to make sacrifices and idealism at work. (...) Lake games in Mörbisch . In: Burgenland freedom . XXVII. Volume, No. 26/1957, p. 3, column 3 middle.
- ↑ Of eight intended performances, two were canceled due to bad weather. The performances started at 7 p.m. The admission prices ranged from S 10 (0.73 euros) to S 50 (3.63 euros).
Coordinates: 47 ° 45 ′ 14 " N , 16 ° 41 ′ 57" E