Merry Christmas and a good start to the year 2015!

( 24 Dec 2014 ) We wish all the Salzburg Festival’s friends and guests a peaceful Christmas with your family and a good start to the New Year!
We would also like to point out that you can submit your ticket orders for the summer festival until January 7. All orders received by this deadline will be treated as equal. Why not use the holidays to peruse the programme and let the Ticket Office know your wishes – either online, via email to info@salzburgfestival.at or by mail to the Salzburg Festival Ticket Office, Herbert von Karajan Platz 11, P.O. Box 140, 5020 Salzburg, Austria.

The Salzburg Festival looks forward to sharing a new and fascinating year with you! 

PETER KONWITSCHNY to direct Die Eroberung von Mexico, replacing LUC BONDY

( 19 Dec 2014 ) The Salzburg Festival regrets to announce that Luc Bondy finds himself unable to direct the production of Wolfgang Rihm’s Die Eroberung von Mexico for reasons of scheduling as well as personal ones. At the same time, we are happy to announce that we have been able to convince Peter Konwitschny to take on this production as director.

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Contemplative Sounds at the “Ouverture spirituelle”

( 17 Dec 2014 ) During the hectic days preceding Christmas, the contemplative and devout sounds of Christmas music offer us a space for inner peace and harmony. Sacred and atmospheric sounds also await our visitors at the Ouverture spirituelle, part of the 2015 Salzburg Festival. 

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Extension of partnership with AUDI in Beijing

( 12 Dec 2014 ) Today, Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler presented the 2015 programme of the Salzburg Festival in Beijing. Journalistic interest in China was greater than ever: more than 70 journalists had come to Audi City Beijing in order to receive first-hand information about Salzburg. 

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Salzburg Festival presents 2015 Festival Programme in Shanghai

( 12 Dec 2014 ) In Shanghai, Helga Rabl-Stadler gave insights into the Festival programme to more than one hundred invited guests of the main sponsor ROLEX on Tuesday of this week. The guests passed through an atmosphere-rich replica of the Hofstallgasse in Salzburg constructed by ROLEX into the ballroom of the Hotel Peninsula in Shanghai. The opera star Ildar Abdrazakov flew in from St. Petersburg and was accompanied by Alessandro Misciasci in arias by Mozart, Rakhmaninov and Verdi. In the summer of 2015 he will appear in Salzburg in Giuseppe Verdi’s Ernani under the baton of Riccardo Muti. The Festival’s partnership with ROLEX began in 2012. Its contract as global sponsor of the Salzburg Festival and exclusive sponsor of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival runs until 2021. 

Christmastime at the Festival Shop

( 11 Dec 2014 ) This year the Salzburg Festival Shop will also open its doors on the advent weekends. Apart from musical delights, customers may expect a Yuletide atmosphere spiced by all kinds of delicious gingerbread lebkuchen manufactured by the traditional company Pirker in Styria. 

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Public Screening of Salzburg’s Rosenkavalier in Japan

( 7 Dec 2014 ) Japan and Austria, Kawasaki and Salzburg – two art-loving countries, two twin cities. Cultural exchange through Public Screenings: on Sunday, December 7, Kawasaki, a metropolis of millions close to Tokyo, showed the 2014 Salzburg Festival’s production of Der Rosenkavalier on a large-format public screen – befitting during the anniversary year of its composer.

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Bauprobe for the New Production “Le nozze di Figaro”

( 4 Dec 2014 ) Today the Bauprobe (mock-up set rehearsal) for W. A. Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro took place at the Haus für Mozart. Following the working model by set designer Alex Eales, the Salzburg Festival workshops built the Bauprobe sets on a scale of 1:1.

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Cecilia Bartoli’s contract as Artistic Director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival is extended to 2021

( 28 Nov 2014 ) Tonight, Cecilia Bartoli presents her new album St. Petersburg at Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and already it promises to break sales records. Cecilia Bartoli, Helga Rabl-Stadler and Markus Hinterhäuser will take advantage of the occasion to make an announcement which is equally pleasing to the Festival, to Cecilia Bartoli and our audience: On May 21, 2013 Cecilia Bartoli extended her contract until 2016, throughout the duration of the directorate of Helga Rabl-Stadler and Sven-Eric Bechtolf. Today, the Festival leadership and Cecilia Bartoli announce their further cooperation starting with the artistic directorship of Markus Hinterhäuser in 2017.

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Individual Tickets for the 2015 Whitsun Festival already Available for Online Purchase

( 14 Nov 2014 ) Tickets for the 2015 Whitsun Festival are already available for individual sale, not only as subscriptions, but for any performance with tickets still available. The programme includes such highlights as Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride with Cecilia Bartoli and Christopher Maltman, or the ballet performance A Midsummer Night’s Dream by John Neumeier, based on William Shakespeare, featuring the Hamburg Ballet and the Mozarteum Orchestra – and there are still tickets available for some performances. Secure your tickets now, and enjoy the Whitsun Festival, this year under the motto “Thus I will call upon all gods”!

The 2015 Opera Programme

( 6 Nov 2014 ) Masters and servants, the powerful and the powerless, oppression and protest – these binary oppositions provide the themes of the opera and drama programmes of the Festival in 2015. Reconciling people to that inequality – which is reflected not only in wealth and poverty, liberty and constraint, but which determines all social conditions, even the most personal of relationships – appears to have been a challenge as urgent as it is insoluble throughout the ages. 

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The 2015 Drama Programme

( 6 Nov 2014 ) The 2015 drama programme includes three new productions and the revival of Jedermann.

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The 2015 Concert Programme

( 6 Nov 2014 ) Designing a concert programme is like weaving. Like a textile’s warp, there are given constants that create structure. In our case, these are the traditional series featuring the Vienna Philharmonic, the series of guest orchestras, Salzburg’s Mozarteum Orchestra, the Salzburg Camerata, great soloists and song recitalists of our times, intriguing chamber music formations and the most interesting performers of New Music – every year, we weave all of these into new patterns with other weft threads. Many of these threads take their origin in the Ouverture spirituelle and give rise to other series in their own right.

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Children’s and Youth Programme 2015

( 6 Nov 2014 ) We invite our young friends to discover the Salzburg Festival as THE place where everyone can join in! On the one hand, we wish to awaken our young audience to the world of theatre, of opera and classical music – a world full of adventure, imagination and sound, where magical moments wait to be experienced. On the other hand, we also wish to actively support young artists. The Salzburg Festival is an accelerator and launch-pad for artistic careers, but also offers the space and time for very different artist characters to unfold gradually.

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Presentation of the 2015 Festival Programme

( 1 Sep 2014 ) Ladies and Gentlemen,
You will find the new programme of the 2015 Salzburg Festival on our website from noon on November 6, 2014 onwards. From this point, you will be able to submit your ticket purchase wishes online, by regular mail to the Salzburg Festival Ticket Office, PO Box 140, 5010 Salzburg, Austria, or via email to info@salzburgfestival.at. We look forward to seeing you again, or to welcoming you as new guests!

Review of The Opera and Concert Programme 2014

( 1 Sep 2014 ) The 94th edition of the Salzburg Festival began with a highly atmospheric, sold-out Ouverture spirituelle. The overwhelming rendition of the Vespro della Beata Vergine by John Eliot Gardiner at the Cathedral and the concert featuring Mozart’s final symphonies with Nikolaus Harnoncourt were early highlights of an immensely successful Festival season which attracted more than 270,000 guests.

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The Theatre Programme 2014 Reflected World War I

( 1 Sep 2014 ) One hundred years after the outbreak of World War I, commemoration was indicated by the history of the Festival’s founding itself. In 1917, Max Reinhardt wrote in his founding manifesto: “Art, especially theatrical art, has not only held its own during the ravages of this war, but it has proven that its existence and maintenance are among the most indispensable necessities.” Sven-Eric Bechtolf’s drama programme was devoted almost entirely to the outbreak of the First World War, 100 years ago.

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Culinary Seduction at the Festival Ball

( 28 Aug 2014 ) Popping corks and hearty specialties are part of a successful and glittering ball night, just as much as a teeming dance floor! The Ball caterer – the Hotel Goldener Hirsch – will cooperate with our sponsors and partners to ensure that our Ball guests find all their culinary wishes fulfilled. 

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Tombola at the 3. Festival Ball

( 25 Aug 2014 ) More than 700 prizes have been donated by Austrian and international companies. Visitors have the opportunity to buy tombola tickets during the gala dinner at the Residenz or later at the ball location until midnight. Tickets cost € 20 individually or in packets of 10; there are at least three guaranteed winning tickets in each packet. Try your luck!

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FestivalTalk: “Art that is Fun“

( 23 Aug 2014 ) Helga Rabl-Stadler, President of the Salzburg Festival, and Hartwig Löger, Chief of UNIQA Austria, discuss the social responsibility of cultural education for future generations and their joint efforts on behalf of the children’s and youth programme of the Salzburg Festival.

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Taxi Dancers at the 3. Salzburg Festival Ball

( 22 Aug 2014 ) I enjoy taxi dancing because one is always in good company and is doing both the ladies and the gentlemen who are not as keen on dancing a favour – thus the motivation of the former professional ballroom dancer Stefan L. to travel from Vienna to Salzburg’s Festival Ball and act as a taxi dancer. He is one of 10 so-called taxi dancers of all ages who will be waiting at the taxi dancers’ booth inside the Felsenreitschule ballroom to be “borrowed” by dance-loving ladies for two to three dances. Not all the taxi dancers are professionals, but all of them have a gold-star command of the standard ballroom dances, and they look forward to leading you onto the dance floor on August 30 at the Salzburg Festival Ball at the Felsenreitschule!

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Montblanc & Salzburg Festival Young Directors Award 2014 goes to Nicolas Charaux (31)

( 21 Aug 2014 ) Today the Montblanc & Salzburg Festival Young Directors Project 2014 was announced! The production Der Abschied by Walter Kappacher directed by Nicolas Charaux was awarded the Montblanc Young Directors Award for the best director. Read more about the jury's decision here. 

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Ball Keepsakes at the 3rd Festival Ball

( 18 Aug 2014 ) We thank the guests of this year’s Festival Ball with the brand-new CD of this year’s Young Singers Project and the book Prima la Musica by Benedikt Kobel, recently published by Amalthea. Furthermore, the firms Bogner, Marc O’Polo and Andrea Eberle have donated keepsakes for ladies and gentlemen.

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Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award Ceremony: Maxime Pascal Conducted the Award Winner’s Concert

( 18 Aug 2014 ) Jury chairman Ingo Metzmacher and Peter Brabeck-Lethmathe, President of the Board of Nestlé S.A., presented the “Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award”, carrying a cash value of € 15,000, after yesterday’s Award Winner’s Concert at the Felsenreitschule. “It is an impressive experience to receive this important award in Salzburg. The audience here is great,” Maxime Pascal said. The programme of his concert with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra featured La Mer by Debussy and Poème de l’amour et de la mer by Ernest Chausson, with the out+standing mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa performing the solo part. The rousing finale was Stravinsky’s Firebird.

Artur Ruciński sings the role of Conte di Luna, replacing Plácido Domingo for the remaining performances of “Il trovatore”

( 17 Aug 2014 ) Due to an acute infection of the bladder and respiratory tract and very high fever, Plácido Domingo has been forced to withdraw from the performances of Il trovatore on August 18, 21 and 24, 2014. Artur Ruciński will perform the role of Conte di Luna in his place.

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Golem – Man and Machine?

( 16 Aug 2014 ) When the theatrical aesthetics of film, fantasy literature and baroque theatre converge, those are perfect conditions for a fascinating evening. This is the case when the ensemble 1927’s production Golem has its premiere at Salzburg’s Landestheater on August 22. The world comes unhinged! 

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A Seducer of Sad Countenance

( 14 Aug 2014 ) Had Mozart, Da Ponte and Cervantes written a play together, the result would have been Ödön von Horváth’s Don Juan kommt aus dem Krieg (Don Juan Returns from the War). The 2014 Salzburg Festival offers a new production of this piece of genius, offering a new perspective on the grand seigneur of seducers, played by Max Simonischek!

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Opportunities for Young Fans and Performers

( 11 Aug 2014 ) This year, the Salzburg Festival is offering many exciting options to young people that are interested in the fields of art and culture: special opera productions for children, Opera Camps, the Siemens Children's Festival and many more options for the youngest audience!

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Director Alvis Hermanis on "Il trovatore"

( 9 Aug 2014 ) Tonight, the new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il trovatore has its premiere at the Großes Festspielhaus. In Alvis Hermanis’ production, Anna Netrebko sings Leonora, Marie-Nicole Lemieux sings Azucena, and Francesco Meli as Manrico and Plácido Domingo as Conte di Luna take the other main roles under the baton of Daniele Gatti. A heartfelt “Break a leg!” to all involved!

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Alternative ways to get the Salzburg Festival experience!

( 7 Aug 2014 ) Once again, numerous Salzburg Festival productions are being recorded in cooperation with the exclusive media partners UNITEL CLASSICA, ORF, and ServusTV to broadcast via TV or radio on various stations. This presents a wonderful opportunity to experience the Salzburg Festival without purchasing tickets to the shows and sometimes these performances are aired live! Here’s a glimpse of the great variety of media productions scheduled for broadcast this year – mark the dates of your favourite productions in your calendar now!

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When science and art intersect and provoke: Roche Continents challenge 100 students at the Salzburg Festival

( 5 Aug 2014 ) For the eighth time, Roche invites 100 students from all over the world to the Salzburg Festival for a series of creativity workshops during the “Roche Continents” week. The students, who come from 33 countries and who study sciences and/or arts in their home universities, will participate in workshops that will challenge the boundaries of their thinking around science, art and innovation. During that week, they will have the opportunity to engage with renowned scientists and artists, listen to thought-provoking contemporary music concerts and talk to the musicians and conductors of the Salzburg Festival, as for example at the artists talk with Marc-André Dalbavie, Marianne Crebassa and Johanna Wokalek after the opera Charlotte Salomon at August 2.

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Festival President Honoured with "Ring of the City of Salzburg"

( 4 Aug 2014 ) Today at 1:00 pm, Festival President Dr. Helga Rabl-Stadler was presented with the "Ring of the City of Salzburg" by Mayor Dr. Heinz Schaden, for her outstanding service to the City of Salzburg. The ceremony took place at the SalzburgKulisse. Our heartfelt congratulations on this honour!

Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award 2014

( 2 Aug 2014 ) The competition “Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award” was initiated in 2010 by Nestlé and the Salzburg Festival. The competition’s goal is to give highly talented young conductors a decisive career impulse. The award winners are chosen by an expert jury. Apart from the classical and romantic repertoire, the interpretation of contemporary works is a decisive criterion in its deliberations. The prize carries a cash value of 15,000 Euros and will be presented to a young conductor aged between 22 and 35 for the sixth time in 2015. Plácido Domingo takes on the honorary presidency of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award and will shepherd the initiative into its next phase.

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“Moving forward together”: Audi continues its involvement with the Salzburg Festival

( 1 Aug 2014 ) Audi today signed a new four-year agreement as main sponsor of the Salzburg Festival. The carmaker has been a partner to the festival since 1994. Both parties want to work even more closely together in future and intend to launch joint projects with an international reach. To mark the partnership’s 20th anniversary, Audi has funded a new wireless microphone system for the festival, allowing audiences at “Jedermann” to enjoy a listening experience without interference. 

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Franz Welser-Möst on “Der Rosenkavalier”

( 1 Aug 2014 ) Tonight sees the premiere of Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier. From 6 pm onwards, Krassimira Stoyanova as the Feldmarschallin, Sophie Koch as Octavian, Mojca Erdmann as Sophie and Günther Groissböck, among others, will be on stage at the Großes Festspielhaus under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst. A heartfelt “Break a leg!” to all involved! 

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Montblanc & Salzburg Festival Young Directors Project 2014

( 31 Jul 2014 ) Since 2002 the Young Directors Project has enriched the programme of the Salzburg Festival. Generously supported by Montblanc International, this successful competition for young international theatre directors and their ensembles will form part of the Salzburg Festival for the last time, following a successful 13-year partnership. Through its sponsorship, Montblanc supports the selection and invitation of the productions to Salzburg and the local costs. In addition to sponsoring the entire project, Montblanc also offers the prize for the best production. The winner of the Montblanc Young Directors Award receives the sum of 10,000 Euros and the Montblanc Max Reinhardt Pen, exclusively designed for this project. 

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Relaxation at the Festival Ball: The Beauty Boudoir

( 30 Jul 2014 ) Not only our Festival Ball debutantes are styled by professionals – you too can entrust your looks to the teams of Coiffeure Sturmayr and MAC Cosmetics, available at our exclusive Beauty Boudoir at the Haus für Mozart. Starting at the same time as the doors open, at 8:30 pm, the stylists are at your service, touching up your makeup or your ball hairdo. After a few rounds on the dance floor, perhaps you need a few quiet minutes – in that case, let your tense neck muscles, your hands or dance-wearied feet be pampered by a massage at the booth of Salzburg’s Institut Hobé from Heidi Steger!

The Intimate Relationship between Word and Note: The Art Song

( 30 Jul 2014 ) What do Schubert and Rihm have in common, and what does Goethe have to do with it? What is the connection between Brahms and Schubert, and how does it sound when harp and soprano are heard together? These and many other questions will be answered by the song recitals at this year’s Salzburg Festival.

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Katie Mitchell talks to David Tushingham about “The Forbidden Zone”

( 29 Jul 2014 ) Katie Mitchell is one of the most important theatre and opera directors in Great Britain, having been Resident Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Court Theatre and London's National Theatre. Her Cologne production of Friederike Mayröcker's Reise durch die Nacht was invited to the Berlin Theatre Meeting in 2013 and nominated for the Nestroy Prize in the category "Best German-Language Performance". In Salzburg she is known chiefly for her highly successful production of Luigi Nono's Al gran sole carico d'amore (2009). This year she directs The Forbidden Zone at the Perner-Insel Hallein.

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Premieres: Excitement among the Young Singers

( 29 Jul 2014 ) On Sunday, the moment had finally come! After the Ouverture spirituelle, the 2014 Salzburg Festival was officially opened at the Felsenreitschule. The tension keeps rising, and the Festspielhaus feels like a huge cauldron about to bubble over. Everyone is looking forward to the first premieres. My YSP colleagues and I have also been swept up by the excitement.

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M.A.C Workshop for the Salzburg Festival’s Makeup Artists

( 28 Jul 2014 ) Makeup for mature skin is a topic of interest in theatre and opera as well as in general life. The cosmetics company M.A.C, one of the Festival’s product sponsors since 2008, followed an invitation from the costume and makeup department to give a workshop. Kathrin Jokubonis, M.A.C’s training manager, provided a four-hour session including valuable insider tips about primers, concealers, foundations and the right contour effects for mature skin. “Our products were originally designed for photo shootings. Because they resist spotlight glare well, they are also perfectly suited for theatre productions,” says Kathrin Jokubonis.

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Festive Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Salzburg Festival

( 25 Jul 2014 ) The 94th Salzburg Festival began last weekend with the Ouverture spirituelle and will be opened with the traditional ceremony on July 27, 2014 at 11:00 am. The ceremony on Sunday will be attended by Federal President Dr. Heinz Fischer, Landeshauptmann Dr. Wilfried Haslauer, Dr. Josef Ostermayer, the Federal Minister for Education, Art and Culture, and Festival President Dr. Helga Rabl-Stadler. The keynote address will be delivered by the historian Prof. Dr. Christopher Clark. Read here what awaits you at the Opening Ceremony!

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The Mozart Matinees: A Fixture in the Salzburg Festival’s Concert Programme

( 24 Jul 2014 ) Salzburg’s Mozarteum Orchestra and the Mozart Matinees at the Salzburg Festival are linked by tradition. This year, there are six different Matinees on the concert programme, each with two performances. Conductors include Manfred Honeck, who led the Mozarteum Orchestra this past weekend, Ádám Fischer, Ivor Bolton, Marc Minkowski and Vladimir Fedoseyev – guaranteeing a stylistically rich programme!

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Swarovski provides a New Dress for the Paramour in the 2014 Jedermann Production

( 23 Jul 2014 ) Several thousand crystals decorate the Lover’s new dress in the 2014 Jedermann production. Seductive red, a skin-tight corsage and 32 metres of hemline are the defining elements of the creation. Scarlet-red flowers made of fabric sparkle with crystals reminiscent of dewdrops. In painstaking detail work, the crystals were stitched onto silk satin and silk muslin. 

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A Fresh Anton Bruckner Tradition

( 22 Jul 2014 ) This year, the Salzburg Festival presents all the symphonies by Anton Bruckner which the composer himself endorsed. Five of them will be performed by the Vienna Philharmonic, which has dedicated itself to the oeuvre of the master from Linz from the very beginning. Another four concerts bring you fascinating Bruckner encounters with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra.

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Johanna Wokalek and Marianne Crebassa: Two Strong Women Playing Charlotte Salomon

( 21 Jul 2014 ) The actress Johanna Wokalek and the mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa embody the title role in the opera Charlotte Salomon, which has its world premiere at the Felsenreitschule on July 28, 2014.  Johanna Wokalek plays Charlotte Salomon, the real person who conveyed the story of her life to future generations through pictures, texts and musical references, and whom dramaturge Konrad Kuhn describes as a “girl with a Berlin loudmouth and an irony bordering on the sarcastic”. Marianne Crebassa takes on the role of Charlotte Kann, the fictional ego of Charlotte Salomon, the protagonist actively involved in the stage narrative. Let us introduce you to this central work of the Festival summer.

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First Impressions of a “Young Singer” at the Salzburg Festival

( 18 Jul 2014 ) The Austrian baritone Wolfgang Resch was first educated as a singer at the boys’ choir “Wiltener Sängerknaben” in Innsbruck. Even during his school days, he took up studies at the Tyrolean State Conservatory of Music before continuing at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna in 2008. This year he is a member of the Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Festival, and over the next weeks he will report on his experiences in Salzburg. 

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Tasting for the Gala Dinner at Genusswelt Döllerer

( 17 Jul 2014 ) Some of the soloists of this year’s productions Don Giovanni and Fierrabras were recently given a welcome break from their rehearsal marathon. They were asked to lend their discerning palates to the tasting of the Festival Ball Gala Dinner at Genusswelt Döllerer in Golling. The meal will be served to about 500 guests at the Archiepiscopal Residence on Saturday, August 30, as part of the Salzburg Festival Ball.

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Travel to the Salzburg Festival free and comfortably while protecting the environment

( 16 Jul 2014 ) The Association of Friends of the Salzburg Festival supports eco-friendly and free mobility for Festival guests travelling to and from the 250 events. “Once again, we wish to offer all the Salzburg Festival’s guests the attractive option of leaving their car at home and travelling to our performance venues for free,” Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler declares.

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A Treasure Trove of Background and Backstage Information: The Salzburg Festival Almanac

( 15 Jul 2014 ) For the third time, the traditional Salzburg Festival Almanac will be published by the Festival itself. Long coveted and known as a collector’s item, this year’s edition features a plethora of background information on the Festival summer and its productions.

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Festival Opening Party 2014 • Setting the Stage for Music, Theatre, Literature and Dance!

( 14 Jul 2014 ) Join Us in Celebrating the Festival Opening Party for Two Days!
The Salzburg Festival opens on July 18 with Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, part of the Ouverture spirituelle, followed by the revival of Jedermann on July 19. At the same time, these two days see the Festival Opening Party take place at 33 performance venues: with over 70 events from diverse genres and many programmatic cross-references, there is something sure to please everyone!

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The Salzburg Festival Mourns Lorin Maazel’s Passing

( 14 Jul 2014 ) The American conductor and composer Lorin Maazel, born in 1930 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, passed away yesterday (Sunday) at the age of 84. For five decades, he was closely connected to the Salzburg Festival.

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The Music for Salzburg’s “Jedermann”

( 11 Jul 2014 ) Sometimes small miracles really do occur on the sidelines of major theatre productions – miracles that are unforeseeable and which one certainly cannot count on, and yet ultimately they give the whole project its uniqueness and its charm, beyond all purposeful efforts. That is what happened during the new production of Jedermann.

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The Festival Ball Patronesses Sample Stiegl’s Specialties

( 7 Jul 2014 ) Stiegl is good for surprises and treats for the taste buds – that was impressively proven when the largest private brewery in Austria offered a tasting of some of its beer specialties. Its director, Alessandra Kiener, and Elisabeth Gürtler, a member of the Honorary Committee, had invited the Festival Ball’s Patronesses to the Stiegl Brauwelt.

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Public Screening on Kapitelplatz • The Siemens Festival>Nights 2014

( 4 Jul 2014 ) For more than 10 years, the Salzburg Festival, Siemens Austria, Unitel Classical and ORF Salzburg have been hosting the Siemens Festival>Nights on Kapitelplatz in Salzburg’s historical city centre. These have developed into an attractive part of the Salzburg Festival summer, widely known and recognised. Every year, more than 70,000 visitors from all over the world follow the opera and concert highlights screened via state-of-the-art audio and video technology for free – often, when premieres are broadcast live, at the same time as the premiere audience inside the theatre!

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The Participants of the 2014 Young Singers Project Have Been Chosen

( 1 Jul 2014 ) The participants of the Young Singers Project have been chosen. Director Toni Gradsack received more than 350 applications during the course of the past months. Faced with a wealth of choices, he selected 22 singers, inviting them to Salzburg for the summer. Expectations are running high!

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Available Tickets Throughout the Festival Summer – How to Keep an Overview!

( 30 Jun 2014 ) You would like to know if you can still secure a place for the performance of your favourite opera? You would like up to date information about the plays or concerts you can still purchase tickets for? Click here to find out the easiest way to stay informed!

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“The Forbidden Zone” marks the centenary of the outbreak of World War One

( 17 Jun 2014 ) The Forbidden Zone is a powerful new work about women, science and war in the first half of the twentieth century. Conceived by the director Katie Mitchell, working together with an extensive team of her regular artistic collaborators, this is contemporary theatre in a cinematic form, with screen images being created live on stage in real time. The drama moves at thrilling speed between a range of locations in Europe and America and events in 1949 and 1915. 

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Third Salzburg Festival Ball • Cecilia Bartoli Sings at the Opening Concert

( 12 Jun 2014 ) The Salzburg Festival Ball will resemble a glittering fairy-tale for the third time on Saturday, August 30, 2014. The Motto is “La Cenerentola” (Cinderella). The opera of the same name by Gioachino Rossini, having just elicited wildly enthusiastic reactions from the Whitsun Festival audience, will also be performed during the last weekend of the Festival season. Celebrated as Cinderella Angelina on stage at the Haus für Mozart, an appearance by mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli crowns the festive concert opening the Festival Ball at the Felsenreitschule.

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Thus I will call upon all gods

( 10 Jun 2014 ) With her charisma and her excellence, Cecilia Bartoli sweeps audiences, fellow artists and staff off their feet. Due to her plethora of ideas, the Whitsun Festival has reached a new dimension, artistically and economically. Responsible for the festival’s business aspects as I am, of course I welcome sold-out houses. We will be able to celebrate a new record attendance at Whitsun 2014,” declares Helga Rabl-Stadler, President of the Salzburg Festival. Find more information about the exciting programme of the Whitsun Festival 2015!

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Rossiniesque Fireworks Inspire Roaring Applause from Audience • Increase in Attendance

( 10 Jun 2014 ) With cleverly chosen works and indomitable artistic energy, Artistic Director Cecilia Bartoli proved once again that Salzburg is an international beacon at Whitsuntide too, the musical place to be. Within five days, the enthusiastic audience experienced two staged opera productions for the first time: the new production La Cenerentola and Otello as well as six concerts, a gala dinner and the exhibition Rossinimania, as well as performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Salzburg Marionette Theatre. Without exception, the invited artists created the kind of musical fireworks that a festival requires and is defined by. 

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Presentation of the 2014 Salzburg Festival Editions

( 5 Jun 2014 ) In anticipation of the 2014 Whitsun Festival, Festival President Dr. Helga Rabl-Stadler hosted the traditional presentation and tasting of the Salzburg Festival Special Editions at the SalzburgKulisse, Haus für Mozart. The Salzburg Festival presented the Festival Wines, the Festival Pils and, for the very first time, the Salzburg Festival Cuvée Brut from the Schlumberger Wineries.

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Cecilia Bartoli as Cenerentola at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival

( 4 Jun 2014 ) The centrepiece of this year’s Salzburg Whitsun Festival, which takes place under the artistic directorship of Cecilia Bartoli and the motto “Rossinissimo!”, is the opera La Cenerentola. Directed by Damiano Michieletto and conducted by Jean-Christophe Spinosi, the fairy-tale of Cinderella will appear in a new guise on the stage of the Haus für Mozart.

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Patroness Meeting for the 3rd Salzburg Festival Ball

( 9 May 2014 ) With its unique 96 arcades, the Felsenreitschule was first used in 1926 by Max Reinhardt for a Salzburg Festival production. On Saturday, August 30, 2014 it will be transformed into a sumptuous backdrop of a ball for the third time already, providing an elegant and imaginative framework for Festival artists and ball guests. As a prelude to the preparations for the ball, on Thursday, May 8, 2014 the members of this year’s Patroness Committee had a get-together at Salzburg’s Hotel Sacher. They were invited by the Festival’s Artistic Director Alexander Pereira, its President Dr. Helga Rabl-Stadler and the Sacher’s director, Elisabeth Gürtler. The event was given its musical flavour by the young Slovak bass Peter Kellner.

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ROSSINIMANIA, Vienna 1822 • Special Exhibition as part of the Whitsun Festival

( 11 Apr 2014 ) This year’s Whitsun Festival is devoted entirely to the composer Gioachino Rossini, whose most important works the Whitsun Festival’s Artistic Director, Cecilia Bartoli, has assembled in a musical display of fireworks. The specially developed exhibit ROSSINIMANIA, Vienna 1822 features original pieces, multimedia image shows, “talking” wallpaper and carpets, recreating the “Rossini fever” the composer caused, like a rock star, among his audience. The exhibit runs from June 5 to 27, 2014 at the Schüttkasten; admission is free!

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International Opera Awards – Salzburg Festival’s NORMA wins in the category “Best New Production of 2013”

( 8 Apr 2014 ) Last year, the Salzburg Festival won in the category “Best Opera Festival”. Today this year’s award ceremony took place in London, and once again the Salzburg Festival was among the nominees: this time in the category “Best New Opera Production”. The international jury chaired by John Allison selected the Salzburg Whitsun Festival’s new production, Vincenzo Bellini’s NORMA with Cecilia Bartoli in the title role, as the “Best New Opera Production of 2013”. The International Opera Awards, also known as the “Opera Oscars”, were awarded in 21 categories altogether.

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Nestroy Prize Winner Georg Schmiedleitner to direct Die letzten Tage der Menschheit

( 2 Apr 2014 ) As planned, Vienna’s Burgtheater and the Salzburg Festival will co-produce Die letzten Tage der Menschheit by Karl Kraus. After Matthias Hartmann was released from his directing obligations by the Burgtheater, as reported, Georg Schmiedleitner agreed to take on the realisation of Karl Kraus’ epoch-making work – a director who has made a name for himself with political and specifically Austrian theatre.

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STARTING NOW: BUY YOUR TICKETS DIRECTLY ONLINE!

Today, March 31, is the start-date for our general ticket sales. Starting immediately, you can buy your Festival tickets online, with the unique opportunity to check the sightlines of your selected seat.

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The Salzburg Festival and Schlumberger • Two Austrian cultural traditions joining forces

( 14 Mar 2014 ) When musical theatre depicts the enjoyment of life or love, sparkling wine often comes into play – at least from the mid-19^th century onwards. It is not surprising that the love-hungry gourmet Falstaff was drawn to this libation early on. In Otto Nicolai’s Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (1849) he sings: „When I was a young boy at my mother’s breast […] sparkling wine was my delight.” The cooperation of the two traditional Austrian brands reinforces the association of sparkling wine and champagne with the cultural enjoyment of opera, theatre and concerts.

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The Salzburg Festival Mourns the Death of Dr. Gerard Mortier

( 9 Mar 2014 ) “Gerard Mortier was one of the rare artistic director personalities who fought incessantly for the arts and their social importance – not even severe illness could stop him. His death is a terrible loss,” said Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler in a very personal statement about the death of Gerard Mortier, who was the Salzburg Festival’s Artistic Director from 1991 to 2001.

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Winner of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award • Maxime Pascal

( 3 Mar 2014 ) At the 2014 Award Concert Weekend held at the Felsenreitschule, the 28-year-old Maxime Pascal from France convinced the jury chaired by Ingo Metzmacher by conducting a concert of Camerata Salzburg with soloist Ramón Ortega Quero.
“The concerts of the three finalists Maxime Pascal, Leo McFall and Victor Aviat all had a very high level. After extensive deliberation, the jury has decided unanimously in favour of young Maxime Pascal. His great musicality and his special rapport with the orchestra convinced us,” the Chairman of the Jury, Ingo Metzmacher, said when the 2014 winner was announced. 

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Introducing Victor Aviat, the Third Finalist of the Young Conductors Award

( 13 Feb 2014 ) And finally, we introduce you to the remaining finalist, Victor Aviat from France, who will conduct the Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg with soloist Veronika Eberle at the Felsenreitschule on March 2, 2014 at 3:00 pm. He has also provided us with interesting answers to several questions. 

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Questions for the Second Finalist of the Young Conductors Award – Leo McFall

( 10 Feb 2014 ) The second finalist of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award is Leo McFall from Great Britain. Read here what the finale and music in general mean to him. Leo McFall will conduct the Mozarteum Orchestra with soloist Jan Lisiecki on March 1, 2014 at 07.30 pm. 

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In Conversation with the First of Three Finalists of the Young Conductors Award – Maxime Pascal

( 7 Feb 2014 ) On February 28, March 1 and 2, the Award Concert Weekend for the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Awards takes place at the Felsenreitschule. Here, we introduce you to the three finalists. We have asked them about themselves, their musical development, their love for music and the final round they are facing. Three subsequent blogs will give you an impression of Maxime Pascal, Leo McFall and Victor Aviat. We start out with Maxime Pascal from France, who will lead the first concert of the Award Concert Weekend on February 28, 2014 at 7.30 pm, featuring the Camerata Salzburg and the oboist Ramón Ortega Quero. 

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The Salzburg Festival Mourns Maximilian Schell

( 1 Feb 2014 ) A world star, a citizen of the world, an intellectual, a philanthropist has died. The Salzburg Festival mourns his passing and remembers one of the very great actors on the world’s stages. Maximilian Schell embodied Jedermann on Cathedral Square from 1978 to 1982. “He was one of the most convincing and best actors in this role,” Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler said. A complete list of Maximilian Schell’s appearances at the Salzburg Festival is available by clicking here.

“The Forbidden Zone” • The Production now focuses on Clara Immerwahr

( 30 Jan 2014 ) The English director Katie Mitchell has been commissioned by the Salzburg Festival as part of our season reflecting on the First World War to create the project The Forbidden Zone for the Perner-Insel Hallein stage. Katie Mitchell and her writer Duncan Macmillan’s initial inspiration came from Mary Borden’s autobiographical work of the same name. During Katie Mitchell and Duncan Macmillan’s process of research and preparation their interest in the events of the First World has evolved.

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The Salzburg Festival Mourns Claudio Abbado

( 20 Jan 2014 ) “For weeks, we have been afraid of this. Claudio Abbado is dead. The music world has lost one of its very greatest. He never sought to triumph, but probably that is why his interpretations became such triumphs. We in Salzburg must also bid farewell to a musician who gave our audiences extraordinary experiences for decades. There are few conductors whose reviews used the words ‘magic moments’ so often. Few other conductors received such surging waves of applause even after difficult works. The Festival is grateful that we were able to have him here in Salzburg. He lives on in us through his work,” Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler said in a first reaction.

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Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award 2014 - The Three Finalists have been Chosen

( 8 Jan 2014 ) The Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award, which has become one of the most coveted prizes for young conductors, goes into its fifth round in 2014. In its fifth year, candidates from four continents showed interest in this international award for young conductors. Altogether, 82 persons applied. Now the three finalists have been chosen: Victor Aviat (31) from France, Leo McFall (32) from Great Britain and Maxime Pascal (28), also from France.

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