Vienna State Opera Chorus Association Plans Centenary Matinee

The Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor will celebrate its centenary with a matinee at the Vienna State Opera on January 10, 2027, at 11am. Marco Armiliato will conduct a programme bringing the association’s choral identity into the foreground of its own anniversary event.

Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana forms the principal work, with Verdi’s Va, pensiero from Nabucco also announced. The soloists are soprano Slávka Zámečníková, tenor Matthäus Schmidlechner and baritone Étienne Dupuis. The Vienna State Opera’s stage orchestra and opera school join the performance, and Thomas Lang is responsible for chorus preparation.

Tickets are due to go on sale on November 2 through the State Opera’s website and the federal theatres’ ticket offices. The January date places the celebration at the start of a new year of musical activity in Vienna.

The association was established by members of the Vienna State Opera Chorus to undertake engagements beyond the opera house. Its activity developed into international concerts and a particularly close relationship with the Salzburg Festival, where it has become an important part of opera and concert performance.

That dual identity is reflected in the anniversary repertoire. Verdi’s chorus is inseparable from the dramatic world of Nabucco, while Orff’s cantata offers a concert platform for collective rhythmic energy, contrasting vocal textures and the interaction of chorus and soloists.

The event also directs attention to work often absorbed into a production’s larger identity. Opera audiences may remember a conductor, a leading singer or a staging before recalling the ensemble sustaining the scene behind them. A centenary concert reverses that emphasis.

With its own history at the centre, the association will mark a hundred years of collective music-making through a programme designed to place choral sound, preparation and continuity in full public view.