And it seems there is hardly a day to be found in the Austrian cultural calendar when a festival of one sort or another is not taking place. Salzburg puts on Verdi s last masterpiece, Falstaff , with Bryn Terfel in the title role. The Vienna State Opera pays tribute to Verdi throughout the year , and the Klangbogen Festival in Vienna performs one of Verdi s lesser known operas, Luisa Miller . And on many locations all over Austria, Verdi s non-operatic masterpiece Messa da Requiem will be played in honor of this beloved composer. It is true, though, that Austrians need no festival to celebrate music in all its different incarnations.
Music abounds in Austria throughout the rest of the year.
After all, music is the one language that everyone understands. According to one reviewer, Giuseppe Verdi must have had Bryn Terfel in mind when he wrote his Falstaff for several years now, this magnificent Welsh baritone has delighted audiences all over the world as Shakespeare s plump knight. At Salzburg s Easter Festival, Terfel makes his first Austrian appearance in this new production of Falstaff in conjunction with the Salzburg Summer Festival. The Easter Festival s mentor, Claudio Abbado , will conduct the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra . At this festival, the Berlin Philharmonic will perform a number of other concerts under the batons of Abbado and Zubin Mehta , with pianist Maurizio Pollini as the soloist.