A piece of happiness – re-discover early music
With a programme titled 'A piece of happiness', the new artistic director of the Inns-bruck Festival Weeks, Alessandro De Marchi lets music from the Italian Renaissance and Baroque period take centre stage in this year’s festival. During the Renaissance and Baroque eras Innsbruck was relishing in the golden age of music, an era strongly influenced by the musical talents of neighbouring Italy with its famous composers and operas. This year's festival programme continues the emphasis of Innsbruck's affiliation with Italian art. This becomes particularly apparent with the performances of L’Olimpiade and Ottone in villa, operas by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and Antonio Vivaldi respectively. Both operas are – true to the Baroque spirit – full of romantic trials and tribulations, enthralling the audiences with exceptionally beautiful, ingenious music.

The concerts performed in the fabric of the Innsbruck Festival Weeks lead the audience on a path encompassing the entire European continent. There will be per-formances by Tyrolean musicians such as the ensemble moderntimes_1800 and organist Peter Waldner. In addition the Spanish soprano Nuria Rial will feature in several concerts and the Italian ensemble Il Giardino Armonico and Café Zimmermann, named after Johann Sebastian Bach's favourite musical venue in Leipzig, will also perform. Compositions by Bach and Pergolesi, Monteverdi and Sweelinck, as well as Scheidt, Kapsberger and many others will take the listener back to the happiness of times gone by. The 47th Ambras Castle Concerts, which traditionally take place on four consecutive Tuesdays in July and August, will transform into festive Italian soirees, as the distinc-tive ambience of the Spanish Hall provides the perfect setting for themes such as Caravaggio's Music, A Guitar's Journey, Roman Violin and Ariadne's Thread.

The Innsbruck Festival Chorus project with its focus on academic coaching contin-ues also in 2010. A new addition to the programme, however, is the Innsbruck Baroque Opera Contest named after the Italian composer Pietro Antonio Cesti, where young singers from all over the world will compete against each other for the chance to win a place in an Opera production scheduled for 2011.

Information and advance ticket sales: Innsbrucker Festwochen, tel. +42-512-561561, fax +43-512-563142, festwochen@altemusik.at, www.altemusik.at