Euphoria, excitement, enthusiasm

What a start to the Ludwigsburg Castle Festival on opening weekend! Three days with three sold-out performances, two brilliant »replacement« musicians, and one special hero: a pair of reading glasses.

Music returns to the palace

Even before the official opening concert, the young pianist Vsevolod Zavidov dazzled the audience at the first concert of the festival season in the Ordenssaal. And it is a wonderful experience—not only for the audience but equally for the entire Ludwigsburg Festival team—to hear music resonating once again through the venerable walls of Ludwigsburg Palace. Zavidov’s performance—as gripping as it was virtuosic—was a pure delight, rightly crowned with two encores.

»Revel in complete bliss, in glory, in the joy of love!«

On Saturday, a piece of bad news threatened to dampen this surge of euphoria: Marc Minkowski, the evening’s conductor, was unable to conduct »Orlando« due to illness. The emotional roller coaster that Handel’s opera already promises became almost too real—at least for our KPP. But help was at hand: Clément Pottier stepped in without hesitation to take over the musical direction. The result was a thoroughly enthusiastic audience that paid tribute to the early music ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre and the soloists Aude Extrémo, Ana Maria Labin, Jake Ingbar, Trevor Eliot Boews, and Alicia Amo with standing ovations.
The press was particularly impressed by the »magic box of timbres from the ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre« (StZ) and the singers’ »abundance of virtuosic high notes and coloratura« (theaterkompass.de). A wonderful start to the opera season at the Baroque Palace Theater!

»Nabucco in Ludwigsburg—today it was Paris, today it was Vienna«

All good things come in—twos? This slight twist on the saying reflects both joy and sorrow regarding our opening weekend: once again, a replacement had to be found at the last minute, this time for Luca Salsi, who had fallen ill and was supposed to sing the title role in »Nabucco«. And this is precisely where the joyful side comes into play, because aside from Luca Salsi, there is exactly one other baritone who is up to this challenging role, and even though he had sung »La Traviata« at the Paris Opera just the night before, he traveled here without hesitation to save the performance: Ludovic Tézier!

What a »Nabucco«—the opera chorus and orchestra of the Nationaltheater Mannheim, conductor Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, and the soloists Csilla Boross, Sung Min Song, Sung Ha, Renatus Meszar, Julia Faylenbogen, Zinzi Frohwein, Dominic Lee, and Ludovic Tézier thrilled the Forum, which was filled to capacity. A more than worthy performance of Verdi’s dramatic masterpiece—even Minister President Cem Özdemir couldn’t resist commenting: »I didn’t regret missing the national team’s game today.«

As is so often the case, however, it’s the little things that make the biggest impact—to borrow another idiom. After all, all the opulence and expressiveness of this festival opening wouldn’t have been possible without the reading glasses of a member of the festival team. Thanks to them, Ludovic Tézier always had a clear view of his sheet music, which he kept on stage just to be safe.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who celebrated this opening weekend with us! Here’s to many more wonderful moments during the festival season.