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1968

26 July – 30 August

Two productions stood out in this year’s programme. The first was Emilio de' Cavalieri’s Rappresentazione di anima e di corpo, an oratorio of 1600 “excavated” and adapted by Bernhard Paumgartner and mounted in the Felsenreitschule. The revival of this masterpiece was fully in keeping with one of the Festival’s original purposes: to place baroque theatre at the heart of its programmes. The second was the spectacular début of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, who designed and directed a new production of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. This, too, marked the beginning of an era as Claudio Abbado conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in his hugely applauded first appearance in a Salzburg opera. Teo Otto, one of the leading stage and costume designers of the post-war period, died on 9 June. His last production was devoted to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which received its première in the Landestheater. This year’s ceremonial speaker was the English poet W. H. Auden. Among other things, Auden was the author of the libretto to Henze’s The Bassarids, which received its world première at the 1966 Festival.

1968: Another important Festival debut: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, pictured here with "Basilio" Paolo Montarsolo (Basilio), directs Rossini's Barbiere di Siviglia.

New production
William Shakespeare
The Tempest
D: Oscar Fritz Schuh
Ds/Cs: Teo Otto
Landestheater

New production
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Don Giovanni
C/D: Herbert von Karajan
Ds: Günther Schneider-Siemssen
Cs: Georges Wakhevitch
Grosses Festspielhaus

New production
Gioacchino Rossini
Il barbiere di Siviglia
C: Claudio Abbado
P/Ds/Cs: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Kleines Festspielhaus

New production
Emilio de‘ Cavalieri
Rappresentatione di anima e di corpo
C: Rolf Maedel
D: Herbert Graf
Ds/Cs: Veniero Colasanti and John Moore
Felsenreitschule

New production
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Zaide
C: Bernhard Conz
D: Gandolf Buschbeck
Ds/Cs: Erni Kniepert
Residenz

New production
Ludwig van Beethoven
Fidelio
C: Karl Böhm
D: Günther Rennert
Ds/Cs: Rudolf Heinrich
Grosses Festspielhaus

Revivals: Jedermann, Der Schwierige, Die Zauberflöte, Le nozze di Figaro

3 ballet performances, 13 orchestral concerts, 7 serenades, 5 matinées, 4 chamber concerts, 4 lieder recitals, 4 solo recitals, 1 church concert, 1 choral concert, 1 public reading

Opening Speach by Wystan H. Auden: "Worte und Noten"

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,