Easter Festival Salzburg start a new « ring » – diepresse.com

With a new “Ring des Nibelungen” by Richard Wagner, the Easter Festival Salzburg will celebrate the return of the Berlin Philharmonic to the Salzach from next year. The start in 2026 under the musical direction of Kirill Petrenko « Das Rheingold », the opera or the new ring is staged by the Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov, announced the festival on Wednesday. In 2028 the cycle was interrupted with Arnold Schönberg’s « Moses and Aron ».

With Wagner’s “Ring”, founder Herbert von Karajan in 1967 launched the Easter Festival Salzburg. The conductor himself staged himself, but started the tetralogy with the « Valkyrie ». In the coming year, director Nikolaus Bachler will start the cycle according to the chronology of the work with « Das Rheingold ». Kirill Petrenko, chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic since 2019, is very familiar with the « Ring ».

He already conducted it at the Meininger Theater from 2001 to 2004, followed by the « Ring » in the production of Frank Castorf at the Bayreuth Festival 2013, 2014 and 2015 and most recently at the Bavarian State Opera. With Kirill Serebrennikov, the « perhaps most musical and at the same time one of the most imaginative, most original and uncompromising opera interpreters of the present, » said Bachler.

The German Bariton Christian Gerhaher will give his roller end debut as Wotan. The other singing team « consists of singers from around the world according to Kirill Serebrennikov’s basic idea and embodies a young generation of Wagner votes », according to the Easter Festival: Brenton Ryan as a lodge, Leigh Melrose as Alberich, Catriona Morison as Fricka, Sarah Brady as Freia and Jasmin as Erda. The founding orchestra also returns to Salzburg with the « ring ». The Berliners had said goodbye to Baden-Baden after Easter 2012, Bachler was now able to regain them as a residence orchestra.

News at the Easter Festival Salzburg

In 2028, the director will interrupt the cycle with Schönberg’s « Moses and Aron ». In addition to the connection with tradition, the view should also be directed to the front, the festival justified. Schönberg’s opera has never been on the program at the Easter Festival Salzburg.

Also new is a second choir concert in 2026: On the one hand, the Berliners will make « Creation » sounded under Daniel Harding Joseph Haydn, on the other hand, they will list with their chief conductor and three choirs Gustav Mahler’s Monumental 8. For the third large concert by the Berliner, Tugan Sokhiev will be at the conductor’s desk, the focus is on Hector Berliozʼ « Symphony Fantastique ».

Final concert together with hobby musicians

The Berlin Philharmonic also invite hobby musicians from Austria and the neighboring countries to apply for participation in a very special project: the « Be Phil Orchestra Salzburg Easter Festival 2026 ». For this purpose, around 100 amateur musicians from Austria, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Germany, Switzerland and Slovakia will be sought, who, under the direction of Tugan Sokhiev together with members of the Berlin Philharmonic, will give the final concert on April 2, 2026 in the large Festspielhaus. The program includes Antonín Dvořák’s 8th Symphony and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for four brass and orchestra. The application is made via videos that can be uploaded to the Berlin Philharmonic website from May 6, 2025. (APA)