Favourable balance for 2015 festival season

Bregenz, 21.8.15. When Nessun dorma rings out this Sunday evening for the last time this summer, captivating the almost 7,000 spectators on the lake stage, the Bregenz Festival, now in its 70th season, will come to an end with a provisional total of 227,662 visitors. The opera Turandot will have been seen by more than 171,000 people if the lake stage performances take place as scheduled, corresponding to 98 per cent of ticket capacity.

The Bregenz staging of Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's final opera is directed by Marco Arturo Marelli, who also designed the set, and is conducted by Paolo Carignani and Giuseppe Finzi. It has been very positively received by audiences and critics alike. The production has had to transfer to the indoor venue, the Festspielhaus, three times so far because of bad weather. Including this evening's show, three more performances remain on the programme, all of them sold out.

A few tickets left for orchestral matinee

Other events scheduled before the summer festival on the Vorarlberg shore of Lake Constance ends on Sunday are the final performance of Così fan tutte at the Kornmarkt Theatre on Saturday and the second and final performance of The Golden Dragon at the Workshop Theatre this evening (Friday). These are also sold out. A few tickets remain only for the orchestral matinee with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra on Sunday morning. The Tales of Hoffmann had its last performance already in early August. The opera at the Festspielhaus was seen by more than 7,500 people in its five-performance run, meaning that it too played to 98 per cent capacity. The stage director was Stefan Herheim and the music director Johannes Debus. There will be another chance to see the "stroke of genius and milestone in the reception history of this difficult piece" in Cologne in 2016 and in Copenhagen in spring 2017, the respective opera houses being co-production partners of the Bregenz Festival.

Orchestral concert rehearsal for refugees

Tomorrow morning, the Bregenz Festival is expecting more than 600 refugees and their helpers to attend the final rehearsal of an orchestral concert in the Festspielhaus, free of charge. This is a private initiative by a local doctor and politician, Dr Mathias Scheyer, together with former Austrian television host Günter Polanec and other partners. The aim is to offer the refugees a welcome diversion and to show appreciation for their largely voluntary helpers. After the rehearsal, the festival caterer evenTZ Hospitality is sponsoring refreshments – an opportunity for the festival administration to get to know its guests on a more personal level.

One million TV viewers

A premiere of a different kind occurred this season when there were simultaneous television broadcasts of the Bregenz Festival's staging of Turandot in three countries. The German, Swiss and Austrian TV channels SWR, SRF and ORF took viewers behind the scenes, live and in real time, and spoke to people involved in the production. In addition the German-language cultural channel 3sat broadcast the opera in full. In all, over one million viewers watched the broadcasts. Never before have so many people watched a Bregenz opera production on television.

New: Opera Studio and Opera Workshop

The newly founded Opera Studio made an impressive debut with Mozart's Così fan tutte at the Kornmarkt Theatre in Bregenz. By the end of its four-date run it is likely that 1,945 people will have watched the maiden production's six young singers enter the "School for Lovers" – as the opera, premiered in 1790, is subtitled. This corresponds to 99 per cent of tickets sold. Also founded this year, the Opera Workshop will produce an original work of music theatre to be premiered at the festival in summer 2017. At the Kunsthaus Bregenz in May, the workshop offered tantalising glimpses into the process of creation. Further "insights" are scheduled, the next one in autumn.

A summer festival for youngsters

The orchestral concerts given by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra will have been attended by around 5,500 people by the time the festival closes, with a provisional total of 89 per cent of tickets sold. At the Workshop Theatre, the first production in Austria of The Golden Dragon was completely sold out, with 587 spectators. In the Lake Studio, 475 guests attended the small but select events of Musik&Poesie. Crossculture, celebrating its 20th anniversary this summer, drew approx. 2,000 kids and young adults to Crossculture night and the workshops as well as to the Children's Festival, Brass meets Banda and other events targeting a younger audience that likes to get involved in a hands-on way.

Hamlet to open next season

Next summer the Bregenz Festival opens on 20 July with Hamlet at the Festspielhaus; two further performances of the little-known opera follow. On 21 July Turandot returns for its second season on the lake stage; a total of 22 performances are scheduled. From the last day of this season, Sunday, it will be possible to reserve tickets for the 2016 season (except premieres) on the festival website. For more information and tickets, please call 0043 5574 4076 or visit www.bregenzerfestspiele.com.