July 26 – August 31

Five days after the première of his last opera production – Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier in the Grosses Festspielhaus – Günther Rennert passed away. He had turned out many exemplary stagings for the Festival, especially in conjunction with Karl Böhm, and had left an indelible stylistic mark on its productions of Mozart and Strauss from the 1950s. The hit of the Summer Festival was a new Die Zauberflöte by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and James Levine. The production abounded in fresh ideas, and Christian Boesch’s folksy Papageno won the audiences' hearts. The production remained in the repertoire until 1986 – nearly an eternity in the fast-moving world of the Festival. As a token of gratitude the Jedermann ensemble, with its new leading man Maximilian Schell, gave a performance exclusively for the people of Salzburg, playing their roles without fee. This impressively silenced the legend that only outside visitors had a chance of obtaining tickets for this classic repertoire piece.

1978: A dream team for Mozart: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and James Levine exchanging ideas at a rehearsal for Die Zauberflöte rehearsal.

New production
Beaumarchais
Der tolle Tag ("The Marriage of Figaro")
D: Johannes Schaaf
Ds: Wilfried Minks
Cs: Peter Pabst
Landestheater

New production
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Die Zauberflöte
C: James Levine
P/Ds/Cs: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Felsenreitschule

New production
Richard Strauss
Der Rosenkavalier
C: Christoph von Dohnányi
D: Günther Rennert
Ds/Cs: Veniero Colasanti and John Moore
Grosses Festspielhaus

Revivals: Der Talisman, Jedermann, Don Giovanni, Don Carlo, Salome, Il Sant’Alessio

Concert performance: Bartók's A kékszakállú herceg vára ("Duke Bluebeard's Castle")

14 orchestral concerts, 4 chamber concerts, 6 serenades, 6 matinées, 8 solo recitals, 6 lieder recitals, 1 church concert, 3 public readings

Ceremonial address: Josef Klaus, “Salzburg’s Cosmopolitanism’

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,