Bregenz, the capital of Vorarlberg, hosts one of Europe’s most distinctive opera festivals: the Bregenzer Festspiele, held each July and August on a floating stage on Lake Constance. Productions are mounted at operatic scale with no roof and the Swiss Alps as backdrop; the stage has hosted some of the most visually ambitious opera productions anywhere. Outside festival season, Bregenz is a small, walkable city with a medieval hilltop Oberstadt, a modern lakefront, and the Pfanderbahn cable car giving panoramic views across Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. About 1.5 hours from Innsbruck by train and 1 hour from Zurich.
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Bregenz
The opera stage at Bregenz floats on Lake Constance with no roof, and performances proceed as long as there is no lightning. The Bregenzer Festspiele (Bregenz Festival) runs every July and August with a different production each year, mounted on a stage that can accommodate sets of extraordinary scale, and the backdrop is the lake and the Swiss Alps.