A. Lange & Söhne - Salzburg Whitsun Festival
WORLDTEMPUS - 28 May 2010
The packed hall full of elegantly clad music lovers revealed everything the casual watch aficionado might want to know about this particular premier: A Lange & Söhne has used their sponsoring money to back a cultural event that dramatically captures the imaginations of its followers and the spirit of the values that the Saxon brand lovingly projects.
The president of the festival, Helga Rabl-Stader, was particularly pleased to talk about this year's Whitsun premier, Betulia Liberata, an oratorio written by the then fourteen-year-old Mozart that tells the Old Testament story of Judith in two acts. Celebrated Neapolitan artist Riccardo Muti musically directed the perfectly performed spectacle, aided by his young Orchestra Giovanili Luigi Cherubini. Two of the main character singers were members of the Salzburg Young Singers Project, sponsored by Lange's Richemont sister brand Montblanc.
"The fact that the fourteen-year-old Mozart met Niccolò Jommelli in Naples and both set to music a text by the same librettist gave me the idea of performing these works together," Muti says of the two operas centering on the same theme scheduled to be performed during the course of the Whitsun festival. "It was usually decided to give this work as a concert performance, but there are equally as many arguments for staging it. Nowadays many attempts are made to present oratorios or passions on stage."
The Salzburg Whitsun Festival takes place against the dramatic backdrop of Salzburg in the historical Mozart House, which is built right into the side of the Mönchsberg. The stage carved out of the mountain to form the Rock Riding School in 1693—one of the three theater locations found here—was used to film a scene from The Sound of Music. This formed the dramatic backdrop of Lange's pre-show reception.
This year, the sound of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival's melodious music was accompanied by the enthusiastic sound of ticking—from the Lange watches tastefully perched on the wrists of many guests in attendance.