Rehearsals on the Loferer Alm
This year too, the shepherd children enjoy their rehearsal days on the Loferer Alm
The audience's favorites!
In beautiful late summer weather, the 17 shepherd children enjoyed their rehearsal days on the Loferer Alm from September 3-6. They rehearsed the text in small groups on the hilly alpine pastures around the rustic hut above the Soderkaser restaurant. The first lively folk music samples can be heard from the hut. Where the cows stood in the barn a week earlier, the original costumes are now hanging and waiting to be tried on.
The days on the Loferer Alm in the last week of the vacation are always among the absolute highlights for the children selected from many applicants. In just four intensive days, the shepherd troupe manages to rehearse a stage-ready performance from somewhat off-key sounds at the beginning. Because before the children can confidently perform their roles on the stage of the Großes Festspielhaus, they have to rehearse intensively in advance.
Hans Köhl considers himself lucky because "for over 20 years we have been able to hold our annual shepherd days here at the Dürnberger family's magnificent "Soderkaser" as a rehearsal prelude to the Salzburg Advent Singing.
A week before rehearsals start, the cows move out of the barn so that the children can rehearse here. This is where the roles for the upcoming shepherd play are assigned, the costumes are tried on and intensive rehearsals take place.” When Hans Köhl became the overall director in 2000, he set out to find a mountain pasture where the shepherd children could rehearse undisturbed and authentically. “You can’t experience this rehearsal ambience – with the smell of stables and cowbells – in any sober rehearsal room in the city. It is invaluable that the children can spend four days concentrating on preparing for their task,” says Hans Köhl.
This year, 5 Hiatabuam and 12 Hiatamadln aged between 9 and 14 from the entire province of Salzburg and neighboring Upper Austria traveled by bus to the Loferer Alm on Sunday, 3 September to rehearse the texts and songs for their big performances in December.
