Overview
- The festival premiered Verdi’s La traviata on the Seebühne in Bregenz, with the production receiving its first performance on Wednesday and launching the festival’s 80th edition.
- Director Damiano Michieletto moved the story to the 1920s and Paolo Fantin built a roughly 700 square‑metre shattered mirror installation made of 86 movable elements, including a mirror more than 25 metres high.
- ZDF announced it will stream the full filmed production from July 26 to October 27 and will air a 100‑minute televised edit on July 26, expanding access beyond the live audience.
- The run comprises 28 performances through the end of August that have been sold out for months, with organizers expecting about 188,000 attendees in total and roughly 6,700 people per show.
- Musically the staging features the Wiener Symphoniker conducted by Kirill Karabits, supported by an international solo cast plus the Bregenzer Festspielchor and the Prager Philharmonischer Chor, and the Seebühne is rebuilt after each two‑year cycle to accommodate such large-scale sets.