23 July – 31 August

The influx of Hitler’s troops into Austria led to severe interference in the Festival’s programmes. Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Jedermann, the heart of the Festival since 1920, was struck from the repertoire, as was Max Reinhardt’s legendary production of Faust. The Festival’s supporting institution, the Salzburg Festival Association, was placed beneath the auspices of the local Gauleiter, and its president, Baron Heinrich Puthon, was removed from office. The new potentates were still able to profit from the work of the former directors: the remodelled Festival Theatre was inaugurated with a performance of Wagner’s Meistersinger, now conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. Many of the artists who helped to establish the Festival’s fame were unwilling or forbidden to take part in it, above all Max Reinhardt, Bruno Walter and Arturo Toscanini. Their place was taken by new names on the Festival’s playbills, most notably that of Karl Böhm, who made his debut with Don Giovanni.

The ideology and rabid racism of the Nazi regime were manifest in the exhibition of Entartete Kunst (“Degenerate Art”) that was displayed in the Festival Theatre from 4 September to 2 October.

1938: The Festival as propaganda vehicle: Nazi flags line the approach to the Festival Theatre.

New production
Heinrich von Kleist
Amphitryon
D: Erich Engel
Ds: Stefan Hlawa
Festspielhaus

New production
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Egmont
D: Heinz Hilpert
Ds: Ernst Schütte
Summer Riding School

New production
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Don Giovanni
C: Karl Böhm
D: Wolf Völker
Ds: Robert Kautsky
Festspielhaus

New production
Richard Wagner
Tannhäuser
C: Hans Knappertsbusch
D: Max Hofmüller
Ds: Robert Kautsky
Festspielhaus

Revivals: Fidelio, Le nozze di Figaro, Der Rosenkavalier, Falstaff[/I], Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

7 orchestral concerts, 1 chamber concert, 8 serenades, 6 concerts of sacred music, 2 church concerts

Details of the several years:

1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944,