ATTACHED TO SALZBURG
Sylvain Cambreling conducts "The Little Match Girl"
Sylvain Cambreling, conductor of the “sound-picture installation” of Helmut Lachenmann’s spectacular music theatre Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern (The Little Match Girl) on 30 August in the Felsenreit-schule, has had close links with the Salzburg Festival since 1985.
Impressive evenings of opera
The former music director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels followed Gerard Mortier to Salzburg and since 1992 Cambreling’s conducting of major opera evenings – Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande (directed by Robert Wilson), Janácek’s Kát’a Kabanová and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (both directed by Christoph Marthaler), Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust in the production by La Fura dels Baus, and, by the same composer Les Troyens (directed by Herbert Wernicke) left a distinct impression.
Advocate of new music
As conductor of the world premiere of Berio’s Cronaca del luogo Cambreling also proved to be a sensitive advocate of contemporary music, a sphere to which he is particularly committed – he is currently principal conductor of the South-West German Radio Symphony Orchestra and principal guest conductor of the Klangforum Wien and has enjoyed great success with both ensembles. From 1993 to 1997 Cambreling, who was born in 1948 in Amiens, was artistic director and general music director of the Frankfurt Opera, a house where despite unfavourable economic circumstances he managed to create a strong profile with lively, modern productions of music theatre, in a balanced symbiosis of music, staging and singing.
Karl Harb