For two decades now, it has been a cultural institution in the Retzer Land region - a place for encounters, reflection and artistic innovation. The festival, which took place for the first time in 2005, has since become an integral part of the regional and international cultural landscape. At the interface between Austrian identity, European diversity and a deeply rooted sense of community, the Retz Festival focuses on creative continuity and future-oriented programming. In its anniversary year, the Retz Festival remains true to its vision: cultural depth, artistic relevance and social dialog at the highest level. It invites you to retell history, to open up spaces for encounters - and to shape the future together.

Looking ahead: the festival as a platform for the future
In its 20th edition, the Retz Festival is consciously looking to the future. As a cultural platform, it also wants to be a driving force in the coming decade: for artistic border crossings, regional identity building and international cooperation. With a varied program of opera, concerts, world premieres and interdisciplinary formats, 2025 will be a special kind of festival year.

Retz parish church © Cornelia Wurst

The centerpiece of church opera: "SALOME" by Antonio Maria Bononcini
The Retz Festival is the only cultural institution in Europe that has been continuously dedicated to cultivating the musical genre of church opera for 20 years. The annual new production of a church opera is the heart of the festival program. The core theme of the respective work determines the entire event in a variety of ways. At the center of the 2025 anniversary edition is the church opera "SALOME" - La Decollazione di San Giovanni Battista by Antonio Maria Bononcini (1709), a baroque setting of the biblical story of John the Baptist, King Herod and his stepdaughter Salome.
Together with Israeli choreographer Jasmin Avissar and under the musical direction of chief conductor Luca De Marchi, Swiss filmmaker Nicole Aebersold is staging "SALOME" as a multimedia discourse on the consolidation of a distorted image of femininity. It shows us the male gaze, which turns women who have to survive in a man's world into monstrous objects. The parish church of St. Stephen is transformed into a projection screen, a visual echo chamber, as it were, of 2,000 years of male prejudice. As with the 2024 festival, the filming will take place with the active participation of the people of Retz.

Opening and ceremony - an event in a class of its own!
The anniversary year will be opened with a ceremony on July 10, 2025. It begins with a procession led by the voice of Retz - the Retz town band - and leads across the main square to the Althof. A top-class concert event awaits the audience there: Italian contralto Sara Mingardo, a world-renowned prima donna of early music, will be performing in Retz. The Ensemble Continuum Wien will perform under the musical direction of Luca De Marchi. Afterwards, Retz's main square will be transformed into a stage for the legendary ensemble Die Knoedel, who will provide an atmospheric finale with original folk music, humor and passion.
The motto of the supporting program - femininity - also determines the further events of the 20th edition of the Festival Retz.

Luca De Marchi © Barbara Palffy

CEMBALISSIMO
2025, the town of Retz's new harpsichord - a faithful replica of a Baroque instrument - will be inaugurated on July 12 in Retz's Bürgersaal with a concert by Italian harpsichordist Elisabetta Guglielmin. Together with the Aimart Antico ensemble from Rome, the virtuoso will whisk you away into the sound cosmos of the 17th and 18th centuries. Her interpretations combine historical performance practice and bravura playing technique to create an impressive musical experience.

Concert with Martin Mairinger
On July 17, the historic Liszt grand piano will resound in the Retzer Stadtmuseum: tenor Martin Mairinger, born in the Retzer Land region, will interpret Schubert's "Die schöne Müllerin", bringing another facet of the festival's theme of "femininity" to the stage.

Gala concert at Schrattenthal Castle
The traditional gala concert will once again take place in the garden of the baroque Schrattenthal Castle on July 19. Italian soprano Sandra Foschiatto and the Pandolfis Consort Vienna will perform Luigi Boccherini's extremely rarely performed first version of the "Stabat Mater" - the haunting opus on the cusp of the Baroque and Classical periods will be framed by other works by the composer, the 220th anniversary of whose death will be celebrated.

New format RETZitativ - a world premiere
With the new concert format RETZitativ, the festival is giving a stage to a new generation of Austrian artists. The multi-award-winning composer and vocalist Susanna Ridler will kick things off with a musical-literary world premiere paying tribute to the work of the late author Helena Adler on July 26 in Retzer Sparkassengarten. This innovative format will be introduced on July 24 by a female lecture by historian Andrea Griesebner, who will look at the history of marriage and divorce law from a female perspective.

Crossing borders: culture without barriers!
Since it was founded, the Retz Festival has had the motto "Open Borders" - a claim that will be lived out again in 2025.
Concerts and projects take place across borders in Austria and the Czech Republic. Highlights include: the concert on the Thaya Bridge in Hardegg with ANIADA A NOAR, the debut of the duo ZOAT in the Nusswaldkellergasse Platt, the cross-border organ tour with Ines Schüttengruber, Ondřej Múčk and Benedikt Fehringer and the hike to the Holy Stone with cymbal music by the ensemble Antonin Stehlík
July 10 to 27, 2025
www.festivalretz.at