Single ticket sales for all performances of the 2024 Easter Festival

For the 2024 Salzburg Easter Festival, artistic director Nikolaus Bachler will present a programme inspired by the Mediterranean South – with Italy at its heart. The Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia from Rome, together with its long-standing Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano, will open the Easter Festival with a new production of Amilcare Ponchielli’s rarely performed opera »La Gioconda«. The principal roles will be sung by Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann. Pappano will also conduct two of the three concert programmes, including Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem. As guest conductor, Jakub Hrůša from Czechia will conduct a concert with selected works by Berlioz and Martinů that offer their own very special perspective on Italy. The Festival programme will also feature two song recitals.

Antonio Pappano is the Chief Conductor of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia from 2005 to 2023. His last opera engagement in Salzburg was at the Summer Festival in 2013, when he conducted Giuseppe Verdi’s »Don Carlos«. He is returning to Salzburg in 2024 to conduct Amilcare Ponchielli’s »La Gioconda« at the
Easter Festival, a work that has never before been performed here. The British director Oliver Mears (currently the Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden) will direct this story about the unhappy love affair of a ballad singer. The German visual artist Philipp Fürhofer will design the sets. Anna Netrebko will make her long-awaited debut at the Easter Festival in the title role, after her planned debut in »Turandot« was cancelled in 2021 when the Easter Festival fell foul of the pandemic. Jonas Kaufmann will sing alongside her in the role of Enzo Grimaldo. He made his debut at the Easter Festival in 2012 in »Carmen«, subsequently sang in »Cavalleria rusticana / Pagliacci« in 2015 and is returning in 2023 as Tannhäuser. For Anna Netrebko, this new production will also mark her debut in the role: »I am delighted to return to Salzburg for this very special project, and to have the opportunity to learn this wonderful score. I am looking forward to making my debut in this rarely performed work. I trust in Maestro Pappano as I always have in the past, that’s why I know it will be wonderful!« The cast will also feature Agnieszka Rehlis (La Cieca), Eve-Maud Hubeaux (Laura), Tareq Nazmi (Alvise Badoero) and Luca Salsi (Barnaba).

Italy as seen by Italian composers is what links the works of the Orchestral Concert I, conducted by Antonio Pappano. The programme features Luigi Boccherini’s »La ritirata da Madrid« in the version arranged by Luciano
Berio, who was the President of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia from 1999 to 2003. Victor De Sabata is remembered today above all as a conductor. He stood on the podium of the Santa Cecilia 90 times between 1921 and 1952. But he also devoted himself to composition from 1909 to 1934, writing operas, ballets, symphonic poems, piano music and incidental music, including »Juventus«. The programme will be completed by Almicare Ponchielli’s »Elegia« of 1883 and two of Ottorino Respighi’s
most famous masterpieces, »Fontane di Roma« and »Pini di Roma«. These last two works were premiered in Rome by the Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia.

The Orchestral Concert II is also dedicated to Italy, but this time with works by non-Italians offering their own perspective on the country. The guest conductor will be Jakub Hrůša, the Principal Guest Conductor of Santa Cecilia and soon to be the new Music Director of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Their programme will open with »Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca«, an atmospheric symphonic poem composed in 1955 by Bohuslav Martinů that was inspired by the fresco cycle by Piero della Francesca in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo. It was given its world première at the 1956 Salzburg Festival, conducted by Rafael Kubelik. There follow two works by the French composer Hector Berlioz, who was able to live and work at the Villa Medici in Italy from 1831 to 1832, after having won the Prix de Rome. Taking his inspiration from the Roman land- scapes and the mountains of Abruzzo, he composed »Harold in Italy«. The Israeli violist Pinchas Zukerman will play the solo part, here in his debut with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia. The programme will also feature »Le carnaval romain«, adapted in 1843 from Berlioz’s opera »Benvenuto Cellini«. Here, Berlioz combines themes from the love scene between Benvenuto and Teresa in the first act and its overwhelming finale in the streets of Rome, thronging with people at carnival time.

Giuseppe Verdi was made an honorary member of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in 1844. The first performance of his Requiem by the Orchestra of the Accademia took place on 4 April 1898 under the baton of Stanislao Falchi. Since then, the Orchestra has programmed it on more than 80 occasions, conducted variously by Arturo Toscanini, Tullio Serafin, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Daniele Gatti, Antonio Pappano, Manfred Honeck and others. In Salzburg, the solo parts will be sung by Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Judit Kutasi, Luciano Ganci and Michele Pertusi. The orchestra will be joined by the Coro dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia and the Salzburg Bach Choir.

The baritone Christian Gerhaher and his long-time accompanist Gerold Huber have put together a programme of songs by Johannes Brahms – including his »Regenlied« cycle. The celebrated soprano Lise Davidsen will be making her Salzburg debut, and together with the tenor Freddie De Tommaso and the pianist James Baillieu she will be giving an evening of arias, songs and duets from Wagner to Verdi, Puccini and Tosti.

Choreographer Sasha Waltz, who comes from Karlsruhe, is dedicating herself for the first time to a musical work with religious connotations at the Easter Festival with the St. John Passion (BWV 245) by Johann Sebastian Bach. With her choreography, she stages the »Johannes-Passion« as a timeless narrative about the human search for truth and justice beyond its religious implications. This world premiere features the Chœur de l’Opéra de Dijon the Chœur de chambre de Namur and the Cappella Mediterranea under the direction of Leonardo García Alarcón. The 10 dancers of the company Sasha Waltz & Guests are complemented by a vocal ensemble around Georg Nigl (Pilate) and Christian Immler (Jesus).

Max Cooper has carved a unique space as an audio-visual artist with a science PhD and an international reputation as a leading electronic musician. For the Salzburg Easter Festival, the Briton was inspired by Italy and the sound of the south with »Seme« and presents one of his live performances, celebrated by audiences and the press, which are always also an immersive audiovisual experience. Max Cooper will be accompanied by soprano Sarah Aristidou and cellist Niels Orens. Other work includes commissions from The Barbican, France TV, AND& festival, and collaborations with Zaha Hadid Architects, alongside musical reworks of contemporary classical musicians including Philip Glass, Nils Frahm, Terry Riley and Michael Nyman and pop artists Hot Chip and Moby.