Bregenz, 1 August 2025. Halfway through the season – the first under artistic director Lilli Paasikivi – the Bregenz Festival has already posted very positive results. By the end of today, a little over 116,000 people will have attended the scheduled events thus far. The great interest shown by the festival audience in the artistic signature of the new artistic director is clearly discernible across all areas.
“Las Vegas, eat your heart out.”
Der Freischütz, which commenced its second run at the festival on 17 July 2025, has drawn the crowds once again. The opera is being given on the lake stage in a visually striking production by director and stage designer Philipp Stölzl. “Las Vegas, eat your heart out,” a reviewer commented in the Los Angeles Times.
Assuming that this evening’s performance is not cancelled, Der Freischütz will have been seen by around 94,430 people (including dress rehearsal and Young People's Night) by the end of the day and will have received 14 performances. That represents 95 percent of seating capacity at the present stage. Only twice so far has the opera on the lake stage had to be moved indoors, to the Festspielhaus, owing to bad weather. Thirteen more performances of Der Freischütz are scheduled until 17 August when the festival ends.
Including events planned for today, some 116,223 visitors will have attended events at the 2025 Bregenz Festival (excluding guided tours and introductory talks).
Opera at the Festspielhaus acclaimed
This year’s opera at the Festspielhaus, George Enescu’s seldom staged masterpiece Œdipe, opened on 16 July to an enthusiastic reception. Andreas Kriegenburg’s acclaimed production ran for three performances and was seen by 4,411 people, with 96 percent of available tickets sold. The media reported that the operatic rarity may achieve new popularity as a result of Kriegenburg’s nuanced production and Hannu Lintu’s precise musical direction in Bregenz. The strong performance of both orchestra and ensemble, and the electrifying overall sound of the Prague Philharmonic Choir were singled out for special praise. There were accolades also for the new artistic director Lilli Paasikivi’s shrewd programming choice.
Burgtheater world premiere – a tour de force
For the first time in the recent history of the festival, the Vienna Burgtheater brought a guest production to Bregenz during the festival season. The play, bumm tschak oder der letzte henker, was given its world premiere at the Kornmarkt Theater on 18 July. It is the latest work by the multiple-award-winning Austrian playwright Ferdinand Schmalz. The co-production was directed by Stefan Bachmann, artistic director of the Burgtheater. The play was impressive as a linguistic tour de force, for its black humour and genre-transcending musicality. It attracted a total audience of 1,451, corresponding to 75 percent capacity.
Movement, light and sound – the Tero Saarinen Company at the Werkstattbühne
In the first half of the 2025 festival, the Werkstattbühne theatre space played host to the widely respected Finnish choreographer Tero Saarinen, whose company was making its first guest appearance in Bregenz.
Its first offering, Borrowed Light, was very warmly received at its two sold-out performances on 23 and 24 July. This is a densely atmospheric piece of choreography, a hypnotic fusion of movement, light and sound, with The Boston Camerata vocal ensemble lending impressive support in the form of archaic, airy sound. Saarinen was inspired by the songs and the aesthetic of the Shaker religious movement, but it’s universal themes like community, devotion and transcendence that are at the heart of this piece. Critics and audience alike were enthusiastic about the work’s spiritual depth and the suggestive visual design.
This was followed on 30 and 31 July by the first performance in Austria of Study for Life, a poetic, multidisciplinary hommage to the music of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. Tero Saarinen succeeded in bringing the late Saariaho’s musical language and artistic legacy to the stage as a powerful and many-layered collaboration of music, dance, light and space. Study for Life, a precisely conceived and immersive experience, left a deep and lasting impression on the audience.
The Tero Saarinen Company’s four performances at the Werkstattbühne in July drew a total audience of 1,367 visitors, meaning that 88 percent of available seats were sold.
New Opera Studio production, Werkstattbühne world premiere & orchestral concerts in August
The second half of the Bregenz Festival promises further entertaining evenings of music theatre. Gioachino Rossini’s opera buffa La Cenerentola, retelling the timeless tale of Cinderella, will be staged at the Kornmarkt Theater. The Bregenz Opera Studio production opens on 12 August.
On 14 August 2025, a piece commissioned by the Bregenz Festival will receive its world premiere at the Werkstattbühne. Emily – No Prisoner Be, composed by Kevin Puts, draws on the memorable, often contradictory work of the American poet Emily Dickinson. A musical portrait of inner freedom and poetic self-affirmation, it will be performed by the celebrated mezzosoprano Joyce DiDonato and the genre-bending string trio Time for Three, and staged by the British director Andrew Staples.
On 4 August 2025, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra will give its third and final concert at the Festspielhaus. Under the baton of its chief conductor, Petr Popelka, the orchestra will perform Sergey Rakhmaninov’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 in D minor as well as Richard Strauss’s tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra. The last concert of this year’s festival takes place on 17 August 2025, when the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra gives its traditional Sunday matinee. That evening, the 27th performance of the opera on the lake stage, Der Freischütz, brings the festival to a close.
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The 2025 Bregenz Festival runs from 16 July to 17 August. For tickets and information, please visit www.bregenzerfestspiele.com or call tel. 0043 5574 4076.
