Artistic director Christophe Slagmuylder has announced 36 productions, including eight world premieres and a lavish new production of Alban Berg's Lulu. There are no fewer than 20 venues – all of Vienna is a stage for the 165 performances of the Vienna Festival in 2023. From Parliament to the Porgy & Bess jazz club.

Opening: Open-air event on City Hall Square

A festival for everyone is celebrated by the Vienna Festival on May 12 as it marks the start to five weeks of international theater art: The large open-air event on City Hall Square is an event of many surprises, conceived by Hyung-ki Joo (a pianist and much more besides), with many special guests from various art disciplines. The concert extends beyond the stage on City Hall Square. A visual firework will be projected onto the façade of City Hall. – Plus live broadcast on ORF and 3sat.

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Among the festival highlights

• The star Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó shows his original version of the Netflix production Pieces of a Woman (Netflix 2020).
• Milo Rau – the festival's future artistic director – brings Antigone im Amazonas to the Burgtheater.
• The first opera production of the Cape Verdi choreographer Marlene Monteiro Freitas: A new production of Alban Berg's Lulu.
• The French shooting star Julien Gosselin blends Arthur Schnitzler and Austrian literature of the 20th century in Extinction.
• The celebrated British director Simon McBurney produces the novel Gesang der Fledermäuse by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Olga Tokarczuk, in Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. – Are forest animals committing murder on a Polish summer house estate?
• William Kentridge presents his internationally celebrated chamber opera Sibyl.
• The visual artist Stan Douglas, together with the avant-garde composer George Lewis, stages the life of the African American musician "Blind Tom" Wiggins in Song of the Shank.
• Turner Prize winner Laure Prouvost brings an Ohmmm age Oma je ohomma mama to the Kunsthalle Wien: The first solo exhibition of the French artist in Austria.

For the younger among us & cabaret

With Pinocchio by Wu Tsang and her group Moved by the Motion, Skatepark by Mette Ingvartsen, the Biennale hit Sun & Sea as well as the Selected Classical Works of R&B musician Devonté Hynes, there is a stronger program for younger festival visitors on the agenda. Reduced-price tickets are available via the new U30 offering.

In cooperation with Austrian artists like Maria Muhar, Toxische Pommes or David "Dave" Scheid, the cabaret tradition of the festival will be reinvigorated this year. With a contemporary approach, of course.

© Neon Realism © Courtesy of the artists

Festival nights

Another tip: Art and music for night-owls is available in the club Liaison (Th & Su), in the Festival Lounge at Porgy & Bess (Fr), and at the festival party at Club U (Sa). The festival happenings continue here with free admission.

Vienna Festival 2023

May 12 - June 21, 2023
May 12, 2023: Open-air opening on City Hall Square – live broadcast on ORF and 3sat (9.20 pm). Free admission.
Various venues
Program, information, tickets: www.festwochen.at

That was the 2022 festival