What would it be like if some unimaginable force were able to give material form to all our repressed emotions and thoughts? To resurrect, from our memories, people who once were close to us – as beings that confront us with our past and yet remain permanently out of reach and beyond our comprehension? What would happen to us as a result? That is exactly what Solaris is about, the famous novel by Polish science fiction author Stanisław Lem published in 1961, and which the German composer Detlev Glanert has now turned into an opera.

It is the story of the psychologist Kelvin, who is dispatched to a space station which is orbiting the distant planet Solaris and on which strange things have been happening. On arrival Kelvin is warned about strange apparitions of the kind that regularly afflict the crew members. And not long afterwards Kelvin's personal phantasm appears in the form of his former wife Harey, who committed suicide at the age of 19.

Co-production with the Comic Opera Berlin

"Memories of the Future" – that sounds like a paradox and yet not infrequently our future is shaped by past events, so the title of this year's Bregenz Festival is not so much a puzzle for the mind as an everyday phenomenon. In Stanisław Lem's psychological science-fiction novel Solaris, the constantly changing plasma of a distant planet has the ability to generate exact copies of certain persons who trouble the conscience and the memories of those who come into contact with them – in this case the crew of a spacecraft sent to investigate the planet. Instead, it is the planet that investigates them.

Similarly, Detlev Glanert's music transmits the past into the future: with his fine ear for the richness and opulence of exotic orchestral sounds he reaches back to the colourful, impressionistic idiom of Debussy and Strauss. His music can also evoke the strange atmosphere of an unexplored planet. 

Revolutions always seem to belong to the present day, and yet they repeatedly exhibit a host of gestures, formulae and patterns which derive their value from long-past events. André Chénier and his fellow revolutionaries consciously imitate poses that reflect their idea of the republican past of ancient Rome: history adapted as a template for the future. 

"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it," as the Irish author and politician Edmund Burke famously said. The Arab Spring originated with a young man burning himself to death in Tunisia, just as the tragic death of Jan Palach, who killed himself in the same way, will for ever be associated with the Prague Spring forty years before. Time is curved, as the physicist Stephen Hawking has taught us; and in our concert series a prominent place is accorded to Anton Bruckner, whose epic symphonies could well be described as "the music of time". 

I wish you all a wonderful festival summer, and my wish for ourselves is that we are able to provide you with memories that will enrich your future! 

David Pountney, artistic director

On the first night (July 18) a supplement of 25 EUR  is to be paid on each ticket in categories 1 and 2.

Ticket validity if the open-air performance is cancelled or takes place indoors due to bad weather

Bregenz Festival policy is to proceed with open-air performances even if the weather looks inclement, and we wish to stress that performances will go ahead on the Seebühne even in the event of light rain. We therefore recommend visitors to bring waterproof clothing, but not umbrellas, because these obscure the view and adversely affect the acoustics.

Tickets for category 1, festival-lounge and premium-tickets

If the lake performance is cancelled or abandoned after less than 90 minutes, these tickets are valid for the semi-staged version in the Festspielhaus and are not refundable. 

Tickets for categories 2 to 5 are valid only for Floating Stage performances

If a performance is transferred to the Festspielhaus, ticket holders will be refunded the ticket value if the open-air performance does not take place at all or is abandoned after less than 60 minutes.

Works by Anton Bruckner and Detlev Glanert are top of the bill in the orchestral concerts of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra in 2012. 

On 23 July, Markus Stenz conducts Anton Bruckner's 5th Symphony as well as Detlev Glanert's Einsamkeit (premiered in 2010), a reworking of the Schubert song. 

On 30 July there is the welcome return of the eccentric Greek conductor Teodor Currentzis, who caused a sensation with his interpretation of Weinberg's opera The Passenger at the Bregenz Festival of 2010. The concert offers a chance to hear Weinberg's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in C minor.

The Austrian composer and conductor HK Gruber, whose opera Tales from the Vienna Woods will be staged at the Festspielhaus in 2013, conducts a concert of his own programming on 6 August. It features his own composition Frankenstein!! in addition to works by Hanns Eisler and Kurt Weill.

Vienna Symphony Orchestra 

23 July - 7.30 p.m.

Conductor: Markus Stanz

• F. Schubert – D. Glanert: Einsamkeit (D 620) for soprano and orchestra
• A. Bruckner: Symphony No. 5 in B flat major
  

30 July - 7.30 p.m.

Conductor: Teodor Currentzis

• M. Weinberg: Concerto for cello and orchestra in C minor, op. 43
• S. Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Opus 100
  

6 August - 7.30 p.m.

Conductor: HK Gruber

• H. Eisler: Suite No. 3 Kuhle Wampe; Angst from Höllenangst
• K. Weill/B. Brecht: Die sieben Todsünden
  
• HK Gruber: Frankenstein!!

Curated by HK Gruber

Prices

Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra 

At its matinee concert on 12 August the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra will play Anton Bruckner's 4th Symphony and Detlev Glanert's Theatrum bestiarum, conducted by its chief conductor Gérard Korsten.

12 August – 11 a.m., Festspielhaus

Conductor: Gérard Korsten

• J. Weir: Natural History 
• D. Glanert: Theatrum bestiarum
  

Prices

Opera in two parts, sung in German.

Music by Detlev Glanert, Libretto by Reinhard Palm after the novel by Stanisław Lem.

Premiere on 18 July 2011 - 7.30 p.m., Festspielhaus

Duration about 2 ¼ hours (Interval after Act I)

Detlev Glanert’s opera Solaris, based on the celebrated science fiction novel by Polish author Stanislaw Lem (published in Warsaw in 1961), will receive its premiere performance in the Bregenz Festspielhaus on July 18, 2012.

Solaris is the story of the psychologist Kelvin, who is dispatched to a space station which is orbiting the planet Solaris and on which strange things have been happening for some time. Plagued by guilt and memories of his deceased lover, the scientist Kelvin suffers from more and more irrational feelings as the story progresses. Shortly after arriving, Kelvin is warned by weird apparitions. Not long afterwards a very personal phantom appears in the form of his lover Harey, who killed herself. Now she accompanies him, reviving guilty memories of their love affair.

Responsibility, remembrance, remorse. In Lem’s Solaris, science fiction is not an end in itself but a vehicle for constructing a metaphor for the moral problem of guilt and memory and for our strategies of dealing with them. Lem presents possible reactions of people who are directly confronted by a quasi-physical manifestation of a memory: suppression by various technical means, resignation, and the acceptance of responsibility.

Detlev Glanert, born in Hamburg 1960, is regarded as a wizard of sound and a masterly orchestrator. Among his chief influences are Gustav Mahler with his emotionally founded view of the world, and Maurice Ravel with his artificial-sensuous sonic landscapes

Further performances
22 July - 11.00 a.m.
2 July - 7.30 p.m.

Introductory talk in the Festspielhaus will be start one hour before performance

A supplement of EUR 25 is to be paid on July 18 (category 1-2)

Opera in four acts, sung in Italian.
Music by Umberto Giordano. Libretto by Luigi Illica.

Premiere on 19 July 2012 - 9.15 p.m., Seebühne

Duration: 2 hours without break

France in the year 1789. The aristocracy revels, the citizenry groans. And between two stools the poet André Chénier: adored by the rich for his touching verse, in his heart he remains a revolutionary.

Set against the background of the French Revolution, the opera André Chénier, which premiered at La Scala Milan in 1896, is a historical drama of sharp perceptivity and a human tragedy of devastating intensity; appealing both as a passionate love story and as a historical thriller. The central character is the eponymous French poet who got caught up in the turmoil of the revolution. First an enthusiastic supporter, he was appalled by the excesses of the tyrannical Jacobin regime, and was himself mercilessly persecuted and finally sent to the guillotine.

Lake Constance as bath tub. Director Keith Warner and set designer David Fielding have chosen The Death of Marat, an iconic painting by the revolutionary artist Jacques-Louis David, as the symbol and inspiration for their staging of André Chénier. It is the first time that a historical painting has served as the basis for a Bregenz stage set, which towers 24 metres high above Lake Constance.. It shows the radical revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat, who was stabbed in his bath by a sympathiser of an opposing party in 1793. In the Bregenz production, Lake Constance plays the role of the bath tub, in which the reclining figure of Marat towers up to 24 metres above the surface of the water. 154 steps lead up Marat's chest to his face. The head alone weighs 60 tonnes.

Music of stirring emotion. Giordano’s music is exuberant, ardent, ferocious and stirring, and the work culminates in a hymn to fraternity, love – and liberty in death. In his score, Giordano incorporated historical dances and marches from the time before the French Revolution, along with classic revolutionary songs like “Ça ira” and the Marseillaise. Together with rousing arias and breathtaking duets they lend a unique flavour to the opera.

Further performances
July 20, 21, 22, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 31 - 9.15 P.M.
August 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 17, and 18 - 9.15 P.M.

The Italian composer Umberto Giordano and his librettist Luigi Illica translated the name of the French revolutionary and eponymous hero of the opera, André Marie Chénier, into Italian. The French male first name "André" became the Italian male first name "Andrea" – which is why the opera is entitled Andrea Chénier in the original. The Bregenz production uses the historical figure's correct name for the title – André Chénier (the second name, Marie, is omitted). The revolutionary and poet was born in 1762 near Constantinople, today Istanbul, and was executed by guillotine in Paris in 1794.

Discover the secrets of the world’s largest Seebühne by going on a 50 minute back-stage tour. Take a look behind the scenes and find out all about the history and evolution of the Bregenz Festival. You will also gain an insight into the productions currently running.

Guided tours

From July 18, guided tours take place daily at 11.30 a.m., 2.30 p.m. and 3.30 p.m. (the number of tickets is limited). Between 3 June and 15 July guided tours take place every Friday at 4 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased online, by telephone on +43 (0)5574 407-6 or at the Ticket Center.

Guided tours for groups (from 1 June 2012)

Groups of over 30 people will be divided. Guided tours start on the hour from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Please apply by fax +43 5574 407-400.

• Some tours may be restricted because of rehearsals or performance.
• If you are taking a guided tour of the "Aida" set, we recommend that you wear sturdy shoes and not high-heeled shoes in view of the stage surface.
  

Discount for students and school children (aged from 6 to 26 years)

For every event, a certain number of tickets are reserved for students and school children. As a general rule the discount is 75 % (minimum ticket price €8). A reduction of this percentage must be ensured for student and school children tickets in Categories 2 and 3. In Category 1 no discount applies. 

"SeePlus" discount

Customers who book tickets to at least two other events at the same time as tickets to the opera on the Floating Stage receive a reduction of 30 % on those other events thanks to our new "SeePlus" discount. The full price will always be charged for tickets to the opera on the lake.

Orchestral Concert Pass

Customers who book tickets to at least three orchestral concerts at the same time receive a discount of 20 %.

Ö1 discount

Ö1 Club members receive a 10 % discount on a maximum of 2 tickets. For the opera on the Floating Stage, the Ö1 discount does not apply in the booking of Category 1 tickets or tickets to Saturday performances. Further the Ö1 discount does not apply to guided tours or introductory talks.

The various discounts and passes cannot be combined with each other.

To book tickets for Bregenz Festival please click here.

Reduced tickets can only be booked by phone +43 (0)5574 407-6.