July 21 – August 31

The Salzburg Festival celebrates its 75th birthday and puts on an anniversary program comprising a full six weeks of performances – longer than ever. The Opening Night opera premiere, however, brings another farewell: Nikolaus Harnoncourt, considered by some to be Karajan’s true successor, conducts his last opera performance for the time being with Mozart’s Figaro. As reasons for his resignation, which he announces in the fall, he says that on the one hand, the acoustics of both Festspielhäuser are problematic, but also that there is a questionable predominance of the stage directors in Salzburg and that his casting wishes are not heeded. On the other hand, the new production of Berg’s Lulu by Michael Gielen and Peter Mussbach is an unmitigated success: the critics’ poll of the magazine Opernwelt declares it the “production of the year”. Jessye Norman makes one of her rare opera appearances and interprets the Woman in Robert Wilson’s production of Schoenberg’s monodrama Erwartung. With Gert Voss, yet a new Jedermann treads the stage on Cathedral Square. However, the focal point of the drama program is Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard – Peter Stein is the director. The Ingolstadt-based car manufacturer Audi becomes one of the Festival’s main sponsors, together with Nestlé, and the American patron of the arts Betty Freeman also decides to support Salzburg: henceforth, she will commission new works for the Festival.

1995: Michael Gielen and Peter Mussbach rehearsing Alban Berg's Lulu.

New production
Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Jedermann
Stage director: Gernot Friedel
Stage sets: Imre Vincze
Costumes: Moidele Bickel and Anna Maria Heinreich
Domplatz / Großes Festspielhaus

New production
Anton Cechov
Der Kirschgarten
Stage director: Peter Stein
Stage sets: Karl-Ernst Herrmann
Costumes: Moidele Bickel
Landestheater

New production
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Le nozze di Figaro
Conductor: Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Stage director: Luc Bondy
Stage sets: Richard Peduzzi
Costumes: Jacques Schmidt und Emmanuel Peduzzi
Kleines Festspielhaus

Coproduction with the Opéra de la Bastille Paris
Richard Strauss
Der Rosenkavalier
Conductor: Lorin Maazel
Stage director, sets and costumes: Herbert Wernicke
Großes Festspielhaus

Coproduction with the Teatro Carlo Felice Genova
Giuseppe Verdi
La Traviata
Conductor: Riccardo Muti
Stage director: Lluis Pasqual
Sets and costumes: Luciano Damiani
Großes Festspielhaus

Coproduction with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin
Alban Berg
Lulu
Conductor: Michael Gielen
Stage director and sets: Peter Mussbach
Costumes: Andrea Schmidt-Futterer
Kleines Festspielhaus

New production
Béla Bartók : Herzog Blaubarts Burg /
Arnold Schönberg : Erwartung
Conductor: Christoph von Dohnányi
Stage director and sets: Robert Wilson
Costumes: Frida Parmeggiani
Großes Festspielhaus

Production of the International Summer Academy Mozarteum
Udo Zimmermann
Der Schuhu und die fliegende Prinzessin
Conductor: Udo Zimmermann
Stage director: Michael Heinicke
Sets and costumes: Stefan Wiel
Großes Studio der Hochschule Mozarteum

Revivals: Die Riesen vom Berge, Antonius und Cleopatra, Don Giovanni

Orchestral Concerts, Matinees, Cycle Camerata Academica, Chamber Concerts, Solo Recitals, Lied Recitals, Concerts "Progetto Pollini", Concerts „Music from our time“, Festival „Zeitfluss“, Concerts Musica Sacra, Academy Concerts, Literary Recitals

Opening speach by Nikolaus Harnoncourt: „Was ist Wahrheit? oder Zeitgeist und Mode“

Details of the several years:

1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001,