Recap: Salzburg Festival 2024
172 performances over 44 days at 15 venues
Tomorrow, the 104th Salzburg Festival ends.
After 172 performances over 44 days at 15 venues, the Directorate of the Salzburg Festival, Kristina Hammer, Markus Hinterhäuser and Lukas Crepaz, is delighted to announce that the percentage of occupied seats reached 98.2%. More than 250.000 visitors from 77 countries, 40 of them non-European, attended this year’s programme of events.
34 performances of five staged and four concert productions made up the opera programme, flanked by 85 concerts. 14 of these formed part of the series Ouverture spirituelle, whose motto this year was “Et exspecto”. On the 150th anniversary of Arnold Schoenberg’s birth, the Salzburg Festival dedicated a concert series to the composer. In addition to the live concerts, the Director of Concerts Florian Wiegand was also responsible for numerous televised and streamed productions as well as radio recordings. Thanks to the partners in the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Festival’s radio broadcasts and audiovisual transmissions reach an audience of millions all over the world.
Marina Davydova, Director of Drama, presented a wide-ranging programme during her first season. Apart from three staged new productions, two world premieres, a multi-disciplinary performance and a ballet, she had conceived several readings for this year’s programme.
Jedermann, the play of the rich man’s dying, was shown in a new production directed by Robert Carsen. Of the 14 performances, nine took place on Cathedral Square and five at the Großes Festspielhaus.
The Education Manager Ursula Gessat presented three new productions on the Schauspielhaus stage, part of the young programme jung&jede*r, which has been firmly established since 2020. The Festival Mentorship programme was successfully continued; furthermore, 6,000 tickets were offered to those under 27 years of age for events in all three genre categories.
Benefit Ticket Sales for Dress Rehearsals
The Salzburg Festival was able to open the dress rehearsals for Don Giovanni and Jedermann to a paying audience for a good cause. The artists agreed to perform these without fees.
186,000 Euro Raised for Charitable Causes
Altogether, these ticket sales amounted to 186,000 Euros. Of these, 75,000 Euros will be donated to the aid organization “Doctors without Borders” for urgently-needed humanitarian help in the Gaza Strip and in Sudan. A further 40,000 Euros go to Salzburg’s Children’s Cancer Society, whose mobile “Rainbow Team” enables children to be treated at home with their families. A sum of 36,000 Euros will be donated to the Salzburg chapter of the Malteser Hospitaldienst Austria, which offers child refugees from Ukraine musical and creative support, giving them perspectives for a better future and social integration. Another 35,000 Euros will be donated to the association “Superar”, whose Salzburg project group “Community Choir” offers children and teenagers aged 4 to 18 free, valuable access to music and cultural exchange.
Thanks to Siemens, ORF Salzburg and UNITEL, for more than 20 years the Siemens Festival>Nights, the largest public screening event of its kind, has offered broadcasts using daylight-compatible technology on an LED screen as well as a state-of-the-art sound system. Every year, culture-loving audiences enjoy historical and current Festival performances free of admission. This summer, 46 screenings attracted approximately 40,000 guests. Music, drama, readings, exhibitions and dance – on three days, Salzburg’s citizens and guests enjoyed the Festival Opening Party, which traditionally launches the Festival summer. It took place on 19, 20 and 26 July, featuring 76 events and more than 11,000 free tickets to 32 performance venues.
Young Singers Project
16 young vocalists from ten nations participated this year in the Young Singers Project. The public master classes – led this year by Malcolm Martineau, Violeta Urmana and Stéphane Degout – and its practical relevance make the YSP a unique young artist programme. As every year, the Young Singers performed the opera for children, a new production of Carl Orff’s Die Kluge, and their final concert, which took place at the Haus für Mozart for the first time. Since 2008, 212 young vocalists from 48 countries have benefitted from this unique career opportunity.
Steinway Grand Pianos: “Salzburg Festival Edition”
The long-standing cooperation between the Salzburg Festival and the piano manufacturer Steinway & Sons has been expanded to include a designated edition. At the SalzburgKulisse, the company presented the limited “Salzburg Festival Edition”. The period during which one of the eight designated grand pianos could be purchased was limited to this year’s festival. Part of the revenue from these sales is destined to support young artists as part of the Salzburg Festival’s youth programme jung&jede*r.
A New Concert Shell for the Haus für Mozart
The construction of a new concert shell has significantly improved the performance conditions at the Haus für Mozart. Planned and built by the Festival’s own workshops, the new “concert room” consists of two side walls, a rear wall and a ceiling and is custom-made for the Haus für Mozart, fulfilling higher acoustic, technical and aesthetic standards.
Honours: Festival Brooch with Rubies
This summer, KR Heinrich Spängler was awarded the Festival Brooch with Rubies on the occasion of his 25-year tenure as President of the Association of Friends of the Salzburg Festival, which continues.
Aquarell auf Papier (Kontobuchseite), ca. 29,4 x 21 cm
Foto: F. Helmreich
© Martha Jungwirth/Bildrecht, Wien 2023
For the design of the 2024 annual programme, the Salzburg Festival was able to use works by one of the most important artist of our times, Martha Jungwirth. During the Festival period, the Salzburg Festival cooperated with the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac to show works from the series Odyssey by Martha Jungwirth inside the Festspielhaus foyer.
The design of this year’s concert programme books included works by Eva Schlegel, another great Austrian artist. Eva Schlegel provided almost 100 images from a print series, from which a comprehensive visual essay was created.
The programme books for the series “Time with SCHOENBERG” were designed with support from the Arnold Schönberg Center, depicting numerous photographs, oil paintings, sketches of works and excerpts from scores. These complemented the musical focus, offering meaningful documentation of Schoenberg’s life and work.
Salzburg Festival Archive: Hugo von Hofmannsthal
At the newly-opened Archive, the Salzburg Festival has already offered insights into the multifaceted, genre-bending work of the poet and Festival co-founder on the occasions of the Archive Days, during the Festival Opening Party and during special guided tours of the Archive commemorating Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s 150th birthday. The Festival’s history was thereby told as it is reflected in its own performances and through archival materials.
Certifications with the Austrian Ecolabel
The Salzburg Festival Fund is the first Austrian festival presenter to be awarded the Austrian Ecolabel in two categories: the certification in the field of “Spoken and Musical Theatre” applies to the operation of the Festival as a whole, and the certification in the field of “Meeting and Event Locations” applies to the three performing venues within the Festival District. The Ecolabel was presented during the Festival by Federal Minister Leonore Gewessler and Andrea Meyer, Undersecretary for the Arts and Culture. The Austrian Ecolabel (Österreichisches Umweltzeichen, ÖUZ) is awarded by the Ministry of the Environment since 1990 and is the most important state-certified ecological certification label in Austria.
Every summer, the Association of Friends of the Salzburg Festival offers numerous artist conversations and complementary events which are inspired by the Festival programme and illuminate its issues in greater depth. This year, Friends of the Festival were able to choose between approximately 76 such events.