Attendance figures reach 128,700 at Bregenz Festival already

Bregenz, 2.8.24. Taking stock at the halfway point, the Bregenz Festival can look back on very positive results. In the absence of cancellations, a total of approximately 128,700 guests will have visited festival events by the end of the day, half way through the festival.

Director and stage designer Philipp Stölzl’s production of Der Freischütz has truly hit the bull’s eye. Not only have audiences at the lake stage been enthusiastic, but also reviews in the media both in Austria and abroad have been favourable. Carl Maria von Weber’s opera, which opened at Bregenz on 17 July, will receive its 14th performance today, Friday. If it isn’t cancelled due to bad weather, the lake stage production will have been seen by around 105,000 people (including the dress rehearsal and Young People’s Night) by this midway point in the festival. That corresponds to an audience capacity of 100 percent. There are 14 more performances of Der Freischütz to come in a run that ends on 18 August.

In all, by the end of the day, approximately 128,700 people will have visited events at the 2024 Bregenz Festival, including what’s scheduled for today (but excluding guided tours and introductory talks). 

High demand for house opera and theatre performances
Beyond the lake stage, there was a prevailing sense of contentment at half time at the other venues, too. Among highpoints of the festival season so far was the opera at the Bregenz Festspielhaus. Jan Philipp Gloger’s production of Gioacchino Rossini’s Tancredi enjoyed ticket sales of 99%. Its three performances drew a total audience of 4,543.

The guest performances by two theatre companies, Vienna’s Burgtheater and Deutsches Theater Berlin, were also very well received. Back at Easter 1,425 people attended Molière’s The Misanthrope, performed in German as Der Menschenfeind in a production by Martin Kušej. This was followed in June by the Deutsches Theater Berlin performances of Heinrich von Kleist’s comedy Der zerbrochne Krug (The broken jug), which was seen by 957 visitors.

The hybrid operetta Hotel Savoy with the Musicbanda Franui, a Schauspiel Stuttgart and Staatsoper Stuttgart production that was staged at the Kornmarkt Theater in late July, drew a total audience of 1,444.

Unmögliche Verbindung (Connection impossible) -- a new piece of music theatre conceived and created jointly by the German director and author Thomas Fiedler and the Czech composer and conductor Ondřej Adámek for the Ensemble Modern -- was performed at the Werkstattbühne at the end of July, where it was seen by 484 people. 

Opera Studio premiere and Opera Workshop world premiere in August
Further entertaining and moving evenings of music theatre are in store in the second half of the festival season. On 12 August, the double bill Der Ehevertrag | Gianni Schicchi debuts at the Kornmarkt Theater in what will be the final Opera Studio production under Elisabeth Sobotka’s tenure as artistic director. The two one-acters will be directed by the Grande Dame of German-language music theatre, Brigitte Fassbaender.

The world premiere of the second piece of contemporary music theatre this summer follows on 15 August at the Werkstattbühne. The new opera, Hold Your Breath, was three years in the making and was created as part of the Bregenz Opera Workshop. It’s a collaboration between the festival's former artistic director David Pountney, the Irish composer Éna Brennan, and the Portuguese artist Hugo Canoilas.

The Vienna Symphony Orchestra will be giving its third and final orchestral concert on Monday 5 August. The venue is the Festspielhaus. Petr Popelka, the orchestra’s designated chief conductor, will be making his Bregenz debut at the concert. The final concert of this year's festival, the matinee of the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra, is on Sunday 18 August. That evening the festival comes to a close with the 28th performance of the opera on the lake stage. Der Freischütz returns next summer for a 25 performance run. Advance booking for the 2025 festival opens on 1 October 2024.