A ghostly village on Lake Constance
The set for "Der Freischütz" is being built in the new assembly hall
Bregenz, 27 Feb. 24. The little village that will be the stage set for Der Freischütz is being pieced together like an artistic mosaic in the Bregenz Festival's new assembly hall.
In the Bregenz Festival's new assembly hall located right on the lake shore, the in-house set construction team has been hard at work since autumn 2023. Many large sections of the set for the opera on the lake stage in 2024 are being pieced together and painted. First to appear on the lake stage itself were a number of deceptively real-looking, weather-beaten trees that were planted around it in December. At the beginning of February, work began on assembling the eight houses and the church tower of the little village in which the tragic tale of the young court clerk Max and his pact with the devil is to unfold.
"The skeletal structure of steel and wood for most of the pieces of scenery is manufactured to order by businesses around Vorarlberg. But the assembly, painting and plastering and the finish work are done now in our assembly hall right on the Lake Constance shore," explains the technical director Wolfgang Urstadt. "That makes the process of transporting pieces of scenery to the lake stage easier."
Eight houses and a church tower
Currently, eight houses destined for the spooky, wintry village of the Freischütz set are being pieced together and painted in the assembly hall. The smallest house is about as big as a dog kennel, while the village inn, with an area of 16 square metres, has the dimensions of a small living room. All the houses consist of a steel girder construction with wooden cladding. The wooden planks are fitted in the assembly hall and the doors, window shutters and window panes of acrylic glass are added. The Bregenz Festival scene painters use polystyrene foam, putty filler and paint to imitate the look of stone and timber.
The church tower is the tallest structure on the stage set, with a height of nearly twelve metres. It too is currently to be found in the assembly hall, where the scene painters are working on the surface treatment. The tower is a steel girder construction that is clad in wood, plastered and painted.
Lake stage: concrete core and supply tubes
Outside on the lake stage, the new concrete core is nearing completion. At the moment, two new underwater supply tubes are being laid. These will later carry water pipes as well as electricity, lighting, audio and network cables from the shore out to the lake stage. At the same time, the Freischütz stage set is taking shaping little by little. The 30 trees that already stand there are being joined by other pieces of the scenery brought out from the assembly hall, including the so-called Mill and Agathe's House.
Der Freischütz makes its lake stage debut
Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz – one of the most popular operas in German-speaking countries and a work, moreover, that has never been performed on the lake stage at Bregenz – marks the return of director Philipp Stölzl to Bregenz for the 2024/25 seasons. After his acclaimed Rigoletto, the opera on the lake stage in 2019/21, the Romantic opera about the young court clerk Max who sells his soul for earthly happiness will be the Munich-born director's second production on the Lake Constance stage at Bregenz. Stölzl will not only direct the opera, but also design the set and lighting. On the conductor's podium will be Enrique Mazzola, the festival's conductor in residence, who was also music director for the Rigoletto production.
Der Freischütz opens the Bregenz Festival for its 78th season on 17 July 2024. It is scheduled to play on 27 evenings. For the opera's 2024 run, approximately 192,000 tickets are available (incl. dress rehearsal and Young People's Night), a little under half of which have already been booked. Altogether 220,000 tickets have gone on sale for the more than 80 events at this summer's festival.
The 2024 Bregenz Festival runs from 17 July to 18 August. For tickets and information please visit www.bregenzerfestspiele.com or call tel. 0043 5574 4076.
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