Opera Now: How innovative programs, productions are revitalizing Vienna’s opera scene

By Ella Hazel Rambin

VIENNA – Scarlet runways guided patrons over the marble floors of the Vienna State Opera to their seats in red velvet. The birdsong of the orchestra warming up in the pit mingles with the chatter of the house’s anticipatory spectators, creating a hum of energy pulsing through the cavernous main hall.

At a few minutes after 7 p.m., the bright lights of the stage displace the warm house lights; conversations stop. Abrupt but vivacious applause greet the orchestra as conductor Franz Welser-Möst acknowledges. A raise of his baton and Barrie Kosky’s innovative staging of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte is underway, a staging that places the composer’s popular Italian comedy in the 1970s.

The grand interiors of the Vienna State Opera, which opened in 1869 with a production of Mozart’s *Don Giovanni*
Photo by Hisayo Carroll

The Vienna State Opera House is over 150 years old. Opera is a tough sell in many big cities around the world. This performance of Cosi fan tutte, like the one before it and the one before that, was sold out. What keeps the stage lights on and the crowds to continue to come?

The answer isn’t simple, and it features Vienna’s cradle-to-grave culture of classical music and the city’s prominence in the lives and works of the greatest composers who have ever lived.

Get them while they’re young

The prestige of opera is carefully cultivated from a young age through extracurricular programs such as the Vienna State Opera Children’s Choir and the Young Artists Program. This connects Viennese children and youth to the city’s historic tradition of great opera. What happens after that is, of course, the decision of the participants. But how many cities can claim such rich cultural and artistic opportunities for their very young?

The Vienna State Opera Children’s Choir, directed by Johannes Mertl, is an artistic education program containing a basic choir for 8– to 10-year-olds and a core choir for 10- to 14-year-olds. The basic choir provides individual singing lessons for the children and rehearsals twice a week. Children take on roles in the core choir after their second year of training in the basic choir.

Another program, the Vienna State Opera Young Artists Program, directed by Michael Kraus, targets the next generation of singers and provides them two years of training in music and performance. Students get the opportunity to participate in courses at the Musik and Kunst Privatuniversität Wien (MUK), along with master classes, rehearsals, and concerts at the State Opera House.

Ivan Beaufils, a voice and pedagogy student at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, gave credit to his mother and programs catered towards adolescents for sculpting his experience into the artistic world as a child.

“I got piano lessons when I was young,” Beaufils said. “That’s how I got my connection with opera. . . . I don’t know if I would’ve found my way there if I hadn’t been in that choir.”

The choir presents more than just a training ground but can also provide a gateway into the cultural legacy of opera and music by connecting children to music. Beaufils said that it is important to seize these opportunities during childhood, as fewer opportunities are offered as an adult. He advises this for anyone who has even the smallest thought of getting involved with classical music or getting their children involved.

Beaufils said he believes that in a digital age, with so many distractions at people’s fingertips, if Austrians don’t enrich themselves with art when they are young, they will be unlikely to develop a love of the arts as they mature.

“I feel like nowadays everyone has access to every art form on their phone,” said Beaufils, who is 24. “I don’t know if you see the point in going to an institution to see music, to hear it live, or to go to a museum or whatever if you didn’t get the chance to actually experience it as a kid. You would be like, ‘Why would I pay for it if I already have it on my phone for free?’”

Young artist support

For many of the reasons Beaufils cites, Jesus Leon is an advocate for nourishing young operatic talent. Leon is the founder and director of the Vienna Opera Academy and the Vienna Opera Festival. He is also an opera singer.

Leon is always on the move to perform in operas, including his upcoming trip to London to perform in a concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. During the summer, Leon said that he settles down in Vienna and goes from opera performer to full-time educator, dedicating himself to assisting emerging artists.

Leon said his goal is to create performance opportunities for young performers, especially because the beginning of a performance career can be so difficult.

“Our call, of course, is to help and support young singers in the summer,” said Leon, whose career stemmed from singing pop music in Mexico.

The Vienna Opera Academy and Vienna Opera festival were founded by Leon in 2019. The difference between the two is who they seek out to perform. The Opera Academy seeks out students looking for experience that will get their performance careers on their feet, while the Opera Festival seeks professionals searching for experience in learning specific opera roles.

Leon emphasizes the high standards expected of his students entering the Opera Academy, since they do perform in one of the most prominent theaters in Vienna, the Musikverein. He said that big artists keep the fame of the theater alive, as audiences know that only the best of the best get the opportunity to perform there.

He said he believes that showcasing young talent in such a prestigious venue not only meets the high expectations of audiences in Vienna, but also proves that young artists are just as captivating as seasoned stars, which is appealing to these crowds.

Since Leon is so experienced and musically inclined himself, he said he can easily identify talent and develop it professionally through three weeks of vocal coaching, acting and movement classes; consultations with opera agents; and opera performances. He also identifies the students with a strong work ethic, which he believes is crucial in the development of their professional careers.

Incubator of musical passion

Leon said Vienna is the perfect place to develop a passion for music.

“I think that Vienna has always been the center of music in the whole world, you know, and even since Mozart’s time, Vienna was very strong, everyone wanted to move here,” said Leon, who has performed all over the world. “Beethoven was here, all composers, you know. So, I think that it has been a very strong influence for every musician to study here.”

Leon’s respect for historical composers extends through his own work with the students as well. He trusts the original works of the composers, while also keeping everything very minimal to allow the actors to dive into their own character.

“We only use very few props, very small things on stage, and we work more on the characters for the singer, so they develop more and have more chances to work on themselves as actors,” Leon said. “We very much stick with the original libretto, you know, we work in that and being very honest with the composer, we try to be very trustful of the original ideas.”

Leon said he also believes that seeking out young artists is important and attractive to the people in Vienna, especially as he describes his program as the bridge between the post-college and pre-professional world. He says that 5 percent of his performers gain opportunities offered to them after participating in this program.

The Opera Ball

For adults, there is, of course, the Opera Ball.

Held at the premier performing venue for opera in a city perhaps best known for its composers, the Vienna State Opera, the Opera Ball is one of the biggest events of the year here each and every year, and a tradition for more than sixty years. The event transforms the opera house’s auditorium into a dazzling ballroom, where renowned opera singers perform before an audience of six thousand, one thousand of them being Opera House employees.

Patrick Hartl, a tour guide at the State Opera, said he believes the ball is a cornerstone in opera remaining so popular, especially since anyone can attend, but it does target an elite audience, with tickets costing 395 euros, not including drinks, food, or even a table.

“It’s one of the oldest opera houses in the world, and the Opera Ball is one of the most famous formal events each year,” Hartl said, explaining its longevity and popularity. “I think all of the online publicity each year and the really famous stars get people” to attend.

That an opera fundraiser can flourish in 2024 is a testimony to the resilience and vibrancy of the art form in this tradition-rich city. Vienna’s roster of composers who called the city their home features some of classical music’s biggest names, incuding Beethoven, Wagner, Schubert, Shoenberg, and Bruckner. Oh yeah, and Mozart.

Mozart’s name, image and likeness appear throughout the old town center of Vienna, and you can hear his name whispered by the hordes of visitors that herd to the main tourist sites. It is evident that Mozart and his art live on, or at least his celebrity and commercial “brand.”

If you listen carefully, his music can still be heard, too; it’s the soundtrack of the city.

“Of course, we do Mozart, which is a part of everything you know,” Leon said of his academy. “Mozart for me is one of the most incredible composers. My idol, also.”

Mom jeans and tattoos

While Leon sticks with the original ideas of the operas, he says “that doesn’t mean we don’t change the period of the time in the opera”, though. “For example, Così fan tutte with us this year is going to be in the seventies. So, we use those kinds of costumes from the seventies because we think that it’s going to be more fun for the people.”

The cast of Barrie Kosky’s innovative staging of Mozart’s *Cosi fan tutte*, at the Vienna State Opera
Photo by Hisayo Carroll

The Vienna State Opera staging of Cosi fan tutte features, for example, a soprano in Mom jeans, a baritone in Vans shoes, and a chambermaid doing what is essentially a pole dance. Kosky, the director, and the opera company was determined to freshen up a Mozart staple.

“Vienna’s opera scene is undergoing a period of rapid, essential evolution,” according to an article in the New York Times.

At the Volksoper, Lotte de Beer, 42, started as the house’s director two years ago. Since taking over, the company has featured several innovative staging.

“It feels a bit,” de Beer said, of renewing the art form, “like rebuilding a plane while flying.”

Back at the Vienna State Opera House, two years ago it didn’t even have a marketing department. They have one now. And dress rehearsals are now open to the public. Kosky has been contracted to direct a new cycle of Mozart’s operas. And in December, the State Opera will open a new theater nearby, the Französischer Saal, or French Hall, in the Künstlerhaus. Its first season will contain five world premieres, according to the Times reporting.

Modernity, heritage and novelty are braided together, and magic is made anew.