Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival Salzburger Festspiele | |
---|---|
Genre |
|
Begins | late July |
Ends | end of August |
Frequency | annual |
Location(s) | Salzburg, Austria |
Inaugurated | 1920 |
People | |
Website | www |
The Salzburg Festival (German: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer, for five weeks starting in late July, in Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart's operas are a focus of the festival; one highlight is the annual performance of Hofmannsthal's play Jedermann (Everyman).
Since 1967, an annual Salzburg Easter Festival has also been held, organized by a separate organization.
History
Music festivals were held in Salzburg at irregular intervals since 1877 by the International Mozarteum Foundation but were discontinued in 1910. A festival was planned for 1914, but it was cancelled at the outbreak of World War I. In 1917, Friedrich Gehmacher and Heinrich Damisch formed an organization known as the Salzburger Festspielhaus-Gemeinde to establish an annual festival of drama and music, emphasizing especially the works of Mozart.[1] At the close of the war in 1918, the festival's revival was championed by five men now regarded as its founders:[2] the poet and dramatist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, the composer Richard Strauss, the scenic designer Alfred Roller, the conductor Franz Schalk, and the director Max Reinhardt, then intendant of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, who had produced the first performance of Hofmannsthal's play Jedermann at the Berlin Zirkus Schumann arena in 1911.
According to Hofmannsthal's political writings, the Salzburg Festival, as a counterpart to the Prussian-North German uncompromising worldview, should emphasize the centuries-old Habsburg principles of "live and let live" with regard to ethnic groups, peoples, minorities, religions, cultures and languages.
The first festival hall was erected in 1925 at the former
During the years from 1934 to 1937, famed conductors such as Arturo Toscanini and Bruno Walter conducted many performances. In 1936, the festival featured a performance by the Trapp Family Singers, whose story was later depicted in the musical The Sound of Music (featuring a scene of the Trapp Family singing at the Felsenreitschule, but inaccurately set in 1938). In 1937, Boyd Neel and his orchestra premiered Benjamin Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge at the festival.[6]
The festival's popularity suffered a major blow as a consequence of the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938. Toscanini resigned in protest, artists of Jewish descent like Reinhardt and Georg Solti had to emigrate, and Jedermann, last performed by Attila Hörbiger, had to be dropped. Nevertheless, the festival remained in operation until in 1944 it was cancelled by the order of Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels in reaction to the 20 July plot. At the end of World War II, the Salzburg Festival reopened in summer 1945 immediately after the Allied victory in Europe.
Post World War II festivals
The post-war festival slowly regained its prominence as a summer opera festival, especially for works by Mozart, with conductor
Upon Karajan's death in 1989, the festival was drastically modernized and expanded by director Gerard Mortier, who was succeeded by Peter Ruzicka in 2001.
21st century
In 2006, the festival was led by intendant
In 2010, the opera
Markus Hinterhäuser became Intendant of the Festival in 2016.[12] In April 2024, the Festival announced an extension of Hinterhäuser's contract as Intendant through 2031.[13]
Economy
The Salzburg Festival reports in 2017 ticket sales revenue of about €27 million, and directly and indirectly creates value to the sum of €183 million in Salzburg per year. The festival thereby secures employment in Salzburg (including year-round employees and full-time equivalent adjusted seasonal workers of the festival) of 2800 full-time jobs (Austria 3400). Through their effect in other sectors, directly and indirectly they provide the public sector with approximately €77 million of taxes and duties.[14]
Salzburg Whitsun Festival
The Salzburg Whitsun Festival (Salzburger Pfingstfestspiele) was established at the behest of Herbert von Karajan in 1973 as a brief concert series with the name Pfingstkonzerte. Today its schedule remains, at four days, brief, but is characterized by multiple events each day; and it is managed under the umbrella of the main (summer) Salzburg Festival. (Pfingst is Whitsun in the U.K. and Pentecost in the U.S.; the British term is used by the festival's management.)
The first Whitsun Concerts centered on three symphonies by Bruckner, all conducted by Karajan and played at the Großes Festspielhaus over three days by the Berlin Philharmonic. Years later, opera became part of the activities, and "Concerts" became officially "Festival". In the 1990s there began an emphasis on works from the Baroque repertoire. In 2005, for example, the Salzburg Whitsun Festival presented Handel's Acis and Galatea and his oratorio Solomon.
In 2007,
Among a series of concerts and, for the first time in the history of the festival, dance performances (by the
See also
References
- ISBN 978-0-52185-659-1.
- ISBN 978-3-15-010973-1.
- ISBN 978-3-205-79378-6, p. 46.
- ^ Thomas Thiel "Hugo von Hofmannsthal im Ersten Weltkrieg – Requiem auf eine zerbrechliche Idee", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 18 April 2014.
- ^ Kurt Ifkovits in: "Hofmannsthal. Orte" (Hemecker/Heumann, 2014), p 336.
- The Gramophone, June 1972, p. 178[author missing][title missing]
- ^ "Mozart 22". Der Tagesspiegel (Press release) (in German). Berlin. tso/Deutscher Depeschendienst (ddp). 18 July 2006. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
- ^ Gurewitsch, Matthew (May 2012). "New to Salzburg". Opera News. New York City. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
- ^ "Nach Pereira: Salzburger Festspiele auf Konsolidierungskurs" [After Pereira: Salzburger Festspiele on consolidation course] (in German). ORF. 8 July 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
- ^ "Opening of the Salzburg Festival". Deutsche Welle. 17 July 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
- ^ Hanssen, Frederik (28 July 2018). "Die Zauberflöte in Salzburg / Im Königreich der Fastnacht". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Retrieved 3 March 2019.
- ^ "Hinterhäuser bleibt Intendant der Salzburger Festspiele". NMZ. 5 April 2024. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
- ^ "Markus Hinterhäuser Remains Artistic Director of the Salzburg Festival" (Press release). Salzburg Festival. 5 April 2024. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
- ^ "Report Salzburg Festival: Economic engine, excellence infusion for the location" (PDF). Wirtschaftskammer Salzburg. 28 June 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
- ^ Salzburg Whitsun Festival. Program detail: West Side Story. Retrieved 9 September 2015.