July 28 – August 31

The 1948 Festival amounted to a summit meeting between two conductors. Wilhelm Furtwängler conducted a new Fidelio in the Festspielhaus, while Herbert von Karajan brought out Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in the Felsenreitschule – the first opera ever performed in this venue. The covert rivalry between these two maestros prevented them from jointly taking part in the Festival, a solution that would doubtless have been preferred by audiences and critics alike. Apart from two orchestral concerts in 1949, it was not until after Furtwängler’s death that Karajan would return to Salzburg. In contrast, Ferenc Fricsay’s star remained in the ascendant. This year he presented the first staged performance of Frank Martin’s Le vin herbé, thereby extending the Festival’s series of contemporary music theatre. In the spoken theatre, the era of Ernst Lothar commenced with a staging of Grillparzer’s Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen.

1948: Herbert von Karajan rehearsing Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice for his first appearance in a Festival opera.

New production
Franz Grillparzer
Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen
(“The Waves of the Sea and of Love’)
D: Ernst Lothar
Ds/Cs: Otto Niedermoser
Landestheater

New production
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Orfeo ed Euridice
C: Herbert von Karajan
D: Oscar Fritz Schuh
Ds/Cs: Caspar Neher
Felsenreitschule

New production
Ludwig van Beethoven
Fidelio
C: Wilhelm Furtwängler
D: Günther Rennert
Ds/Cs: Emil Preetorius
Festspielhaus

New production
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Le nozze di Figaro
C: Herbert von Karajan
D: Oscar Fritz Schuh
Ds/Cs: Caspar Neher
Festspielhaus

First staged performance
Frank Martin
Le Vin herbé
C: Ferenc Fricsay
D: Oscar Fritz Schuh
Ds/Cs: Caspar Neher
Landestheater

Revivals: Jedermann, Die Entführung aus dem Serail

7 orchestral concerts, 1 choral concert, 5 chamber concerts, 4 serenades, 6 concerts of sacred music

Details of the several years:

1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959,