General Information
- Opera house name :Bregenzer Festspiele
- City, country :Bregenz Austria
- Localization :Postfach 311 Open map
- Official website URL :http://www.bregenzerfestspiele.com
Description
Since its inception in 1946, the Bregenz Festival has welcomed opera lovers to the Austrian province of Vorarlberg, on the shores of Lake Constance, every summer in July and August. The festival is unique in that its main opera production takes place on its huge lakeside stage (the Seebühne): the audience sits on the lakeside in grandstands that can hold around 7,000 people, while the artists perform on a huge floating stage, traditionally topped by an imposing set. The operas are performed with a "view of the lake", in the early evening as the sun sets.
Traditionally, each new production on the Bregenz Festival's floating stage is given for a cycle of two consecutive seasons before being repeated for the next cycle - this allows the Festival to amortise the impressive sets of its productions over two seasons (sets designed to withstand the vagaries of the weather, but also to respect the environmental constraints of Lake Constance).
From 1980, the Bregenz Festival stage on the lake was extended to include a covered Festival Palace (Festspielhaus Bregenz) with a capacity of 1,765. The Festspielhaus can be used to accommodate the public in the event of bad weather and is the venue for the Festival's second production and symphony concerts. Since 1997 it has also housed the Werkstattbühne, the stage for the Festival's young talent workshop. Rare works and contemporary music theatre are traditionally performed here.
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