New Year’s concerts in Vienna
There is no New Year’s Eve in Vienna without the operetta by Johann Strauss “The Bat” and without the Philharmonic Orchestra’s New Year’s Concert on January 1st. But you can also start the new year in music with opera, with Beethoven, a good dose of comedy or even whistling.
Where the Bat flies
There are two opera houses that offer The batthe most famous operetta by Johann Strauss, in the New Year period: the Vienna Volksoper (31/12 and 1/1) andVienna State Opera (31/12, 1, 3 and 5/1). In Vienna, rarely has an opera been as successful as this one. From the premiere of 1874 onwards, the opera was performed most frequently, from 1900 almost always on New Year’s Eve. In a light narrative style, The bat it approaches the varieties of erotic and social dissimulation and makes bourgeois facades dance, including political and social commentary.
Other end-of-year theater programs: nella Kammeroper – played by Theater an der Wien – opera aficionados can end the year with musical comedy by Vicente Martin and Soler Diana’s tree (Diana’s tree; of 1787). The libretto is by Lorenzo Ponte. In the production of the Spanish director Rafael R. Villalobos, the opera, with its singing arias and ensembles, presents itself almost like a high school musical of Viennese classicism. (27, 29, 31/12)
New Year’s Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
The most famous concert in the world, namely the New Year’s concert, takes place every year on the morning of 1 January in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna (preview with identical program on 30 and 31 December). In 2022/23 the honor of conducting the orchestra falls to Franz Welser-Mös. This year, the concert will be broadcast from home on TV in over 90 countries.
Also in the Wiener Ring Ensemble some component of the Philharmonic Orchestra is hidden. In the atmospheric Brahms Hall of the Musikverein, this chamber ensemble gives another classical music concert at the end of the year. (30 and 31/12)
Beethoven and Strauss in the Konzerthaus
The ideal place to spend the New Year is the Wiener Konzerthaus with his music program full of appointments:
- Nikolaus Habjan belongs to the rare species of whistlers – to be listened to with Friends and the “Air” program (29/12).
- The Wiener Symphoniker greet the old year with the Beethoven’s Ninth Symphonyconducted by Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä (30 and 31/12, 1/1).
- The Sándor & Ádám Jávorkai brings Hungarian melodies full of temperament: “From Budapest with Love” (30/12)
- I Philharmonic await you for a festive New Year’s Gala: for the seven members of the ensemble, the joy of interpreting has no limits, from classical to rock and jazz to klezmer. Also: the Juventus choir. (31/12)
- There Strauss Festival Orchestra Wien with the program “Freuet euch des Lebens” (“Joy of life”) he offers Viennese melodies full of energy composed by the Strauss dynasty (29.12. and 1.1).
Viennese and different
Unusual theatrical formats are also proposed at San Silvestro: in the crypt of the church of San Pietro the operetta ensemble Oper@Tee a sparkling and exhilarating interpretation of the Bat with piano accompaniment (29, 31/12, 7/1). Fun and very close to the public.
For valiant men and women: LEO – Letztes Erfreuliches Operntheater in the LEO-Silvestergala adopts a humorous, amusing and indeed very bizarre approach: from tango to operetta to grand opera, from Viennese songs via Kurt Weill to the Merry Widow. With two leading ladies, the landlord, a pianist, a couple of dancers. And delights for the palate.
Find your favorite event
New Year’s Eve brings many more events to the Viennese stages – come on concerts (Karl Ratzer Silvester Special in the Jazzclub Porgy & Bess, New Year’s Concert by the Tonkünstler Orchestra in the Musikverein on 5, 7 and 8/1) to pass the theater (I Demons by Dostoyevsky in Burgtheater, The forest by Ostrowskij in the Theater in der Josefstadt) until musical (The hunchback of Notre Dame, Rebecca). Here is the schedule: here