This year’s edition of the Salzburg Festival comes with a scandal courtesy of director Alexander Pereira’s announcement to step down from his position after an ongoing and public budget dispute with the festival’s directorate that included the latter’s decision not to renew his contract in 2016. Pereira, who had been appointed director of the world famous Austrian festival only two years ago, recently accepted the position as head of Milan’s La Scala, yet another affront to the Salzburg board, which made it known that they would not tolerate a degradation of Salzburg to Pereira’s “other job.” Pereira will now take his leave in October to fully focus on his new position in Milan.
Meanwhile, the hometown of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is buzzing in anticipation of the new season, which starts this weekend. A spectacular program featuring over 200 concerts and performances will transform the picturesque city and its medieval castle into a gigantic open-air summer stage over the next six weeks, with more than 250,000 visitors expected to attend.
Originally a theater event, the festival pays tribute to its roots with Austrian playwright Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s“Jedermann,” an adaption of the English 15th-century morality play “The Summoning of Everyman.” Hofmannsthal’s play premiered in 1920 under legendary Austrian director Max Reinhardt and marked the beginning of the Salzburg Festival. It has been performed at every edition since and this year will be shown in a British-American production by Julian Crouch and Brian Merte, starring Cornelius Obonoya and Brigitta Hobmeier.
With respect to concerts, visitors are in for a myriad of highlights: Nikolaus Harnoncourt will conduct Joseph Haydn’s “The Creation,” which traditionally opens the festival, as well as his great oratorios “The Seasons” and “Il ritorno di Tobia.” Gustav Mahler’s completed symphonies, nine in total, will be performed by the Children’s Orchestra of VenezuelaEl Sistema under Sir Simon Rattle, the Vienna Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, and others. Rudolf Buchbinder, Evgeny Kissin, Maurizio Pollini, and Grigory Sokolov will perform solo concerts featuring piano sonatas by Beethoven,Schubert, and Chopin.
Salzburg’s opera program circles around Wagner and Verdi’s bicentennials this year. Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra will premiere an anniversary concert dedicated to the two legendary composers, and two major opera productions are scheduled to premiere in collaboration with the Vienna Philharmonic: Verdi’s “Don Carlo,“ directed by Peter Stein and conducted by Antonio Pappano, and Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger,” directed by Stefan Herheim and conducted by Daniele Gatti.
The first opera production to be presented will, however, explore contemporary classical music: Harrison Birtwistle’s“Gawain,” based on a medieval legend, which premiered in 1991, will be shown in a new production directed by renowned Lithuanian director Alvis Hermanis and conducted by Germany’s Ingo Metzmacher.
For the first time in the festival’s history the program will include venues beyond the traditional locations, a radical innovation that Pereira has indulged: Mozart’s “Il Seraglio” will be staged at the Salzburg airport in a new production by Adrian Marthaler and conducted by Hans Graf. The spectacular structure is dominated by glass and steel, and boasts collections of historic airplanes and Formula 1 racing cars, a restaurant, and art exhibitions — expect an illustrious setting!
Salzburg Festival, July 19-September 1, Salzburg, Austria