With the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the monastery district, the festival has a venue that, thanks to its history and exciting interaction with art, is particularly inviting for cultural impulses. The St. Gallen Festival 2025 will present a gripping musical drama in the monastery courtyard: Giacomo Puccini's tragic and probably best-known masterpiece "Tosca" as an open-air performance. And in the Parkarena, the twisty comedy by Dietmar Jacobs and Moritz Netenjakob "Kalter Weisser Mann" will be performed.
Tosca
Opera in the monastery courtyard
"I lived for art, I lived for love." - And yet the singer Floria Tosca finds herself in a maelstrom of betrayal, torture and murder from which there is no escape: Tosca tries to rescue her lover, the painter Mario Cavaradossi, from the clutches of the brutal police chief Scarpia.
He demands a night together as the price for Tosca's release. Afterwards, she and Cavaradossi are to be allowed to leave Rome unmolested, concealed by the mock execution of her lover. Tosca agrees, but stabs Scarpia in the heat of the moment. But even in death, the scheming chief of police has the reins of events firmly in his hands. Based on Victorien Sardou's drama, Giacomo Puccini wrote Tosca, one of the best-known and most popular operas in the repertoire to this day. Passionate music interspersed with elements of verismo, captivating arias such as Vissi d'arte and E lucevan le stelle, an emotional triangular constellation and a gripping political background make this work an operatic thriller that has thrilled audiences since its premiere in 1900.
In the summer of 2025, the St. Gallen Concert and Theater will return to the Klosterhof with Puccini's opera after a one-year break. The team led by Argentinian director Marcos Darbyshire, who previously staged Piazzolla's tango opera María de Buenos Aires at UM!BAU, will devote itself to this gripping opera plot about love, jealousy and murder and bring Castel Sant'Angelo and the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle to life in front of the collegiate church.
Premiere June 20, 2025
Further dates: June 21, 24, 27 and 28; July 2 and 4, 2025
St. Gallen Festival, "Il trovatore", 2019 © Concert and Theater St. Gallen
Cold white man
Play in the Parkarena
Gernot Steinfels, patriarch of a company steeped in tradition, passed away peacefully at the age of 94. His long-time employee Matthias Bohne organizes the funeral service. Bohne is convinced that he will finally become his successor. But at the funeral, the wreath ribbon with the inscription "In deep mourning. Your employees" caused a stir. The women in the workforce feel excluded. A heated debate about sexism, gender stars and political correctness breaks out. The "old white man" quickly finds himself on the defensive and not only has the marketing manager and the secretary against him, but also a self-confident female intern. The tensions between the generations and the sexes come to light. In front of the assembled mourners, the company's management ultimately tear each other apart more and more in this pointed and humorous play. Even the desperate priest can no longer calm the waters.
Following the success of Extrawurst, Dietmar Jacobs and Moritz Netenjakob once again present a sharp-tongued and highly topical comedy. In Kalter weißer Mann, the author duo take a humorous look at today's politically correct language aimed at social equality.
Premiere June 12, 2025
Further dates: June 15, 17, 22, 25, 26, 29 and 30, 2025
Concert and Theater St. Gallen/Klanghaus Toggenburg
Sound dance at Klanghaus Toggenburg
New alpine music and dance
What happens when city meets countryside?
In this special case, the St.Gallen dance company meets the Toggenburg sound world. For once, the dark stage space is swapped for the foothills of the Alps in Eastern Switzerland. Two artistic directors are behind this unique co-production: Frank Fannar Pedersen (Tanzkompanie St. Gallen) and Christian Zehnder (Klangwelt Toggenburg). What began a few years ago with a spontaneous dance and sound action as part of the first "FestimFall" at the Johanneum in Neu St. Johann is now being continued in a joint opening production for the Klanghaus. It features the St.Gallen Dance Company, as well as various musicians, all of whom cultivate their very own folk music and connection to the Alps - and always create something surprisingly innovative from it. Together they create a unique dance and sound performance that celebrates the joy of tradition and artistic experimentation in equal measure: An exciting and unheard-of experience for all the senses!
May 30 and 31, June 13, 2025
