Jochen Schönleber is a stage director and the artistic director of the "Rossini in Wildbad Belcanto Opera Festival" since almost 20 years.  The festival, which was created to honour the composer's memory, has transformed this beautiful place in a cultural centre, where promotion of young talent seems to be the main priority, even in the most difficult times. 

By @kassandra_dimopoulou_official  

Wildbad, 19/05/2020

How was the idea of the Rossini in Wildbad Belcanto Opera Festival born? Who started it and for what reason?
It started in 1989, when the tiny little „Königliches Kurtheater“ (built in the 1860s) was going to be demolished. The festival was launched to help a private association who wanted to convince the region‘s government that a theatre or any cultural event could work in the remote spa town of Wildbad.  I came in this game later.  It was a long way until we could re-open the beautifully restored theatre 2005 with Dame Joan Sutherland as a patron, Sir Peter Moores and Richard Bonynge CBE and Patric Schmid in the audience, while Alberto Zedda was conducting a top-cast.



Tell us a bit about the history of the place in conjunction with Giacomo Rossini’s life.  What happened to Rossini in Wildbad and what is the cultural heritage he left there?
Strangely, he did the same thing we do, but we didn‘t know that when we started to promote young singers.  Rossini was sick and depressive at the time he came to Wildbad, but the mild healing water seemed to help him, and so he started to compose the “Péchés de viellesse”, the sins of his old age, on German paper during his tour.  But the most interesting thing is that he gave little money to the poor and much attention to a young violinist, who played for him.  He was so excited that he later went to Heilbronn, the hometown of the 14 year old boy, to give him a recommendation letter for his friend Fétis at the Bruxelles conservatory.  The man was Hugo Herrmann, the second most important German violinist in the 19th century- after Joseph Joachim.  So, Rossini was promoting young talent, as we also constantly try to do.



You have been the artistic director of the Rossini n Wildbad Belcanto Opera Festival since 1992. What is the main difficulty, to hold such a position for so long?
To deal with the lack of money. Wildbad is still not the center of the world nor of the German economy.  When we lost the support of the Peter Moores Foundation during the financial crisis of 2008, it was hard to recover, but we have learned to do very much with very little money.



During the Rossini in Wildbad Belcanto OperaFestival each year, there is an Academy for young singers taking place.  Is it challenging to deal with such young people?
It is exciting!  After some masterclasses, we started the Akademie Bel Canto in 2004 with a marvelous project:  We recorded Rossini‘s “La Cenerentola” with the young  Joyce DiDonato and maestro Alberto Zedda conducting.  A group of young singers from the Bayerische Theaterakademie, preparing the same title, participated in the rehearsals and in some masterclasses.  I can proudly say that I did, not only insist to make Joyce sing this recording (which is still a beautiful document state of the art) but I also convinced her to do one of her early or maybe her first masterclass…



Many internationally acclaimed opera singers have started their way on the stage of the Königliches Theater in Wildbad, during the Festival.  Do some of them still come and sing there, or teach at the Akademie Belcanto for young singers?
It is astonishing to see how many of our young singers and Bel Canto Prize winners have made their way:  Pavol Brslik, Olga Peretyatko, Michael Spyres, Diana Haller, to mention only very few of them. Raúl Giménez, who started his „official” teaching career in Wildbad in 2003 has attracted a lot of talents.  Diana, the ideal singer actress, returned last year for a marvellous "Tancredi".  Michael Spyres had learned from me that he is a Barytenore, and he loves to repeat that story in interviews. He did not even know what that is nor did he know the repertory.  His marvellous "Otello" – together with Jessica Pratt, an ideal Desdemona at the time struggling to get on the career she merits- are unforgettable in this breathtaking production with Antonino Fogliani, our music director. Michael comes, if he has time – he is always very busy – for recordings like our uncut “Tell”  and of course we are discussing about future projects.



You are a director coming from the theatre world.  What was the thing that attracted you to the opera world and especially the Bel Canto era?
I needed healing!  I came from film to prose to opera, but I was stuck in the Wagner circuit in the beginning, preparing an edition of Wagner‘s first opera “Die Feen” and after an overdose of 14 performances in one Bayreuth year, which made me sick due to the way of staging and the terrible way of singing, I decided to change direction and via Bellini I came to the totally opposite world of Rossini, which was like a medicine for me.  Now I am of course back in Wagner, but I have my favorites even in contemporary and baroque operas.  Given this personal experience, for me the discussion between the envious Wagner and the generous Rossini, Wagner’s attack on the „artificial flowers“ and his final recognition of Rossini‘s unique merits in the story of opera are really funny to see.



What is your vision for the future of the Festival?
Peter Moores once wanted to grant a theatre, which I refused.  We would need another convenient place for the huge titles and play them in a convenient way.  So, developing spaces is an issue.  We have discovered a unique spiral structure, a 40 m tall wooden tower on the top of Wildbad‘s mountain for our concerts soon after construction in 2015.  The view, the environment of the Black Forest and the acoustics are unique:  Birds are beautifully responding to the music and the rest is total silence.  There are some projects for this amazing place, but it is a real challenge, especially for logistics...



COVID- 19 has been changing the culture internationally.  How are you dealing, as a director of such an important festival, with this fact?  Is there going to be a Festival this summer?
COVID-19 will be a mortal threat to our business for more than a year and there is no easy way to deal with it.  Our rehearsals were scheduled from 2nd June in Poland and this was absolutely impossible.  In Kraków, public performances are not allowed during  June and we had three productions scheduled there with our friends from the Royal Opera Festival.  The main festival was cancelled.  All other major festivals were cancelled, too, except Rossini’s Festival in Pesaro in August 2020. They have their Teatro Rossini with boxes for the „isolated“ audience and they put the orchestra in the centre, instead of the stalls.  I like the idea, although it is pretty expensive and has obviously little audience.  I still hope that we can hold a smaller festival with some young talents in September 2020 and I have developed a project for our originally scheduled piano opera for young singers according to the Corona- rules.  It is interesting to see that a title like “Isola Disabitata” (opera by J. Haydn) can easily refer to our actual situation of isolation.



What would you advise a very young artist today, considering the big global changes in the artistic field and the recent situation?
It was never easy to get in a career and not even major protection or personal influence can guarantee this.  The incredible number of interesting voices from all over the world is nowadays a real challenge.  You must be strong and you must have a mission.  If you absolutely need to do what you do, you can make it.  Look for the best teachers that fit for you, even if they say things you do not like in the first moment and try to have a “plan B”  for terrible times like now.  By the way:  Our audience has sacrificed a lot of money of their ticket reimbursements when we had to cancel this summer's festival and we will support young singers, who have a really bad time right now.


Which is your favourite opera to hear and why?
Ooooh... I think Beethoven's "Fidelio", which is not an "opera", but a hymn to love and humanity. But my preference changes from time to time.



Art is… 
...bringing rhythm and beauty in a world of chaos.