26 July – 30 August

This year the Salzburg Festival celebrated its 50th anniversary. Its glorious and turbulent history was reviewed in an exhibition in the Residence, and the programme centred on six operas by the city’s most famous scion, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The Felsenreitschule was remodelled on plans by Clemens Holzmeister in time for the celebrations. An understage area was created, along with a storage room for sets and a new collapsible spectator stand capable of seating 1,549. A retractable structure was fitted on the roof so that the auditorium can be opened or closed as needed. The provincial law that had protected the Festival for decades by prohibiting all other cultural offerings during the Festival season was suspended. As a result, the Festival now had to compete with street theatre, a festival in Hellbrunn and a youth scene – all newly founded. The Festival opened with Carl Zuckmayer holding forth on “The Artistic Destiny of Mankind”.

1970: The Felsenreitschule, remodelled on plans by Clemens Holzmeister for the Festival’s 50th anniversary.

New production
William Shakespeare
Hamlet
D: Oskar Werner
Ds: Rolf Christiansen
Cs: Erni Kniepert
Landestheater

New production
Arthur Schnitzler
Zum grossen Wurstel (“The Great Puppet Show’)
D: Oskar Fritz Schuh
Ds/Cs: Rudolf Heinrich
Landestheater

New production
Ödön von Horvath
Figaro lässt sich scheiden (“Figaro’s Divorce")
D: Oscar Fritz Schuh
Ds/Cs: Rudolf Heinrich
Landestheater

New production
Samuel Beckett
Waiting for Godot
D: Otomar Krejca
Ds: Josef Svoboda
Cs: Jan Skalicky
Landestheater

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

New production
Giuseppe Verdi
Otello
C/D: Herbert von Karajan
Ds: Günther Schneider-Siemssen
Cs: Georges Wakhevitch
Grosses Festspielhaus

Revivals: Jedermann, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, Bastien und Bastienne, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, La serva padrona, Rappresentatione di anima e di corpo

14 orchestral concerts, 4 chamber concerts, 8 serenades, 5 matinées, 7 solo recitals, 7 lieder recitals, 3 church concerts, 1 Goethe matinée, 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,