TV and photo opportunity La traviata set-up
The stage set for La traviata is being built in the festival’s scenery shop
Bregenz, 5 Feb. 2026. On the lake stage at Bregenz, the set for La traviata is taking shape slowly but surely. The Giuseppe Verdi opera is the lake stage production at the Bregenz Festival in the summer of 2026 & 27. In the scenery shop, the team of set builders and technicians are currently at work on the central element of the stage, a mirror wall measuring 700 square metres.
Once the static structures have been finished, the next, decisive phase of set construction begins at the end of February: assembling the 700 square metre mirror-clad wall on the lakeside stage. The reflecting wall, the principal and visually dominant element of the set, will tower 25 metres at its highest point. The shattered mirror serves as a symbol for the fractured inner state of the Parisian courtisan Violetta Valéry, whose tragic story is told by director Damiano Michieletto and designer Paolo Fantin. They have set the tale in the Roaring Twenties: a world of chic jazz clubs, glittering luxury and inner emptiness.
The reflecting wall is not a real mirror – that would dazzle the spectators when sunlight fell on it. Instead, it’s an illusion: a disconcertingly realistic reproduction of a shattered mirror. In the weeks to come, the Bregenz Festival technicians will assemble the mirror wall like a puzzle, piecing together its 86 fragments, which range in size from twelve metres wide to just 40 centimetres.
More than half of the wall surface is manoeuvrable and can be activated during performance. At the same time, the mirror wall can function as a gigantic surface for the projection of film clips from Violetta’s life. The sequences were shot in Vienna in October under the direction of Damiano Michieletto.
Reproducing a mirror’s surface
In the scenery shop, the Bregenz Festival’s team of scene painters and technicians have been crafting the big and small splinters since autumn 2025. They are made from CNC machined wooden panels, printed fabric, and green lacquered multi-skin sheets on the visible edges.
The fabric is fastened to the wooden panels by an adhesive that is commonly used in textile furniture manufacturing. The festival has worked with external partners to develop a machine that makes it possible to apply the adhesive evenly on the surfaces, which are several square metres in size. When the fabric is exactly positioned, the adhesive is activated by means of radiant heaters built into the machine, and thus permanently fixed.
The water basin located between the stage and the auditorium, which played an important role in the production of Der Freischütz, will be used in the staging of La traviata, too, but will have a different function.
Glamour, excess and inner emptiness
Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata, which the Bregenz Festival is presenting on the lake stage for the first time, is one of the most popular works in operatic history. Stage director Damiano Michieletto and set designer Paolo Fantin have set the story of the Parisian courtisan Violetta Valéry in the Roaring Twenties – a world of glamour, excess and inner emptiness. “It’s a cynical, capitalist, fascinating world that wants to consume and has no time to lose,” says Michieletto. Violetta’s story unfolds like a modern drama: a woman who is in the spotlight of public attention at the same time lives in the shadow of social scorn. The premiere is on 22 July. The opera will be conducted by Kirill Karabits and Pietro Rizzo.
La traviata is set to have 28 performances in summer 2026. Some 188,000 tickets went on sale for the opera on the lake stage, approx. 80 percent of which have already been booked. In all, nearly 80 events are scheduled for this year’s festival, with a total of 228,000 tickets available (including the dress rehearsal of La traviata).
