Wiener Festwochen. 12 May – 19 June
Since 1951, Wiener Festwochen, one of the oldest, largest and best European international theatre and music festivals, invariably held at the most beautiful time of the year (in Vienna, May and June arrive with an explosion of roses in bloom), has been serving as a reaffirmation of the Austrian capital's status as a vital city of top-class art. Every night the city opens its venues to opera, theatre and dance performances, concerts and exhibitions, bringing together the greatest names from worldwide.
The Wiener Festwochen programme always comprises a great selection of works representing a variety of genres and formats, ranging from classical theatre and grand opera productions to theatre-structured walks in the city and short yet power-packed performances, representing both legendary directors and ensembles and newly-discovered creative personalities.
Geographically, this year's incredibly extensive range covers distant places like Greenland, Mali, Kazakhstan and Colombia.
The unique genre of + - 0, the latest piece by the great Swiss director Christoph Marthaler has been defined as 'musical climate change'. The production came about during the creative team's field trip to Greenland, a land almost completely covered in snow, also notorious for the world's highest suicide rate. The powerful landscapes, the forgotten people and their music are the sources that inspired Marthaler's + - 0, a performance of which opens this year's Wiener Festwochen.
The festival will also conclude with a performance of a Christoph Marthaler production, his Wüstenbuch or Book of Deserts, born out of his contemplation of emptiness, of nothingness.
Wiener Festwochen also presents a rare opportunity to see two new productions by the great French director Patrice Chéreau: Rêve d´Automne, originally performed at the Louvre, and I Am the Wind, staged at the London Young Vic Theatre. Both are based on the plays by the contemporary Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse. And everything Fosse ever writes deals with sadness.
The Canadian theatre alchemist, the incredibly human stage magician Robert Lepage is bringing to Vienna his Far Side of the Moon, a solo theatre production.
The Rimini Protokoll team of reality explorers is represented this year by Stefan Kaegi with his Bodenprobe Kasachstan (Soil Sample Kazakhstan), a production inspired by a field trip to Kazakhstan; it is dealing with oil pipe lines and people - the Russian Germans, both the ones staying in Kazakhstan (hundreds of thousands of Russia-based ethnic Germans were deported to Kazakhstan during World War II) and the ones who, attracted by the promise of a better life, repatriated to Germany.
The highlights of the Wiener Festwochen musical programme include a production of Iannis Xenakis' Oresteïa by the Catalan director Carlus Padrissa from La Fura dels Baus company, an adept of powerful visual thinking; the piece will be performed in Vienna's Karlsplatz.
Programme: www.wienerfestwochen.at
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