Since its founding almost 140 years ago, the Munich Opera Festival (Münchner Opernfestspiele) has lost nothing of its attraction: when the international festival with the richest history of its kind begins again at the end of June 2016, friends of opera from Munich, from Germany and from all over the world will set out to share their enthusiasm for musical theatre together. In 2016 the Munich Opera Festival will take place from June 24 until July 31.
Venues in Munich at which the performances of the Opera Festival takes place include the Nationaltheater, the Prinzregententheater, the Cuvilliés-Theater, the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche and other venues. Besides opera, concerts of chamber music are also given. The festival is formally opened each year with a choral concert performed as part of a full Roman Catholic church service at Michaelskirche (this year on Saturday, June 25 at 10am); this is led by the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, with the opera company's music director overseeing the work of the musicians in the organ loft. A festival highlight is Opera for All, the live transmission of a full-length production from the theater to an outdoor audience seated at the Max-Joseph-Platz.
Opera for All 2016
The 2016 Munich Opera Festival will once again feature Opera for All on its programme: The Festival Concert on 9 July on Marstallplatz will signal the start of two outdoor evening concerts. Constantinos Carydis will be conducting the Bayerisches Staatsorchester as it presents Ottorino Respighi's Fontane di Roma and Pini di Roma, two orchestral works full of musical opulence and joie de vivre. It will be preceded by a violin concerto of Niccolò Paganini. The evening will once again start off with the youth orchestra of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester ATTACCA with Richard Wagner's Prelude to Rienzi.
The second Opera for All event closes the 2016 Munich Opera Festival: With an audio-visual live broadcast of Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Bayerische Staatsoper will on 31 July present the final performance of the season on Max-Joseph-Platz. In the main roles in this new production: Wolfgang Koch as Hans Sachs, Jonas Kaufmann as Walther von Stolzing and Sarah Jakubiak as Eva. On the podium will be General Music Director Kirill Petrenko conducting the new production by David Bösch. Both Opera for All performances are for free.
The complete Festival schedule and all ticket info are available from the official website at staatsoper.de.
