C major

Live recording at Parma Verdi Festival 6 October, 2008. Massimo Zanetti conducting Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma. Stage director Stefano Vizioli.

Richard Strauss' last stage work is an opera about opera as an art form, depicting the creation of a music drama in a wise and witty way. Which came first the words or the music? That is the question Strauss and his librettist Clemens Krauss address through the story of a Countess torn between a composer and a poet.

Mention Giacomo Puccini's name and opera-lovers all over the world will think of grand opera and passionate love stories. One of the world's most famous arias comes from the composer's final opera, Turandot: "Nessun dorma" none shall sleep because by morning the Chinese princess is determined to have discovered the name of the unknown prince. The work is remarkable for its Chinese local colour, its opulent crowd scenes, its powerful choruses and its characters overwhelmed by their emotions. Enthusiastically acclaimed by its audiences, the present production combines spectacular and touching scenes on the Bregenz Festival's vast lakeside stage.

A performance for the ages - the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under the charismatic yet calculated baton of Andris Nelsons give everything they've got to Shostakovich's might 8th Symphony.=2011 winner of the prestigious ECHO Klassik Award, Andris Nelsons is one of the most sought-after young conductors on the international scene today.=Over the next few seasons he will continue collaborations with Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Boston Symphony and the New York Philharmonic. Andris Nelsons is a regular guest at Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera New York.

Fierrabras of 1823 is the last of Franz Schubert’s stage works. Rarely performed to this day, this heroic-romantic opera has now been staged for the first time ever at the Salzburg Festival by famous director Peter Stein. Based on an old French 12th-century epic, the plot depicts the military conflict between Christians and Moors at the time of Charlemagne – as a backdrop to stories of love and friendship that prove to be stronger than war and hatred of otherness. The strong cast includes the “marvellously expressive miracle Dorothea Röschmann” (Die Zeit) and “Michael Schade, who exudes his exceptional tenor in Fierrabras’s heroic arias” (Der neue Merker). Under the energetic baton of lngo Metzmacher, the Vienna Philharmonic unfold “the melos, the poetry, the sweetness and the dramatic force of Schubert’s highly refined and atmospheric sound worlds” (Kleine Zeitung) in highly romantic fashion.

Andris Nelsons is one of the most sought-after young conductors on theinternational scene today. He is the Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, starting from the 2014/2015 season and he worked with the mostimportant orchestras all over the world incl. Berliner Philharmoniker, WienerPhilharmoniker, Concertgebouw Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, PhilharmoniaOrchestra etc. He too is a regular guest at Covent Garden, the MET, WienerStaatsoper, Deutsche Staatsoper and Bayreuth Festival. The RCO is one of the best orchestras in the world. This programme includes Richard Strauss´ popular works Also sprach Zarathustraand Till Eulenspiegel.