26 July – 31 August

This year’s ceremonial speaker was the French philosopher and playwright Gabriel Marcel, who spoke on “Music as the Homeland of the Soul”. The opening première was Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, produced and conducted by Herbert von Karajan. It marked his first collaboration with Günther Schneider-Siemssen, who became his preferred scene designer in the years to come. Using a sophisticated projection technique he called “painting in light’, Schneider-Siemssen designed impressive spaces that dominated the stage aesthetic of the Karajan Era for years. Another Salzburg debut was given by Giorgio Strehler with Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, conducted by Zubin Mehta. Mehta’s fellow-student Claudio Abbado stood at the rostrum of the Vienna Philharmonic for his first appearance at the Festival. Another innovation was the Festival’s first Greek tragedy: Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, directed by Gustav Rudolf Sellner with stage decor by Fritz Wotruba, a leading Austrian sculptor.

1965: Director Giorgio Strehler (middle), here shown with his designer Luciano Damiani (left) and conductor Zubin Mehta, at his Festival debut staging Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

New production
Sophokles
Oedipus Rex / Oedipus at Colonnos
D: Gustav Rudolf Sellner
Ds/Cs: Fritz Wotruba
Felsenreitschule

First German-language performance
Eugene O‘Neill
More Stately Mansions
D: Oscar Fritz Schuh
Ds/Cs: Fritz Butz
Landestheater

New production
Modest Mussorgsky / Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakow
Boris Godunow
C/D: Herbert von Karajan
Ds: Günther Schneider-Siemssen
Cs: Ronny Reiter
Grosses Festspielhaus

New production
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
C: Zubin Mehta, Bernhard Conz
D: Giorgio Strehler
Ds/Cs: Luciano Damiani
Kleines Festspielhaus

New Production
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
La finta giardiniera
La finta giardiniera
C: Bernhard Conz
D: Ernst Poettgen
Ds/Cs: Leni Bauer-Ecsy
Residence

Revivals: Faust. 1st Part, Faust. 2nd Part, Jedermann, Così fan tutte, Macbeth, Ariadne auf Naxos, Elektra

4 ballet performances, 11 orchestral concerts, 4 chamber concerts, 7 serenades, 5 matinées, 5 solo recitals, 6 lieder recitals, 3 concerts of sacred music, 1 church concert, 1 concert for chorus and orchestra, 3 concerts in memory of Anton Webern, 1 public reading

Details of the several years:

1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989,