© Salzburger Festspiele _ Matthias Horn
The Salzburg Festival takes place yearly in a pretty Austrian town that has preserved its baroque architecture offering a breathtaking backdrop to present artistic performances. Every summer the world’s most renowned conductors, stage directors, singers, musicians, actors and orchestras perform to a doting audience from all over the world.
© Salzburger Festspiele _ Anne Zeuner
The star-studded 98th edition of the Festival opens with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte directed by American director Lydia Steier, conducted by Constantinos Carydis and featuring the Vienna Philharmonic and the Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus. Salome by Richard Strauss is highly anticipated; Franz Welser-Möst will conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the stage production is directed by Romeo Castellucci.
© Tourismus Salzburg
The festival concert program includes a wide range of chamber concerts and guest orchestras as well as the Vienna Philharmonic. “Without the Vienna Philharmonic there might be a festival in Salzburg, but it would not be the Salzburg Festival,”says Helga Rabl-Stadler, President of the Salzburg Festival. “The Vienna Philharmonic are part of the identity of the Salzburg Festival. And in turn the Salzburg Festival is significant part of the identity of the Vienna Philharmonic.” The stellar Plácido Domingo, Javier Camarena, Stanislav Trofimov and Aida Garifullina all appear in a concert performance of Georges Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de perles. Patrick Fournillier conducts the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and the Philharmonia Chorus Vienna.
GrossesFestspielhaus© Salzburger Festspiele _ Marco Borrelli
Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s famous stage play ‘Everyman’ has been performed over 650 times and is considered the Salzburg Festival’s flagship event. Last year’s reworking of the play featuring Tobias Moretti and Stefanie Reinsberger in the main roles is back again in 2018. The drama program also includes four drama investigations and three readings. The tragedy The Persians by Aeschylus, written in 472 BC, is considered the oldest drama in the world and director and set designer Ulrich Rasche will stage the play.
hires-Hofstallgasse © SF_Kolarik
The annual appearance of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra returns to the Salzburg Festival this time with Lorenzo Viotti, the winner of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award in 2015. The YCA Prize Winner’s Concert with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra will be led by the 2017 winner, Kerem Hasan. And finally, three concerts with Camerata Salzburg will enable the jury to select the new Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award winner for 2018.
An unforgettable experience and a musical journey through time in a most magical setting – this is the Salzburg Festival.
Jedermann© Matthias Horn
2018: FIGURES, DATES, FACTS at a glance
Overall Budget 60.81 million Euros.
Number of Performances in 2018
Opera: 38
Drama: 58
Concerts: 89
Gala Soiree: 1
Children’s Programme: 20
Total number of performances: 206
www.salzburgerfestspiele.at
