"Höllenfahrt" (“Ride to Hell”) in the Mozart Year
'...Unusual, experimental, disturbing, exciting, funny - these are the types of encounters that can and should result when young artists from all over the world take a creative look at Mozart. It is hoped that unexpected processes of reflection will release artistic impulses - also for the years following the jubilee - providing inspiration to see Mozart in a new way, revealing new and exciting aspects of the composer... In any case, we can expect to be shown Mozart from new, fresh and perhaps also uncomfortable viewpoints, angles and perspectives...'

'...Under the title “Höllenfahrt” (“Ride to Hell”), an international “off” festival will be held in April and May of 2006, with projects from all artistic fields. “I can’t imagine a Mozart Year without independent artists and premières”, affirmed Intendant Peter Marboe at a press conference in Vienna. “The Mozart Year must also be a year of first encounters and new discoveries.”...'

'“Mozart is coming!” - and we don’t have to wait until 2006. In the run-up to the Mozart Year, twenty-three independent groups, selected by a jury, will present their projects and associations in connection with the celebrated composer. The presentations that can be seen and heard in “dietheater Künstlerhaus” - including rewritten letters of the classical master, a fusion of silent film icon Buster Keaton and Mozart’s music, and karaoke in opera format - are all part of the competition “Vorhölle” (“Gate to Hell”), for their creators are hoping to be part of next year’s “off” festival “Höllenfahrt” (“Ride to Hell”).´

City Councillor Ernst Woller on the Wiener Festwochen during the Mozart Year:

`“...City Councillor for Cultural Affairs Mailath-Pokorny has won important personalities for the Mozart Year, in the persons of Intendant Peter Marboe and director Peter Sellars: based on what we know so far, we can look forward to an exciting, top-quality programme!” Woller concluded.´

`... When, in 2006, the birthday of the most famous Austrian composer comes round for the 250th time, Vienna will be prepared: the city of Vienna has earmarked 30 million euros to ensure that the jubilee year will be fittingly celebrated and to delight the inhabitants of Vienna and the multitudes of tourists - who will hopefully visit Vienna in even greater numbers than usual - with Mozart in all possible forms: with concerts, exhibitions, performances, symposia centring on the musical genius...´

`... In the maze of narrow streets behind St. Stephen’s Cathedral stands the most important Mozart memorial in Vienna, the so-called Figarohaus, where the composer lived for two and a half years from September 1784 until April 1787. In this spacious apartment he spent some of his most successful years in Vienna. Here he composed Le Nozze di Figaro; ample concert earnings enabled him to enjoy a highly comfortable lifestyle, Haydn dropped by to play string quartets, and for non-musical relaxation there was always the billiard room. This building at Schulerstrasse 8 is one of the few Mozart residences still preserved today...´