Salzburg Easter Festival

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The Great Festival Hall in Salzburg

The Salzburg Easter Festival was founded in 1967 by Herbert von Karajan . Each year they include an opera production and several concerts. The ten-day festival is considered the most elite festival in the world and is organizationally and financially independent of the Salzburg Festival , which is held at Whitsun and in summer. In 2020 the festival was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria .

orchestra

Berliner Philharmoniker (1967 to 2012)

From 1967 the Berliner Philharmoniker formed the artistic center of the festival under the musical direction of their respective chief conductor. The main venue is the Great Festival Hall in Salzburg , supplemented by events in the Great Hall of the Mozarteum Foundation and in the republic . The respective chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic was in charge of the musical direction of the opera and most of the orchestral concerts, with a first-class guest conductor being invited for each concert.

From 1994 the chamber music series "Counterpoints" founded by Claudio Abbado supplemented the program, in which members of the Berliner Philharmoniker could be experienced as chamber musicians with well-known soloists. The Salzburg Easter Festival was the only place where the Berliner Philharmoniker could be heard as an opera orchestra (apart from any co-productions).

The festival's high financial coverage rate is striking: 92 percent of the budget is brought in through membership fees from festival sponsors, ticket sales and sponsorship. Only eight percent come as a subsidy from the public purse. This high level of self-coverage can only be maintained through a sponsorship and subscription system with very high ticket prices, which made the festival accused of being elitist. Herbert von Karajan developed the system according to which, in order to get fixed seats, you first have to become a sponsor of the Easter Festival (contribution: from EUR 300, youth: EUR 50) and thus be entitled to a subscription for an opera performance and to buy three concerts. Subscriptions that have not been sold are also available at short notice as individual remaining tickets (without membership in the development association). On the other hand, you can visit the chamber concerts at very reasonable prices and on the open sale (EUR 5 to 50).

At the turn of the year 2009/2010, the Salzburg Easter Festival was confronted with a financial scandal. The Salzburg public prosecutor's office is investigating several suspects for fraud and breach of trust. The allegations are directed against the former managing director Michael Dewitte and the former technical director of the Salzburg Festival (summer festival), Klaus Kretschmer, who provided services for the Easter Festival. Both were dismissed in the course of the well-known Malversations .

As a result of the scandal, the Easter Festival was reorganized in terms of structure and personnel in spring 2010. A new "Osterfestspiele Salzburg GmbH" was founded with the following shareholders: Foundation Herbert von Karajan Easter Festival Salzburg (25%), City of Salzburg (20%), State of Salzburg (20%), Salzburger Land Tourismus GmbH (20%), Association of Sponsors of the Easter Festival in Salzburg (15%). British music manager Peter Alward, who acted as managing director, was entrusted with the management of the festival. Bernd Gaubinger was appointed commercial director.

A few weeks after the 2011 festival season, the Berliner Philharmoniker surprisingly announced their withdrawal from the Salzburg Easter Festival after the 2012 season. They have been playing their Easter Festival in the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden since 2013 .

Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden (2013 to 2022)

As the successor, Christian Thielemann was presented as the new artistic director from the 2013 season and the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden as the new orchestra of the Salzburg Easter Festival. Since then, the opera productions have been taken over at the Semperoper after their premiere in Salzburg . The collaboration with Lohengrin is to end in 2022 as a "farewell" after there was a dispute between Thielemann and the designated artistic director Nikolaus Bachler about the artistic direction. Bachler will lead the festival from 2020 and, according to the will of the shareholders, is to contest the program with changing international top orchestras from 2023 and "open a new chapter".

As of July 1, 2015, the cultural manager, composer and conductor Peter Ruzicka took over the management of the festival as managing director. He succeeded Peter Alward and Bernd Gaubinger. A chamber opera was added to the program as a second scenic production in 2017. The focus was on a work from the 20th or 21st century. Salvatore Sciarrinos Lohengrin was followed in 2018 by Satyricon by Bruno Maderna and in 2019 by the world premiere of Thérèse by Philipp Maintz

Ruzicka's successor, Nikolaus Bachler, announced that from 2020 onwards the festival would be "in terms of content and structure into the future". He has always been of the conviction that "music and scene must find equal value" in order to convey a contemporary view of old and new works. Accordingly, opera, concert, chamber music, dance and choral works should create a new 'fixed term' and develop an independent identity in the concentration of ten days. Bachler wants to understand "Easter as a new beginning - appropriate to the season". This means that the direction of the respective new production should be significantly upgraded compared to the conducting by 2023 at the latest.

In 2020 the festival was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria .

Artistic direction and opera productions

1967-1989
1992-1993
1994-2002
2003-2012
2013–

Herbert von Karajan

All productions were in the hands of Herbert von Karajan , with the exception of La Bohème ( Franco Zeffirelli ) and Don Giovanni ( Michael Hampe ).

After Karajan's death a two-year interregnum followed:

Sir Georg Solti

Claudio Abbado

Sir Simon Rattle

Christian Thielemann

planning

Trivia

In the 1990s, as part of the Easter Festival, artists of the visual arts were awarded the Prix ​​Eliette von Karajan , and composition and literature were awarded the Prix ​​Nonino .

See also

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Introductory text on the history and philosophy of the festival on the website of the Salzburg Easter Festival
  2. ↑ a b Salzburg Easter Festival 2020 canceled. In: ORF.at . March 12, 2020, accessed March 12, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Introductory text to the series Kontrapunkte 2012 on the website of the Salzburg Easter Festival ( Memento from April 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ a b Audit report of the Salzburg State Audit Office (October 2010) ( Memento from January 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 632 kB)
  5. ↑ Salzburg Easter Festival scandal spreads. In: Salzburger Nachrichten. February 3, 2010  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.salzburg.com
  6. ↑ Kulturnachrichten - See you at Easter on the Salzach - FAZ online
  7. ↑ Press release of the State of Salzburg from September 17, 2019 [1] accessed on September 17, 2019
  8. ↑ derStandard.at - Peter Ruzicka new head of the Salzburg Easter Festival . Article dated October 24, 2014, accessed October 24, 2014.
  9. ↑ 50 years of the Salzburg Easter Festival. (PDF) In: osterfestspiele-salzburg.at. March 20, 2016 .;
  10. ^ Chamber opera "Thérèse" by Philipp Maintz. In: osterfestspiele-salzburg.at. April 14, 2019 .;
  11. ↑ Press release of the State of Salzburg from September 17, 2019 [2] accessed on September 17, 2019
  12. ↑ Official program of the Salzburg Easter Festival (PDF file; 120 kB)