Turandot

Bregenz, 7.4.16. The enormous popularity of Turandot at last year's festival looks set to continue throughout its second season. Demand was high as soon as tickets went on sale and has intensified even further over the past few weeks. The festival management has therefore scheduled an extra performance on Thursday, 18 August 2016, bringing the total number of performances of the opera on the lake stage to 24. The decision was taken in order to ensure that visitors still had a broad selection of seats and dates to choose from, explained commercial director Michael Diem. Currently about 60 per cent of a total of 162,000 tickets for Turandot have been booked, Diem said. Tickets are still available on all dates and in virtually all price categories.

The opera featuring the world-famous aria Nessun dorma, mysterious exoticism and spectacular choral scenes was mounted on the lake stage last summer, when it became the most visited Puccini opera in the year of its premiere in the festival's history. The production has been in great demand for its second run, too, as became evident when advance booking began in late August last year.

A balmy Mediterranean night

A balmy summer breeze caresses the skin – dancing on the gently rippling surface of Lake Constance is the glittering reflection of the deep red evening sun as it sinks on the horizon – and the fragrances of a Mediterranean night accompany grand opera on the Bregenz lake stage. Tingling in anticipation of the summer festival, which begins in fifteen weeks, many music lovers are currently navigating to the festival's website or reaching for the phone to talk to the sales staff in person, so they can snap up tickets to the lakeside production of Turandot. Ticket vouchers are also selling like hot cakes. Stylishly gift-wrapped, they make a wonderful present for friends likely to appreciate an evening at the opera in the open air.

Festival to open with premiere

Seventy years after it was founded, the Bregenz Festival presents a wide-ranging programme this summer that includes world premieres and operatic rarities, the return of the box-office hit Turandot, and a flashback to 1946 with a restaging of the opera that began the tradition of floating stage opera at Bregenz. The nearly five week long festival opens on 20 July with the Austrian premiere of Hamlet in the Festspielhaus. In all about 80 events are on the programme of the Bregenz Festival, which runs until 21 August. Altogether 183,000 tickets are available (not including dress rehearsals and crossculture night).

For tickets and information, visit www.bregenzerfestspiele.com or call tel. 0043 5574 4076

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