Artistic director Alessandro De Marchi presented the programme of the Innsbruck Festival 2012. The 36th Innsbruck Festival will feature performances of operas by Provenzale, Bontempi, Monteverdi and D. Scarlatti, with a special focus on the “beauty of the unknown”. Tickets for the 2012 Festival can be purchased from Saturday 26 November. In 2012, the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music will set out on a journey to distant countries and cultures. The motto “the beauty of the unknown” guarantees the discovery of popular and traditional music within the broad field of Baroque music. The Festival will offer an exciting insight into the world of Early Music from China to Argentina and it will spark the audience’s fascination for the various musical worlds of the Baroque era. European Baroque composers were very interested in foreign cultures and used them as sources of inspiration for their musical language. Favourite destinations in 2012 will be four opera productions, numerous concerts, the International Singing Competition for Baroque Opera Pietro Antonio Cesti and an extensive fringe programme. In Summer 2012 the audience will undertake an exciting journey to explore the beauty of the unknown, led by artistic director Alessandro De Marchi, Christina Pluhar, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Riccardo Minasi, Academia Montis Regalis, L’Arpeggiata, Concerto Italiano, Musica Antiqua Roma, Max Emanuel Cencic, Dominique Visse, Jennifer Rivera and many more. The Innsbruck Festival of Early Music will again include four opera productions. Alessandro De Marchi will conduct two operas from the harpsichord. Next summer, the artistic director of the Festival will invite the audience to join him on a journey to 17th century Naples. De Marchi brings on stage one of the two operas of Francesco Provenzale whose music scores have survived to the present day, “La Stellidaura vendicante” (The Revenge of Stellidaura). The title role will be performed by American mezzo-soprano Jennifer Rivera, who in 2010 captivated the audience in Pergolesi’s “L’Olimpiade”. The second opera that will premiere at the Tyrolean State Theatre is “Il Paride” and will be conducted by Austrian lutenist Christina Pluhar who will come to Innsbruck with her ensemble L’Arpeggiata. “Il Paride” by Giovanni Andrea Bontempi is considered the first Italian opera to premiere in a German-speaking country. The high-class ensemble will include countertenor Dominique Visse, well-known to the Innsbruck Festival audience. This “universe of feelings” will be directed by opera director Christoph von Bernuth. Last year, the BAROQUE OPERA:YOUNG production of “La Calisto”, which aimed at supporting and promoting young singers, was a great success. In 2012, selected participants of the 2nd International Singing Competition for Baroque Opera Pietro Antonio Cesti 2011 will be given the great opportunity to demonstrate their vocal and stylistic abilities in a production of Claudio Monteverdi’s “L’incoronazione di Poppea”. The parts of Poppea and Emperor Nero, who is enchanted by her beauty, are sung by the sopranos Emöke Baráth and Tehila Nini Goldstein, who were awarded 1st and 2nd prizes in the 2011 Cesti Competition. Once again, a comic opera will be performed at Ambras Castle. Alessandro De Marchi will conduct the intermezzo “La Dirindina” by Domenico Scarlatti, a buffonesque farce from 1715 in a semi-staged production in the Spanish Hall. The intermezzo will be directed by Christoph von Bernuth. In 2012 the International Singing Competition for Baroque Opera Pietro Antonio Cesti will be held for the third time and many new talents are expected to come to Innsbruck and dive into the world of Baroque opera. Tickets for the 2012 Festival can be purchased from 26 November 2011.