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Salzburg: The World's Most Expensive Music Festival--but Look What You Get
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13073 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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11 / 1987 |
1,964 Words |
| Author
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Andrew Clark
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The small but erudite festival that Max Reinhardt and Richard Strauss launched in the City of Mozart's birth in 1920 has transformed itself into a very different kind of event in the intervening years, for Salzburg today presents the ultimate in summer festivals. Gone are the post-World War I economic depression and artistic euphoria and with them some of the simplicity and idealism that underlay the festival's early success. In its place you will find a worldly festival in a city that appreciates the commercial value of the arts and knows how to capitalize on the rich traditions, spectacular countryside, and picturesque Baroque beauty that represents Salzburg worldwide.
The music of Mozart and Strauss and the annual production of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Jedermann provide program continuity. But the context in which they are performed has changed. The multiplication of performing venues in Salzburg, the expansion of the main Festspielhaus area into a modern complex of theaters and backup facilities, and the development of the city's narrow streets into a tourist mecca mean that the annual five-week festival has become rather worldly-wise. Prices for the opera are just about the most expensive in Europe--the best seats cost $240--and artists' fees are correspondingly high. It is probably the only festival where concertgoers will turn up for a morning performance in formal evening dress and where you have to pay $16 just for a program book. But it also happens to be the only summer festival where you can hear Herbert von Karajan conduct opera, or take in, on foot, in a single morning, a medieval fortress, a Baroque church, and a concert with the world's top singers. It's the only festival city where you can park your car next to the theaters in huge underground parking areas in the heart of the city, made specifically for the thousands who want to taste Salzburg's charm every summer.
Post-War Boom
All this has been achieved in the forty years that followed the devastation of World War II. "Achieved" is the right word, especially when you compare Salzburg's progress with other international festivals, such as Edinburgh's in Scotland, where the city authorities have shown none of the same awareness of the festival's value to the economy and international reputation of their community.
The postwar development of Salzburg's cultural and economic fortunes on the strength of the city's history and traditions has been imaginative. The artistic flavor of the festival, however, has remained conservative. There is little support for contemporary work and innovative production styles are frowned upon. Both the great drawing power of the 79-year-old Karajan and his continuing influence over the planning of the festival have made the festival committee loath to take new initiatives. In fact, there are worries about a power vacuum when the ailing maestro dies.
Perhaps this conservatism explains why Salzburg became the victim of an artistic scandal during this year's festival. One of the scheduled productions was a staging in the University Church of The Book with Seven Seals by Franz Schmidt (1874-1939), the latest in a series of late Romantic composers whose works have been revived at recent festivals. The 1938 work mirrors some of the horrifying spectacles of the Apocalypse evoked in the Revelation of St. John. No one seems to have asked beforehand whether a modern scenic realization of such a setting might
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