Innsbruck Festival of Early Music is celebrating

Currently, the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music is taking place. It is the last season of Alessandro De Marchi as artistic director.

Antonio Vivaldi composed several vocal works alongside his instrumental pieces. A baroque musical jewel, which can hardly be surpassed in drama, is hidden behind the remarkable “Juditha triumphans devicta Holofernis barbarie”, or “Judith triumphing over the barbarism of Holofernes”. The only surviving oratorio by Antonio Vivaldi, which premiered in 1716 in the Chiesa Santa Maria della Pietà in Venice, deals with the well-known theme of the widow Judith, who first seduces the war general Holofernes, only to then behead him with his own sword. A dramatic end for Holofernes – a scenic performance not to be missed of “Juditha triumphans” under the direction of Alessandro De Marchi and the all-female ensemble led by soprano Arianna Vendittelli, with mezzo-sopranos Sophie Rennert, Emilie Renard, Anastasia Boldyreva and Lorrie Garcia, as well as the Innsbrucker Festwochenorchester.

Tommaso Traetta’s oratorio “Rex Salomon” will be staged with also an all-female cast of singers. Conducted by the French master Christophe Rousset, the soprano Eleonora Bellocci, the 2019 Cesti winner, mezzo-soprano Grace Durham and 2016 Cesti finalist, among others, can be heard alongside the Tyrolean vocal ensemble NovoCanto and the Theresia Orchestra.

This year’s festive finale will not be the usual Cesti Competition. It will be the final concert of long-time artistic director Alessandro De Marchi. Together with the internationally celebrated viola virtuoso Antoine Tamestit, he will perform concertos and symphonies by Vivaldi.