July 27 – August 31

The era of Herbert von Karajan opened with a twin fanfare as he conducted and produced Beethoven’s Fidelio and Verdi’s Falstaff, the latter with an unforgettable cast consisting of Tito Gobbi, Rolando Panerai, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Giulietta Simionato, Luigi Alva and Anna Moffo. He also brought his own orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, for no fewer than five concerts, thereby launching a new series of regular guest performances that continues to the present day. The world première of Rolf Liebermann’s Schule der Frauen in its German version, conducted by George Szell, was a rousing success. Oscar Fritz Schuh likewise struck out on a new path in the spoken theatre with the German-language première of Eugene O'Neill’s A Touch of the Poet. From now on contemporary theatre would be cultivated on a par with the traditional repertoire.

1957: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf singing Alice Ford in Karajan’s new production of Falstaff.

New production
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Le nozze di Figaro
C: Karl Böhm
D: Günther Rennert
Ds/Cs: Ita Maximovna
Festspielhaus

New production
Ludwig van Beethoven
Fidelio
C/D: Herbert von Karajan
Ds/Cs: Helmut Jürgens
Felsenreitschule

New production
Richard Strauss
Elektra
C: Dimitri Mitropoulos
D: Herbert Graf
Ds: Gustav Vargo
Cs: Andreas Nomikos
Felsenreitschule

New production
Giuseppe Verdi
Falstaff
C/D: Herbert von Karajan
Ds/Cs: G. Bartolini-Salimbeni
Festspielhaus

World premiere of the German version
Rolf Liebermann
Die Schule der Frauen (“The School for Wives’)
C: George Szell
D: Oscar Fritz Schuh
Ds/Cs: Caspar Neher
Landestheater

German-language première
Eugene O‘Neill
A Touch of the Poet
D: Oscar Fritz Schuh
Ds/Cs: Caspar Neher
Landestheater

New production
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Emilia Galotti
D: Ernst Lothar
Ds/Cs: Teo Otto
Landestheater

Revivals: Jedermann, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Così fan tutte

10 orchestral concerts, 2 concerts of contemporary music, 5 chamber concerts, 8 serenades, 5 matinées, 4 solo

Details of the several years:

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