Ecstasy, violence and death

Othmar Schoeck’s Penthesilea to be the opera at the Festspielhaus in 2027

Vienna/Bregenz, 2 June 2026. In a few days, rehearsals begin for the opera at the Festspielhaus in 2026, Leoš Janáček’s The Excursions of Mr Brouček. Meanwhile, the Bregenz Festival is already looking ahead to the 2027 season. Next year the Festspielhaus production will be Othmar Schoeck’s late Romantic–Expressionist Penthesilea, a one-act opera based on the tragic drama by Heinrich von Kleist. The rarely performed piece is being staged at Bregenz to mark the 250th anniversary of Kleist’s birth. The production opens on 21 July 2027. It will be followed on 22 July 2027 by a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata, which returns to the lake stage for its second run.