Life + Celebration Concert 2018

For the seventh time, the elegant LIFE+ CELEBRATION CONCERT on June 1, 2018 will kick off the Life Ball weekend. With the tenors Jonas Kaufmann, Andreas Schager, the mezzo-soprano Elena Maximova, bass René Pape, bariton Bo Skovhus, and the sopranos Hila Fahim and Kristin Lewis using their talent to serve this good cause, international opera stars will raise their voices for those impacted by and living with HIV/AIDS. They will be accompanied by the Wiener KammerOrchester under Azis Adikovic and the Philharmonia Chorus under Walter Zeh.

The LIFE+ CELEBRATION CONCERT 2018 is all about the shimmering term of „Home“ and addressing questions like: What is home? A place, faith, a feeling, a memory? Or is it the people and the customs? The theme will be present throughout the opera performances and short readings of the Austrian literature canon – read by acting stars like Markus Meyer and Sunnyi Melles, as well as a solo performance by violin virtuoso Lidia Baich.

In rememberance on 80 years since the Annexation of Austria and this dark period of human history, artist Ute Lemper will sing Songs for Eternity, Yiddish songs written in the ghettos and concentration camps.

Home is Where No One Has Ever Been, this is the subtitle of this years concert. The Viennese artist and pioneer of Fantastic Realism, Arik Brauer, implemented the theme artistically. His poster shows that home does not have to be a place but can be so much more.

Wiener Burgtheater