27 July – 31 August

Germany’s burgeoning economic miracle and the growing affluence of western Europe gave new impetus to many festivals, and Salzburg now had to compete with Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne and Edinburgh for the favours of the public. A year later, in 1951, Bayreuth reopened and drew attention with Wieland Wagner’s lean stagings. Salzburg maintained and enlarged its reputation by pursuing a double strategy. First, it emphasized the contemporary repertoire, as was apparent in the première stage performance of Boris Blacher’s Romeo and Juliet and the new productions of Britten’s Rape of Lucretia and Strauss’ Capriccio. But it also presented exemplary performances of classical opera. Today Furtwängler’s Don Giovanni with Tito Gobbi, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Anton Dermota and Ljuba Welitsch, and his Fidelio with Kirsten Flagstad and Julius Patzak, have become the stuff of legend. The Festival also struck out on a new organizational path with the founding of the Salzburg Festival Fund on 12 July. From now on the Fund bore joint responsibility, along with the Austrian government and the province and city of Salzburg, for handling the Festival’s finances and closing the gaps in its budget.

1950: Wilhelm Furtwängler, shown here with Ljuba Welitsch (Donna Anna), produced a high point of the Festival with his Don Giovanni.

New production
Ferdinand Raimund
Der Verschwender (“The Squanderer’)
D: Ernst Lothar
Ds: Clemens Holzmeister
Cs: Erni Kniepert
Landestheater

New production
William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night
D: Josef Gielen
Ds/Cs: Stefan Hlawa
Landestheater

New production
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Don Giovanni
C: Felix Furtwängler
D: Oscar Fritz Schuh
Ds: Clemens Holzmeister
Cs: Caspar Neher
Festspielhaus

New production
Benjamin Britten
The Rape of Lucretia
C: Josef Krips
D: Josef Gielen
Ds/Cs: Caspar Neher
Landestheater

First staged production
Boris Blacher
Romeo und Julia
C: Josef Krips
D: Josef Gielen
Ds/Cs: Caspar Neher
Landestheater

New production
Richard Strauss
Capriccio
C: Karl Böhm
D: Rudolf Hartmann
Ds/Cs: Gustav Vargo
Festspielhaus

Revivals: Jedermann, Die Zauberflöte, Fidelio

8 orchestral concerts, 2 concerts with the Trapp Family, 4 serenades, 2 matinées, 5 chamber concerts, 1 solo recital, 6 concerts of sacred music, 2 church concerts

Details of the several years:

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