Salzburger Festspiele
http://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/en/programmatik
SALZBURG FESTIVAL | OPERA 2015
http://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/opera
ANGELA GHEORGHIU AND ELISABETH KULMAN REPLACE ELĪNA GARANČA
http://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/en/blog/entryid/574
Unfortunately, Elīna Garanča has cancelled her appearances at the Salzburg Festival for this summer, sending the following message:
“Due to personal reasons, I much regret to withdraw from my professional activities until further notice. My mother is suffering from terminal cancer, so I will now stay by her side in Riga. I am very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and ask for your understanding in this difficult time.”
SALZBURG FESTIVAL | CONCERT 2015 - SERIES
http://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/concert
SALZBURG FESTIVAL | DRAMA 2015
http://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/en/drama
http://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/en/blog/entryid/510
HISTORY OF THE SALZBURG FESTIVAL
http://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/en/history
The Salzburg Festival was inaugurated on August 22, 1920, when Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s morality play Jedermann was premiered on the Domplatz, directed by Max Reinhardt. Since that time, the Salzburg Festival has established itself as the most important festival for opera, drama and concerts.
The opening of the Grosses Festspielhaus – built according to plans by Clemens Holzmeister – in the summer of 1960 with a performance of Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, marked the beginning of a new era, which is inseparably linked with Herbert von Karajan, the “genius of the economic miracle.” (Theodor W. Adorno) “The ‘Karajan era’ lasted about three decades and discussion centred on preserving the special Salzburg Festival idea of its founders Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Max Reinhardt and Richard Strauss. The necessity for a ‘Dramatic Concept for Salzburg’ also emerged in three waves, following the cycle of the decades as well as the three mutually influential levels of professional criticism, the group around Bernhard Paumgartner, Clemens Holzmeister and Oscar Fritz Schuh, who spoke out in favour of adapting the idea of the founders, and in particular promoted the links between landscape and art. Some of the regional politicians also demanded an opening up and democratisation of the festival.” (Kriechbaumer, Festspielgeschichte, 2010)
At the latest since the Karajan era the discussion about the festival idea and programming policy is something that occurs annually in public. With the same regularity the decline of the festival is also prophesied.
Naturally adaptations to the programme were necessary because of the need to fill the 2,200 seats in the Grosses Festspielhaus and this meant a relative limitation to the repertoire of grand opera from the 19th century. There were also economic consequences. Many people seemed to think the future of the festival had been sacrificed to the dominance of the rich and beautiful, to Vanitas, Vanity Fair. “In the Viennese journal Forum des Akademikers the fear was expressed that most seats would probably have to be filled with members of the high society from America and the rest of the world. In the Zurich newspaper Weltwoche Robert Jungk feared that Salzburg might become a mass concern, that cultural capital would be wasted and that the ‘opera bunker in the Mönchsberg’ was an attack against the spirit of the old cultural cities.” (Gert Kerschbaumer, Die Wiederbelebung der Glanzzeiten in den Nachkriegsjahren, 1994)
Many of the fears expressed at that time were justified – many were characterised by resentment and prejudice. At the latest in the mid-1980s, however, the debates about the philosophy of the Salzburg Festival escalated and the need for a radical change became increasingly evident. Is it by chance that precisely in 1989/90, when the borders towards Eastern Europe were opening up, in Salzburg too the course was set for the future and Gerard Mortier proclaimed the “new Salzburg”? The “death of Herbert von Karajan, the resignation of Governor Dr. Wilfried Haslauer and the fall of the Iron Curtain brought a concordance of changes in art, in regional and world politics.” (Kriechbaumer, Festspielgeschichte, 2007)
INSTITUTION
PROGRAM AND PHILOSOPHY
In a city that has preserved its baroque architecture in almost perfect condition and therefore is a breathtaking backdrop in itself, the Salzburg Festival presents performances of opera, plays and concerts of the highest artistic standards over a period of five to six weeks each summer. The Salzburg Festival is often described as the greatest and most important festival in the world, and this reputation is confirmed by countless superlatives: witness the number of performances and of annual visitors, or the wide-ranging programme.
Conductors, stage-directors, orchestras, singers, actors and virtuoso instrumentalists of world renown can be seen and heard in July and August in the town on the river Salzach. Even the most eminent opera stars come together here to rehearse productions intensively for several weeks, thereby fulfilling the creed of the Salzburg Festival as it was originally envisioned by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, one of the Festival’s founding fathers: “Dramatic play-acting in the strongest sense is our intention; routine, run-of-the-mill performances have no place here.”
photos
https://www.google.hr/search?q=Salzburger+Festspiele+photos&client=opera&hs=JCI&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CCsQsARqFQoTCIzF_Mbo3sYCFQbVFAodBeEJvQ&biw=1745&bih=857