21 July – 30 August

The bicentennial of Mozart’s birth was celebrated by founding an annual “Mozart Week’, to be held in January under the auspices of the Mozarteum International Foundation, and the performance of six of his operas in the summer. Bruno Walter made his farewell appearance at the Festival with a performance of Mozart’s Requiem. The negotiations with Herbert von Karajan were finally brought to a successful conclusion on 1 October, when he was appointed the Festival’s artistic director, effective as of 1957. A new era was about to dawn… There were also several changes in the Festival’s theatres. Anton Faistauer’s surviving frescoes were restored to the entrance foyer of the Festspielhaus after having been removed during the Nazi period. One portentous new development was the decision to build a second Festspielhaus on the grounds of the former court stables, using plans drawn up by Clemens Holzmeister. Work on the theatre began in 1956 with the removal of 55,000 cubic meters of solid rock from Mönchsberg Hill to create space for the gigantic stage area. Karajan, who followed the project with keen attention, wanted Salzburg to have the largest and most modern theatre in the world – a mirror-reflection of his ambitions.

1956: Architect Clemens Holzmeister posing with a model of his projected Festival District.

New production
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Egmont
D: Ernst Lothar
Ds/Cs: Stefan Hlawa
Landestheater

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

Production of the Salzburg Mozartwoche
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Idomeneo
C: Karl Böhm
D: Oscar Fritz Schuh
Ds/Cs: Caspar Neher
Festspielhaus

Revivals: Jedermann, Don Giovanni, Die Entführung aus dem Serail[/I], Die Zauberflöte, Così fan tutte

3 ballet performances, 7 orchestral concerts, 8 chamber concerts, 8 serenades, 6 matinées, 4 solo recitals, 4 lieder recitals, 1 choral concert, 1 church concert, 4 concerts of sacred music

Details of the several years:

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