Whitsun Festival and at the Summer Festival. The Autumn Festival offers a programme which includes operatic concert performances and solo concerts featuring prominent musicians. Between the festival phases, famous ballet companies including the Hamburg Ballet - John Neumeier (Autumn) and the Mariinsky Ballet St. Petersburg (Advent) take to the Baden-Baden stage as guests, in addition to modern dance companies from around the world. Numerous concerts starring renowned artists – including classical music, jazz evenings, entertainment shows and musicals - complete the programme. Since 2008 The Festspielhaus Baden-Baden has run an extensive, privately sponsored children's and youth programme, comprising children's music festivals, children's operas, artist encounters (master classrooms) and workshops. Every season, approximately 3,000 school students are guests at events in the Festspielhaus as part of the school project “Columbus – Discover Classical Music” (financed by Grenke AG), and prepare for their visit beforehand during class. The corresponding collaboration with the Karlsruhe Regional Council (since 2010) is unique nationwide. The Children's Music World Toccarion by the Sigmund Kiener Stiftung (since 2013) also has its residence in the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and is open throughout the entire year (www.toccarion.de). Large opera productions to have taken place in the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden until now include: La traviata (Valery Gergiev, Conductor / Philippe Arlaud, Director, 2001), The Abduction from the Seraglio (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), (Marc Minkowski, Conductor / Macha Makaieff and Jérôme Deschamps, Directors, 2003), Der Ring des Nibelungen (Valery Gergiev, Conductor and Concept / George Tsypin, Stage design, 2003/2004), Rigoletto (Thomas Hengelbrock, Conductor / Philippe Arlaud, Director, 2004) Parsifal (Kent Nagano, Conductor / Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Director, 2004) The Magic Flute (Claudio Abbado, Conductor / Daniele Abbado, Director, 2005) Lohengrin (Kent Nagano, Conductor / Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Director, 2006) Falstaff (Thomas Hengelbrock, Conductor / Philippe Arlaud, Director, 2007) Tosca (Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Conductor / Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Director, 2007) Fidelio (Claudio Abbado, Conductor / Chris Kraus, Director, 2008) Tannhäuser (Philippe Jordan, Conductor / Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Director, 2008) Der Rosenkavalier (Christian Thielemann, Conductor / Herbert Wernicke, Director, 2009) Der Freischütz (Thomas Hengelbrock, Conductor / Robert Wilson, Director, 2009) Elektra (Christian Thielemann, Conductor / Herbert Wernicke, Director, 2010) Ariadne auf Naxos (Christian Thielemann, Conductor / Philipp Arlaud, Director, 2012) L'elisir d'amore (The Elixir of Love), (Pablo Heras-Casado, Conductor / Rolando Villazón, Director, 2012) The Magic Flute (Sir Simon Rattle, Conductor / Robert Carsen, Director, 2013) Don Giovanni (Thomas Hengelbrock, Conductor / Philipp Himmelmann, Director, 2013) Manon Lescaut (Sir