This program change hurts tremendously. The Corona postponement including the renaming to “Easter Festival in Autumn” (October 29 to November 1) is costing the festival its dream team. The star couple Anna Netrebko / Yusif Eyvazov gives Salzburg a basket and prefers to sing in the Vienna State Opera. There is a bonus concert by Cecilia Bartoli at the Whitsun Festival.
The opera “Turandot” had already been canceled, now the “Easter Festival”, which had been postponed to autumn, also had to remove the planned gala concert with their star couple Anna Netrebko / Yusif Eyvazov from the program. The performance in Salzburg falls victim to a clash with the Vienna State Opera.
In plain language, this means that Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden are largely working as planned and three of the four concerts will also remain in the program, apart from a few personnel changes: the Mozart Requiem with the Bach Choir (October 29), the concert with violin star Hilary Hahn (October 30th – with conductor Daniele Gatti instead of Antonio Pappano) as well as the Grieg concert with Denis Matsuev, a heavyweight in the piano scene (November 1st).
As for the freshly created “Netrebko gap” on October 31st, it will be filled with great caliber in terms of content and vocals. On the evening before All Saints’ Day, the “Easter Festival in Autumn” competes a little with Bayreuth and extends the program with excerpts from Richard Wagner’s “Walküre” and “Götterdämmerung”, performed by top-class players such as Anja Kampe, Stephen Gould and René Pape.
Additional Bartoli concert at the Whitsun Festival
Keyword highlights: the Salzburg Whitsun Festival (May 21 to 24) pulled one out of the hat at the last minute. Instead of the canceled “Dixit Dominus” (the British artists cannot come because of the quarantine rules in their homeland), Artistic Director Cecilia Bartoli is now contesting the Sunday matinee on May 23 – with arias by Handel, Vivaldi and Porpora, among others.