The Seefestspiele Mörbisch, originally: Seespiele Mörbisch, is an annual operetta festival in Mörbisch am See (Austria). With around 150,000 visitors, the Mörbisch Lake Festival is the world's largest festival of the operetta genre. In addition to operettas, classical musicals are also performed on an irregular basis. Above all, the natural scenery of Neusiedler See is always incorporated into the stage set. The area is very flat, so transmission technology specially developed for the Lake Festival is used.

The creation and development of the Seespiele Mörbisch was dominated by considerations of tourism policy. When, from 1953 onwards, efforts were made to develop Burgenland's tourism and to transform the visiting and transit area into a place to stay and relax, Lake Neusiedl and the lakeside communities were at the centre of these efforts. In the municipality of Mörbisch am See, the road between Rust and Mörbisch was extended with strong support from the tourism department, an 1800 m long lake dam, which opened up Lake Neusiedl to visitors from Mörbisch, was built and a lido was constructed.^[1] Mörbisch became the fourth important tourist community on the lake, alongside Rust, Neusiedl am See and Podersdorf am See. In 1956, the people of Mörbisch invited to a two-day Seefest. Together with the Austrian National Tourist Office [de], the community organised a so-called Night and Lake Festival, which was attended by 6000 guests. The programme offered night rides in decorated motorboats, music was provided by dance bands, Viennese artists performed a complete cabaret programme, and folk song and dance groups also performed.^[2]

In 1957, the Burgenland press announced the first highlight of the development of Mörbisch into a Burgenland tourist centre through the construction of a lakeside hotel..^[1] und der Abhaltung von Seespielen an und damit verbunden den Beginn eines neuen Abschnitts burgenländischen Wirtschafts- und Kulturaufstiegs.^[3]

The initiative for the Seespiele, founded in the years 1955–1957, came from the celebrated chamber singer Herbert Alsen (among others) at the Vienna State Opera (1906–1978), who, together with his wife, the costume designer Gisela Bossert (†2012), who had worked in Berlin, discovered the venue by chance while looking for a holiday location that was climatically conducive to his voice, and whom the peculiar musicality of this landscape^[4] permanently touched. Alsen's plans found favour with the municipal council of Mörbisch as well as with the representative of the province, Landesrat [de] Hans Bögl [de] (1899–1974), especially as the project fitted into the tourism concept of the municipality and the province, and Alsen subsequently agreed to take over the directorship of the Seespiele for an initial period of five years (with reference to possible competition with the Bregenz Festivals), stressing that the Seespiele in Mörbisch did not want to be a festival that would add to the excessive number of festival venues.^[5]

After two years of preparation, the opening took place on 6 July 1957 with the operetta The Gypsy Baron by Johann Strauss II.^[1]

The lake stage was built in a bay next to the Mörbisch bathing beach on many hundreds of piles according to the plans of architect Ferry Windberger [de] (1915–2008), the designer of the first Bregenz lake stage. Its dimensions were 42 by 20 m; the auditorium, created by filling in the lake, contained 1,500^{[6][N 1]} Seating capacity.^[7] After an extension in 1959, 3000 people could be accommodated. Today the auditorium has over 6000 seats. In the following years, due to the great audience response, there were constant expansions, both in terms of the number of performances and the size of the auditorium and stage. From an initial six performances with about 7000 spectators (1957), the number increased to over 30 performances in July and August.

In 2006, a new sound system developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology [de] and also in use at the Bregenz Festival was put into operation. This makes directional listening possible despite the size of the stage.^[8][9] For several years the premiere of the Seefestspiele was broadcast by the ORF.^[10] With the 2013 season, however, this practice was ended.

In 2018, specially staged performances for children were shown for the first time. A one-hour adaptation of Countess Mariza was shown in June 2018 on a stage set up on the festival grounds for a total of six performances. Up to 250 children were seated at each performance, and visitors were also given the opportunity to sing and dance along. The aim was to bring operetta closer to the children. The same soloists were on stage as in the regular performances.^[11] As part of the Österreichischer Musiktheaterpreis 2020 [de], the Seefestspiele received the prize for the best youth and children's musical theatre production for Land of Smiles for Children.^[12]

• 1957–1978: Herbert Alsen (intendant), Franziska Schurli (December 1919, 21 January 1984) (managing Director)
• 1979–1980: Fred Liewehr (artistic director), Franziska Schurli (managing director)^[13]
• 1981–1983: Franziska Schurli (artistic director and managing director)^[14]
• 1984–1989: Robert Herzl [de] (artistic director)^[15] Heinrich Meyer (managing director)^[16]
• 1990–1992: Rudolf Buczolich [de] (intendant),^[17] Josef Wiedenhofer (managing director).
• 1993–2012: Harald Serafin (artistic director), Dietmar Posteiner (managing director).
• 2013–2017: Dagmar Schellenberger (artistic director), Dietmar Posteiner (managing director)
• since 2018: Peter Edelmann.^[18] (artistic director), Dietmar Posteiner (managing director), since 2021 additionally Alfons Haider [de] as General Music Director of Burgenland.^[19]

From 1995 to 2008, Rudolf Bibl was musical director, and was appointed honorary member of the festival in 2013.^[20]

With a total of twelve seasons, The Gypsy Baron is by far the most frequently performed operetta in Mörbisch.

The 2020 Festival had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria. The production of West Side Story planned for 2020 was postponed to 2021. The stage decoration includes a 14 m high Statue of Liberty and the typical Manhattan brick buildings with fire escape, water elevator and neon advertising sign Nylon on the roof.^[25][26]

Sources

• Maria Awecker, Sabine Schmall, Heinz Hischenhuber (ed.), Margret Dietrich (ed.): Theatergeschichte des Burgenlandes von 1921 bis zur Gegenwart. Theatergeschichte Österreichs, vol. 8: Burgenland, fascicule 2, ZDB-ID 570996-9. Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Press, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-7001-2208-X– table of content (PDF).

• Eva Deissen (ed.): Mörbisch – ein Festival schreibt Operettengeschichte. Begleitmaterialien: CD. Echomedia-Verlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-901761-62-1.

• Official website

47°45′14″N 16°41′56″E / 47.75389°N 16.69889°E / 47.75389; 16.69889