Opera Studio announces debut show

Bregenz, 6.8.15. The Opera Studio, newly established by artistic director Elisabeth Sobotka, will present Mozart's Così fan tutte as its debut production. Directed by Jörg Lichtenstein, six young singers will enter the "School for Lovers" – as the opera, premiered in 1790, is subtitled. Hartmut Keil will conduct the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra. The opening night is 17 August, after which there will be three more performances. The production plays at the Kornmarkt Theatre in Bregenz.

Sobotka: "An investment in the future"

Before the festival opened the singers – budding professionals who are mostly from the Opera Studio of the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden – had the chance to work on their roles in a masterclass with the highly esteemed singer and director Brigitte Fassbaender. The aim of the Bregenz Opera Studio, Sobotka says, is "to help young singers with their professional and personal development in a highly professional environment and also to create a staging that the audience will really enjoy". The studio is an investment in the future, both for the singers and for the Bregenz Festival. Currently about two thirds of the approx. 2,000 tickets have been booked.

Is fidelity a way to guarantee love?

In his first Bregenz Festival production, director Jörg Lichtenstein presents the characters in Così fan tutte as young singers on the side stage of an opera house who naively make a bet about their partners' fidelity and end up losing control of their own actions. Love is the tenderest but also the most brutal thing that human experience has to offer, explains Lichtenstein, who is professor of acting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. His staging seeks answers to the questions: Is fidelity really a good way to guarantee love? Do openness and taboo-breaking prevent people from making mistakes and getting hurt?

Intensive artistic work possible

The music director of Così fan tutte, Hartmut Keil, was conductor of The Magic Flute on the Bregenz lake stage in 2013/14. He will also be appearing in the Workshop Theatre this season, conducting the first performance in Austria of The Golden Dragon. Keil, conductor at Oper Frankfurt, is enthusiastic about the exceptionally good production conditions in Bregenz. Bregenz offers considerably more possibilities than traditional theatres do, he says, and it's possible to work in an intensive way with the singers. "We were able to work on the music before the stage rehearsals began, which is not only a lot of fun with the young singers but it's also an investment in their training," Keil says.

Elisabeth Sobotka is already making plans for the Opera Studio in coming seasons. After this year's "Così", the other two Mozart operas with libretti by Lorenzo da Ponte are to be staged. Both Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro are challenging works that are a perfect match for the Opera Studio concept, with their big opportunities for acting and with Mozart's wonderful music, Sobotka says.

The 2015 Bregenz Festival runs from 22 July to 23 August and features about 80 scheduled events. For tickets and information, please call +43 (0)5574 407-6 or visit www.bregenzerfestspiele.com