Bregenzer Festspiele GmbH

Sales Department | Ticket Center

Platz der Wiener Symphoniker 1

6900 Bregenz

AUSTRIA

Tel. +43 (0)5574 407-6

Fax. +43 (0)5574 407-400

ticket@bregenzerfestspiele.com

Opening hours

Ticket Booking online is possible any time.

Arrival

Arrival by coach

A coach car park is located at Bregenz railway station. Please follow the signposted route. It is five minutes’ walk from the railway station to the festival area. In our B2B portal you will find a plan with directions to the coach parking area.

Arrival by car

Visitors coming by car will find plenty of car parks in Bregenz. A traffic system at access points to the town is in place to guide drivers to car parks with free places. There is a fee for parking. Public transport An entrance ticket to a Bregenz Festival event entitles the holder to free travel on bus or railway within the Vorarlberg Public Transport Network on the day of the event. An additional train service to Bludenz and additional bus services to Lustenau, the Bregenzerwald, Lindau in Germany and Rheineck in Switzerland have been laid on for the return journey after a performance on the lake.

Arrival by ship

A Lake Constance passenger ship operates on evenings of a lake performance to ferry visitors from Lindau to Bregenz and back again. The ship moors directly on the lake. To reserve a place on board, please call +49 8382 2758410 or +49 7541 9238389, ]www.bsb­-online.com

Act I

While the first stirrings of revolution can be felt on the streets, in a ballroom of the Château of Coigny preparations are under way for an artistic soirée. Gérard, one of the servants and a future leading figure of the Revolution, expresses his hatred of the aristocracy. He is bitter that his aged father, in spite of his frailty, is still forced to work. The poet Chénier, who is among the guests, at first does not wish to recite any poetry, but provoked by the young hostess Maddalena, he improvises verses which are critical of the excesses of the rich and reveal the spirit of a new age (aria: Un dì all’azzurro spazio / One day I stood gazing at the blue heavens). While Maddalena is moved to apologise, the guests at the château make no comment. When Chénier leaves, Gérard, who agreed with him enthusiastically, leads a group of ragged beggars into the ballroom to show the assembled aristocrats the underside of their wealthy lifestyle. He is dismissed on the spot. The commotion dies down and the merrymaking continues.

Act II

Four years later Chénier, disappointed by the course the Revolution has taken, is waiting at a café on the Seine for an unknown woman who has written to ask him for a rendezvous. Roucher brings Chénier a passport and urges him – without success – to leave Paris before the Revolutionary Tribunal can get hold of him. Maddalena appears; herself now impoverished in the turmoil of the Revolution, she is seeking Chénier's help (duet: Ecco l’altare / Here is the altar). As the two of them make to leave the dangerous place in the city centre, Gérard – now a revolutionary leader – enters with his retinue. He has been following Maddalena and tries to seize her, but Chénier defends her, wounding Gérard in a sword fight. Gérard recognises the poet he admires and urges Chénier to flee and to look after Maddalena. The latter has already been escorted to safety by Roucher.

Act III

In the court room of the Revolutionary Tribunal, soldiers are being recruited to fight for the "new liberty". Chénier has been arrested, and Gérard has to write an indictment accusing him of treason. Since he believes the poet is already a doomed man, he abandons all his reservations (monologue: Nemico della Patria/Enemy of the people). Maddalena is admitted and begs Gérard for help. She says she is ready to offer herself to him if it will save the man she loves. Gérard is moved by her magnanimity and vows to use his influence selflessly to get Chénier released. The judges enter and Chénier's name is called. He speaks courageously and proudly in his own defence (aria: Sì fui soldato / Yes, I was a soldier). In spite of Gérard's appeal on his behalf, however, Chénier is condemned to death and led away amid the jeers of the crowd.

Act IV

In the courtyard of Saint Lazare prison, Chénier reads his final poem to his friend Roucher (aria: Come un bel dì di maggio / Like a fine spring day). Gérard brings Maddalena to them and promises to appeal to Robespierre for clemency for the poet. Maddalena bribes the jailer Schmidt into letting her take the place of a young mother among those condemned to death. At dawn, together with her lover she orders the cart that will take them to their execution.

The Omsk­born Kirill Petrenko, the Briton Christopher Moulds and the Chinese conductor Xian Zhang, three conductors who have previously given concerts at the Bregenzer Festspiele to great acclaim, return to conduct the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. In addition on two consecutive days the Hallé Orchestra can be heard: Great Britain's oldest professional symphony orchestra under its chief conductor Sir Mark Elder will perform for the frst time in Bregenz.

Vienna Symphony Orchestra 

25 July - 7.30 p.m., Festspielhaus

Conductor: Christohper Moulds

• J. haydn: The Creation – oratorio in three parts

Concert Lord Byron
1 August - 7.30 p.m., Festspielhaus

Conductor: Kirill Petrenko

• H. Berlioz: Le Corsaire – Overture, op. 21
  
• A. Schoenberg: Ode to Napoleon, op. 41
  
• C. M. von Weber: Concerto for Clarinet and  orchestra No. 1 in f minor, op. 73
  
• P. I. Tchaikovsky: Manfred-Symphony, op. 58

7 August - 11.00 a.m., Festspielhaus

Conductor: Xian Thang

• D. Glanert: Fluss ohne Ufer (River without banks)
• M. Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
• R. Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra op.30 

Curated by Detlev glanert

Prices

Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra

Concert Goethe
14 August – 11 a.m., Festspielhaus

Conductor: Gérard Korsten

• J. Weir: Natural History
  
• F. Liszt: A Faust-Symphony
  

Prices

Concert Judith Weir Portrait
20 August – 7.30 p.m., Theater am Kornmarkt

Conductor: Nicholas Collon

• J. Weir: Piano Concerto
  
• J. Weir: woman.life.song
  

Prices

Hallé Orchestra

Concert Michelangelo
15 August – 7.30 p.m., Festspielhaus

Conductor: Sir Mark Ender

• D. Shostakovich: suite on Verses by Michelangelo  
  
• Buonarroti for bass and orchestra, op. 145a
  
• P. I. Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6

Concert Shakespeare
16 August – 7.30 p.m., Festspielhaus

Conductor: Sir Mark Ender

• E. Elgar: Falstaff, Symphonic study for orchestra, op. 68
  
• W. Walton: Henry V
  

Prices

On the first night (July 21) a supplement of 25 EUR  is to be paid on each ticket in categories 1, 2 and 3 and one of 5 EUR is to be paid in category 4.

Text and music by Judith Weir after a Sicilian folk tale. Sung in English with German surtitles.

Co-production with the royal opera house Covent garden and Co-commission

Premiere on 20 July 2011 - 7.30 p.m., Festspielhaus

The first in a series of newly commissioned operas to be performed at the Festspielhaus in the coming summer is the opera Achterbahn (Miss Fortune) by the British composer Judith Weir, jointly commissioned and co­produced by the Bregenz Festival and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

The new opera was inspired by and based on an Italian folk tale called Sfortuna. It tells of a young woman whose wealthy family suddenly meets hard times. She decides to make her own way in the world, trying to exist by working in gruelling occupations. Each time her luck seems to turn for the better, she is thrown by another misfortune. Later, however, she makes the acquaintance of the personifcation of her own Fate and after this, her life changes for the better.

Achterbahn (Miss Fortune) is a tale about fate, a kind of parable about the ups and downs of life – and about how we are often incapable of judging the various trials of life in the moment they happen. Judith Weir is one of the most interesting composers to have come out of Great Britain in recent years. Her great interest in folklore and folk music — of Scotland, where her parents come from, but also such places as Iceland, India and China — has decisively infuenced her very personal and original style. Many of Weir’s stage works are based on fantastical and dreamlike folk tales, refecting her fascination and passion for storytelling.

Further performances
24 July - 11.00 p.m.
28 July - 19.30 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 21 (category 1-3)

We will be happy …

… to help you in promoting and organising your trip to the Festival by providing advertising material, pictures, texts and up­to­date and useful information.

Free image and text material

On our press-website you will find a wide variety of pictures and texts you can use in designing your own promotion. They can be downloaded and used free of charge – but the photographer must be credited if photos are published.

Free promotional material

We also offer free promotional material for use in advertising your organised tours to the Bregenz Festival. It can be conveniently ordered online all year round, subject to availability.

b2b-Newsletter

Subscribe to our sales partner newsletter and you can regularly receive the latest information about productions, promotional offers and other matters of interest for our travel partners (only available in German). 

Contact address

Bregenzer Festspiele GmbH
Sandra Hoyler
Platz der Wiener Symphoniker 1
6900 Bregenz
Austria

Tel. +43 (0)5574 407-113
Fax. +43 (0)5574 407-400

sandra.hoyler@bregenzerfestspiele.com

We would be happy to advise you in the choice of your ticket contingent and assist in planning and organising your trip to the festival! 

All the information about the 2011 season that is important for commercial distributors is summarised in compact form in our Sales Package. Also enclosed is a CD with images and texts which can be used in designing your promotional material, as well as the current festival trailer.

Please contact us for further information!

Download: Sales Package 2011

Further information about the journey to the destination you find here.

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

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. 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.