Light and fire, freezing cold and a stunning mountain panorama: on the last weekend in January the idyllic winter sports resort of Lech am Arlberg will once again play host to the Bregenz Festival, as it has for the past six years. In a show entitled Viva Verdi – Aria Magic in the Alps the festival presents the famous Italian composer's most moving melodies amid the majestic setting of the Schlosskopfplatz on 28 and 31 January 2010. 

The show is subtitled Fathers and Daughters – a fateful relationship which lies at the heart of many of Verdi's operas and also inspired the composer to write some of his most magical duets: for instance the Ethiopian princess Aida and her father Amonasro, Violetta from La Traviata and her father-in-law Giorgio Germont, and the jester Rigoletto and his daughter Gilda. The duets will be performed by Elena Kelessidi (soprano) and David Stout (baritone), both artists who perform at the festival. 

Nestling between a river, a forest filled with snow, and high mountains is the outdoor location of the show, Schlosskopfplatz – a large square at the Schlosskopf ski-lift station. Here, an extraordinary stage sculpture of ice and snow will be fashioned to serve as the backdrop for a spectacle of light, fire and tragic passion. 

Ice-cold opera highlights since 2004

Every year since 2004 the Bregenz Festival has staged an open-air concert of opera highlights at Lech am Arlberg. In the last six winters, festival singers have sung a selection of best-loved arias and melodies from hit productions on the Floating Stage like West Side Story, La Bohème, Tosca and Aida. The shows in the snow regularly draw several thousand enthusiastic spectators to the centre of Lech in spite of temperatures as low as minus 25. 

 28 and 31 January 2010 - 6.15 p.m. (Lech am Arlberg, Schlosskopfplatz, admission free)

Aida - Liebestod at Lech am Arlberg in 2009

Movie "Puccini on Ice 2008"
Movie of Show in the Snow 2006

Floating Stage tickets to be won! Visitors to Viva Verdi – Aria Magic in the Alps, whose appetite is whetted for a summer evening on Lake Constance, will have plenty of chances at the Lech show to win tickets for the coming season of the Bregenz Festival.