Easter Festival at Rheinsberg Castle: Excursion to Prussian Arcadia

The harvest has barely been brought in when the farmer’s thoughts are already turning to next spring. Classical music fans who also like to plan well in advance can now look forward to the program of the 2025 Easter Festival at Rheinsberg Castle – which appropriately deals with the theme of rural idyll under the motto “The Dream of Arcadia”.

First the sheepfold, then the throne room

Shepherd games, so-called pastorals, were extremely popular among the nobles in the 18th century, at the time when the Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich and later his brother Heinrich resided in the Ruppiner Land. The focus of the Easter Festival, which takes place from April 17th to 21st, will be Mozart’s opera “The Royal Shepherd,” which was premiered in 1775, or “Il re pastore” in Italian.

Aminta lives happily in the middle of nature, looks after his flock of sheep and is looking forward to his wedding to Elisa. But then it turns out that he is a nobleman and should even ascend to the throne of his homeland at the request of Alexander the Great… Directed by André Bücker, young prizewinners of the singing competition of the Rheinsberg Castle Chamber Opera sing, accompanied by the Potsdam Chamber Academy.

The festival will be opened on Maundy Thursday by the Lautten Compagney Berlin with the passion oratorio “The Death of Jesus”, written by the Prussian court composer Carl Heinrich Graun. This time in the area of ​​drama, “The Mood of the Lover” can be experienced, written in 1779 by the 19-year-old Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Directed by the young Berliner Carlo Nevio Wilfart.

Finally, the matinee concert on Easter Sunday is idyllic, with works from Mozart’s “Bastien and Bastienne” to Schubert’s “The Shepherd on the Rock”. Instrumentalists from the Barenboim-Said Academy perform, the arias are performed by tenor Maximilian Vogler and soprano Valérie Fleur Ryser.