“Right now the grandest classical music gathering of opera, orchestral concerts, recitals, young artist projects, opera camps for children and new music series remains in Austria,” writes Mark Swed in Monday’s (9/4) Los Angeles Times. The Salzburg Festival “has been around for 97 years, and glamorous, big-name performers continue to flock to Mozart’s birthplace…. Music bigwigs … pay whatever it takes to see and be seen… Politicians, left and right, come for uncontroversial attention…. The festival’s glory days … were diminished during the Nazi era. The postwar festival, rebuilt by Herbert von Karajan, reached a point of near-suffocating grandeur in the 1980s, then entered a new era when a renowned opera provocateur, Gerard Mortier, took over in 1992…. Markus Hinterhäuser … became the director of the festival this summer…. Foremost among Hinterhäuser’s innovations is taking on big themes…. The six major opera productions … all considered the issue of political power. That’s a bold notion for this all-powerful festival that relies on political goodwill for funding as well as powerful corporate support…. The final report of this summer’s six-week festival, which ended Wednesday, said 97% of all tickets were sold. Attendance was 261,500.”
Posted September 7, 2017
