Kristiane Kaiser celebrates her first appearance with Salzburg Festival this summer with the performances of Otto Nicolai’s opera-rarity Il templario. As Rovena she performs Vilfredo d’Ivanhoe’s girlfriend. Singing the title-role, Knight-Templar Vilfredo, the world-famous tenor Juan Diego Flórez assembles an international cast in Salzburg. Due to Kristiane Kaiser’s frequently demonstrated enthusiasm for unusual repertory (Lachner’s Catharina Cornaro, Humperdinck’s Sleeping Beauty, Richard Strauss‘ Feuersnot, a. o.) she is downright predestined for the task which brings her to Salzburg Festival for the very first time.

Otto Nicolai was the founder of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra which is reviving his Italian Belcanto-opera in Salzburg. Like so many other operas of this style Il templario is based on a subject from Sir Walter Scott’s English dark romanticism. The Vienna Philharmonic is performing the most rarely performed piece under Andrés Orozco-Estrada’s baton; the concert performances are taking place at the Main Festival Hall on August 27th and 30th at 3 pm.