24 July – 30 August

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle continued his new Mozart cycle with Don Giovanni, this time with Karl Böhm at the rostrum. Richard Strauss’s Salome was heard at the Festival for the first time, in a production staged and conducted by Herbert von Karajan. Hildegard Behrens, a soprano with a degree in law who only belatedly took to the theatre, achieved world fame overnight in the title role. It was the beginning of a great career as a dramatic soprano. As the Landestheater was being renovated, Ernst Haeusserman turned to the Mozarteum for the world première of Rolf Hochhuth’s two-man play Tod eines Jägers. The two parts were taken by Bernhard Wicki and Curd Jürgens, who also remained this year’s Jedermann.

1977: Hildegard Behrens as the title figure in Karajan’s new production of Salome.

World premiere
Rolf Hochhuth
Tod eines Jägers (“Death of a Hunter’)
D: Ernst Haeusserman
Ds: Günther Schneider-Siemssen
Mozarteum

New production
Stefano Landi
Il Sant’Alessio
(arranged and orchestrated by Hans Ludwig Hirsch)
C: Peter Maag
D: August Everding
Ds: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Cs: Pet Halmen
Felsenreitschule

New production
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Don Giovanni
C: Karl Böhm
P/Ds/Cs: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Kleines Festspielhaus

New production
Richard Strauss
Salome
C/D: Herbert von Karajan
D: Günther Schneider-Siemssen
Cs: Georges Wakhevitch
Grosses Festspielhaus

Revivals: Jedermann, La clemenza di Tito, Così fan tutte, Don Carlo

Concert performance: Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher

15 orchestral concerts, 4 chamber concerts, 6 serenades, 5 matinées, 7 solo recitals, 6 lieder recitals, 1 church concert, 1 public reading

Ceremonial address: Leopold Sédar Senghor, “Austria as an Expression of World Culture’

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,