Salzburg Festival 2016: Juan Diego Florez, Placido Domingo and Anna Netrebko Headline Summer Festival
The Salzburg Festival has announced the 2016 summer season with a number of Latin Americans headlining productions.
Colombian born conductor Andres Orozco-Estrada and Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez will headline two concert performances of Otto Nicolai's rarely performed work "Il Templario." The performances will also showcase American mezzo soprano Joyce Didonato and Italian baritone Luca Salsi. Florez and Didonato have performed several works together to critical acclaim including multiple Rossini works.
Spanish-born tenor/baritone Placido Domingo will also headline one concert performance of Jules Massenet's "Thais." Domingo, who has performed the role multiple times in Los Angeles and in Italy, will be joined by rising star Sonya Yoncheva. Yoncheva was one of the winners of Operalia and has been mentored by Domingo throughout the years.
Argentine conductor Alejo Perez will lead a new production of Gounod's "Faust." The production by Reinhard von der Thannen will star Polish tenor Piotr Beczala, bass Ildar Abdrazakov, soprano Maria Agresta and baritone Alexey Markov.
Meanwhile, the Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel will lead a new production of "West Side Story." The work will be performed by famed mezzo Cecilia Bartoli alongside Norman Reinhardt, Karen Olivo, George Akram, Cody Green and Cheyne Davidson. The performances of "West Side Story" mark the return of the production, which will premiere at the Whitsun Festival in May.
Spanish Baritone Carlos Chausson will join Anna Netrebko in three concert performances of Giacomo Puccini's "Manon Lescaut." The performances will also star Netrebko's fiancé Yusif Eyvazov and Armando Pina.
Chausson, who was born in Zaragoza, will also star in Wolfgang Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" with Luca Pisaroni, Anett Fritsch, Anna Prohaska, Adam Plachetka, Margarita Gritskova and Anne Murray.
Other productions that will be at the Salzburg Festival include Thomas Ades "The Exterminating Angel" based on the film by Spanish auteur Luis Bunuel. The opera will star a huge cast of international opera singers including Amanda Echalaz, Audrey Luna, Anne Sofie von Otter, Christine Rice, Sophie Bevan, Iestyn Davies, Eric Halfvarson, Thomas Allen, John Tomlinson, Morgan Moody, Franz Gürtelschmied, Rafael Fingerlos, Frances Pappas and Anna Maria Dur.
The festival begins on July 22, 2016 and ends in Aug. 31, 2016.