Salzburger Festspiele – Festival in Salzburg
The Salzburg festival is well known all over the world. The Salzburg Highlights takes care of your tickets for this special event.
The Salzburg festivals are founded in 1920 by actor and producer Max Reinhart. His ambitious goal: to create an annual meeting point for internationally elite artists. Always then, when the other stages around the world are having break, the crème de la crème of the classical music scene and European theatre are gathered in Salzburg. This idea fascinated two other prominent artists beside Max Reinhart: composer Richard Strauss and the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Together, they formulated the full Festival program, and it still operates today.
The development of the Salzburg festival shows that the high principals of the classical period festivals were never betrayed – on the contrary. Musicians, singers and conductors see appearing at the Salzburg Festival as high point in their careers.
The most important Festival weeks, the Summer Festival , occur in the last week of July and August. Up to 200 events are organised during this time, including world premiers and productions especially created for the Salzburg Festivals. Apart from opera and classical music, the theatre is also a fixed component of the Salzburg Festival.
The international acclaim of the Salzburg Festival is inseparable from Herbert von Karajan. In 1948, for the first time, the maestro directed an opera in Salzburg. Since 1956, Karajan has been the leader of the festival performance company. Since the Karajan era, the Salzburg Festival, has become an annual show – the premiere celebrations attract the international Jet-Set. Karajan´s successor also almed the Salzburg Festival at a younger audience. Irrespective of the director, however, the “Everyman” has been performed every year in front of the cathedral (Dom) square since 1920.
Even more exclusive than the summer festival are the Easter plays and Whitsun plays that Herbert von Karajan founded.
Important is that also the Wiener Philharmonic are playing during the summer and the Berliner Philharmonic during the Easter festival.
The leader of the Berliner Philharmonic orchestra is also currently the leader of the Easter plays at the moment. This is the star conductor Sir Simon Rattle. Another “must see” for festival performance fans are the Whitsun plays which fit into the baroque tradition of the city of Salzburg perfectly.
Tickets for the Salzburg Festival are a hot commodity – in particular, those for productions with stars like Anna Netrebko are sold off in no time. Our experienced personnel at our ticket centre will help you to obtain tickets. Please fee free to contact us for a non-binding enquiry concerning Festival tickets .
