26 July – 30 August
The first joint stage project of Herbert von Karajan and Giorgio Strehler was a new production of Die Zauberflöte. Though intended to form the cornerstone of a long collaboration, it proved to be a fiasco: Strehler’s attempt to exploit the full potential of the size and technology of the Grosses Festspielhaus led to a production so cluttered that there was no room left for the blocking. Karajan refused to conduct the production at the next year’s Festival, and a distraught Strehler withdrew from his Salzburg obligations, putting a premature end to the Mozart cycle. This year Thomas Bernhard had more success than in the anno horribilis of 1972. His new play, Die Macht der Gewohnheit, received its première in a staging by Dieter Dorn – his first appearance at the Festival. Once again there was a centenary celebration, this time to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Oscar Fritz Schuh praised the great poet’s merits in the ceremonial address.
1974: The premature demise of a Mozart cycle: Giorgio Strehler’s and Herbert von Karajan’s collaboration came to an end with Die Zauberflöte.
World premiere
Thomas Bernhard
Die Macht der Gewohnheit (“Force of Habit’)
D: Dieter Dorn
Ds: Wilfried Minks
Cs: Wilfried Minks and Johannes Schütz
Landestheater
New production
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Die Zauberflöte
C: Herbert von Karajan
D: Giorgio Strehler
Ds/Cs: Luciano Damiani
Grosses Festspielhaus
New production
Richard Strauss
Die Frau ohne Schatten
C: Karl Böhm
D: Günther Rennert
Ds: Günther Schneider-Siemssen
Cs: Bernd Müller and Jörg Neumann
Grosses Festspielhaus
Revivals: Jedermann, Twelfth Night, Das Spiel der Mächtigen I und II, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte
14 orchestral concerts, 6 chamber concerts, 7 serenades, 6 matinées, 5 solo recitals, 8 lieder recitals, 1 choral concert, 1 church concert, 1 public reading, Karl Kraus matinée
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,