July 27 – August 30

The program features three new productions: Mozart’s Titus with Riccardo Muti, Rossini’s Cenerentola with Riccardo Chailly and Elias Canetti’s Hochzeit [Wedding] directed by Axel Corti. The concert program is dominated by two cycles of works: the Alban Berg Quartet plays Beethoven’s complete string quartets, and Alfred Brendel, a regular guest in Salzburg since 1960, presents Franz Schubert’s oeuvre for piano in four recitals. The 1988 Festival is overshadowed by dramatic events: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, the director most closely associated with the Salzburg Festival during the past two decades, falls into an unsecured orchestra pit during a scenic rehearsal in Tel Aviv and dies on August 11 of injuries caused by the accident, at the age of only 56. In a memorial on August 25, his colleagues and companions and the Festival’s visitors honor this great theater personality. On the same day, another farewell is announced: Herbert von Karajan declares his resignation from the Salzburg Festival’s directorate, effective as early as September 1. The end of a great era is imminent.

August 3, 1988: A recital with Luciano Pavarotti.

New production
Elias Canetti
Hochzeit
Stage director: Axel Corti
Stage sets: Xenia Hausner
Costumes: Jorge Jara
Landestheater

New production
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
La clemenza di Tito
Conductor: Riccardo Muti
Stage director: Peter Brenner
Sets and costumes: Enrico Job and Benito Persico
Felsenreitschule

New production
Gioacchino Rossini
La Cenerentola
Conductor: Riccardo Chailly
Stage director: Michael Hampe
Stage sets and costumes: Mauro Pagano
Kleines Festspielhaus

Revivals: Der Bauer als Millionär, Jedermann, Le nozze di Figaro, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Don Giovanni, Moses und Aron

Concert performances: Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher , Einem's Der Prozess

6 Ballet Performances, 14 Orchestral Concerts, 6 Chamber Concerts, 7 Serenades, 13 Matinees, 7 Solo Recitals, 7 Lied Recitals, 5 Church Concerts, 1 Choir Concert, 6x Beethoven Cycle, 4x Schubert Cycle, 5 Literary Recitals, Commemorial Ceremony for Anna Mahler, Commemorial Ceremony for Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

Opening Speach by Péter Hanák: „Schöpferische Kraft und Pluralität in der mitteleuropäischen Kunst“

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,