Salzburg Festival

Reinhardt's greatest lead actor and the man who created the role of Jedermann (Everyman) in the very first Salzburg Festival performance on Domplatz in August 1920. One of the few actors whose performance literally inaugurated a cultural institution.

One of the five co-founders of the Salzburg Festival (1920), alongside Hofmannsthal, Reinhardt, Strauss, and Schalk. A founding member of the Vienna Secession and close collaborator of Gustav Mahler, Roller's visual language helped shape the aesthetic identity of the Festival from its opening season.

Composer, muse, diarist, and the magnetic centre of European modernism. She married Gustav Mahler (who insisted she stop composing), had a passionate affair with Oskar Kokoschka, then married the Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius, then the novelist Franz Werfel. As Mahler's wife she was present at the Salzburg Festival's founding era.

The soprano who defined the Salzburg Festival's public face for the first two decades of the 21st century. Her 2002 Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni was the international breakthrough. No singer since Maria Callas has been so completely identified with a single festival house.

Salzburg-born Expressionist whose frescoes for the Grosses Festspielhaus entrance hall (1926) were destroyed by the Nazis as "degenerate art" and later reconstructed. A close friend of Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka. Died at 42.

The conductor who made Salzburg the unquestioned summit of the musical world. Toscanini conducted at the Salzburg Festival from 1934 to 1937. He reportedly called Salzburg "the most perfect musical event in the world." When Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, he refused to return.

The man who shaped the Mozarteum and the early Salzburg Festival more durably than almost anyone else. Director of the Mozarteum for over four decades (1917-1959), bridging the Festival's founding generation and the Karajan era.

A devoted disciple of Gustav Mahler and one of the foundational conductors of the Salzburg Festival. Walter gave the world premieres of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and the Ninth Symphony. Alongside Arturo Toscanini and Furtwangler, he formed the triumvirate that defined the young Festival's artistic identity. Forced to flee after the 1938 Anschluss.

The decisive bridge between Mozart and Wagner. Weber's Der Freischutz (1821) established German national opera. Richard Strauss, co-founder of the Salzburg Festival, grew up within a tradition Weber had fundamentally shaped.

Widely regarded by musicians as the greatest conductor of the latter 20th century. Carlos Kleiber conducted perhaps 96 concerts in his entire career, compared to hundreds per year for his contemporaries. What he did conduct he performed with an incandescence that left audiences stunned.

One of the supreme conductors of the late 20th century. Chief Conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic and then the Berlin Philharmonic, Abbado shaped the sound of the two most important orchestras in the German-speaking world and brought both repeatedly to the Salzburg Festival.

The architect who carved a world-class opera stage into the Monchsberg cliff face. Holzmeister worked on Salzburg Festival venues across multiple building phases from 1926, culminating in the Grosses Festspielhaus expansion of 1956-1960.

The man who built the Salzburg Festival from a promising young institution into the most prestigious music event in the world. Artistic Director 1926-1934, close friend of Richard Strauss, and co-librettist of Capriccio. Arturo Toscanini then crowned the foundations Krauss had laid.

The greatest baritone of the 20th century and the supreme interpreter of the German Lied. Fischer-Dieskau performed at the Salzburg Festival across four decades. His Lieder recitals there, especially Schubert's Winterreise, are among the most celebrated performances in Festival history. The voice of the German-Austrian musical tradition made audible.

Nobel Prize in Literature laureate (2004). Darkly feminist, politically radical, obsessively critical of Austrian society. Her plays have been staged at the Salzburg Festival. Her novel Die Klavierspielerin (The Piano Teacher) was filmed by Michael Haneke. Like Thomas Bernhard, an unavoidable presence in any map of Austrian cultural life.

One of the supreme sopranos of the 20th century and a defining voice of the Salzburg Festival. She studied with Lotte Lehmann, placing her in direct lineage with Salzburg's interwar golden tradition. Her interpretations of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier under Herbert von Karajan remain the reference against which all successors are measured.

One of the five co-founders of the Salzburg Festival (1920), alongside Hofmannsthal, Reinhardt, Strauss, and Roller. A pupil of Bruckner and long-serving director of the Vienna State Opera, Schalk brought institutional authority and conducting leadership to the fledgling Festival.

The indispensable local figure behind the founding of the Salzburg Festival. While Hofmannsthal, Reinhardt, and Strauss provided the cultural programme, it was Gehmacher who organised the local politics, secured the venues, and ensured that Salzburg was the city chosen. He died in 1927, just seven years after the Festival he helped create.

One of the supreme conductors of the 20th century. Solti's Ring Cycle recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic remain the standard against which all subsequent recordings are measured. A major presence at the Salzburg Festival.

The most transformative post-founding figure in the Salzburg Festival's history. Artistic Director 1992-2001, Mortier completely reinvented the Festival, replacing Karajan-era conservatism with radical new productions. Deeply controversial, but he made the Festival once again the most discussed event in the operatic world.

One of the great late-Romantic composers and supreme conductors of his era. Mahler composed his 2nd and 3rd symphonies at Steinbach am Attersee in the Salzkammergut (1893-1896). The Mahler tradition is deeply embedded in the Salzburg Festival through his influence on conductors from Bruno Walter to Harnoncourt.

Herbert von Karajan

conductor1908 - 1989

Born in Salzburg, died near Salzburg. Widely regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century. Artistic director of the Salzburg Festival for much of the postwar period. The square in front of the Grosses Festspielhaus bears his name. His legacy dominates the classical music world to this day.

One of the most influential cultural critics of the Vienna Secession era and a significant force in the early Salzburg Festival movement. Bahr lived in Salzburg's Maxglan neighbourhood from 1912, and his house became a gathering point for writers and artists. An intellectual ally of Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Max Reinhardt.

Co-founder of the Salzburg Festival (1920) with Max Reinhardt and Richard Strauss. He wrote Jedermann (Everyman), which has been performed at Domplatz every summer since 1920, the Festival's most iconic event. He also wrote the librettos for Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier and Elektra.

One of the most important German-language poets of the 20th century. Bachmann's spare, luminous poetry was read at the Salzburg Festival. Her prose works, including the novel Malina, are landmarks of Austrian postwar literature. She died in Rome from burns sustained in a fire.

The stage director who shaped the visual identity of the Salzburg Festival's Mozart productions for nearly two decades. Working with Karl Bohm and Karajan, his stagings were filmed and broadcast worldwide. He died after collapsing at the Festival during rehearsals in 1988.

The defining dramatic tenor of his generation. Kaufmann's appearances at the Salzburg Festival include landmark productions that define what the Festival can be at its most ambitious. He is the tenor the Festival returns to when it wants an event rather than a performance.

One of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, deeply associated with the Salzburg Festival across four decades. Richard Strauss himself chose Bohm to conduct premieres of Daphne and Die schweigsame Frau. He died in Salzburg, the city to which he returned again and again.

One of the most acclaimed Austrian actors, born in Bad Aussee in the Salzkammergut. International fame through Mephisto (1981, Academy Award), Never Say Never Again (1983), and Out of Africa (1985). A major figure at the Salzburg Festival in spoken theatre.

One of the most charismatic musicians of the 20th century. Bernstein's 24 December 1989 performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, with Freiheit (Freedom) substituted for Freude (Joy) to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall, is one of the most watched concerts in television history. The Salzburg Festival was a recurring stage throughout his career.

The single most important figure in the prehistory of the Salzburg Festival. Not to be confused with Lotte Lehmann. From 1901, Lilli Lehmann organised the Salzburg Mozart Week, the annual series that directly laid the groundwork for the permanent Festival that Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Max Reinhardt, and Richard Strauss would formally establish in 1920.

One of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century and one of the most significant personalities in Salzburg Festival history. Richard Strauss wrote several roles with her voice in mind. She fled the Nazi regime in 1938 and founded the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. She also played a documented role in launching the Trapp Family Singers.

The most famous operatic tenor in history. Pavarotti made opera accessible to hundreds of millions of people. He performed at the Salzburg Festival on multiple occasions, including a debut recital in 1976 and a celebrated 1983 Idomeneo at the Grosses Festspielhaus. One of the Three Tenors, alongside Domingo and Carreras, conducted by Zubin Mehta.

The defining soprano of the 20th century. Despite her famous partnership with Herbert von Karajan, Callas never actually performed at the Salzburg Festival: the Karajan productions sometimes linked to Salzburg, above all their Lucia di Lammermoor, took place elsewhere (a La Scala staging taken to Berlin in 1955 and Vienna in 1956).

Current Artistic Director of the Salzburg Festival since 2017. The person who has spent the longest consecutive period building his career in Salzburg of anyone in the Festival's modern history. Salzburg's living institutional custodian.

Theatre director of extraordinary vision and co-founder of the Salzburg Festival. Reinhardt purchased Schloss Leopoldskron in 1918, which later inspired the Von Trapp villa in The Sound of Music. He staged the first Jedermann on Domplatz in 1920. Jewish, he fled the Nazis in 1938 and died in New York exile in 1943.

The conductor who changed how the world plays and hears baroque and classical music. Harnoncourt founded the Concentus Musicus Wien in 1953 and was a defining presence at the Salzburg Festival and Mozartwoche for decades. He died in St. Georgen im Attergau, a few kilometres from the Attersee.

One of the great Expressionist painters, and the founder of the Schule des Sehens (School of Vision), a legendary painting school held at Hohensalzburg Fortress from 1953 as part of the International Summer Academy. Every summer, artists from across the world gathered at the fortress to study under Kokoschka.

The most versatile of the Three Tenors and one of the greatest singers of the 20th century. Has sung over 150 operatic roles across every major style. Performed at the Salzburg Festival across four decades. His range, intelligence, and longevity across over sixty years are without parallel.

One of the most important conductors of the late 20th and early 21st century. Muti has conducted at the Salzburg Festival across many decades, leading the Vienna Philharmonic in opera and concert programmes that have become part of the Festival's core identity. Known especially for Verdi, Mozart, and Cherubini.

Co-founder of the Salzburg Festival (1920) alongside Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Max Reinhardt. One of the great composers of the late Romantic and early modern era, celebrated for Der Rosenkavalier, Salome, and Elektra. His relationship with the Festival and with Salzburg remained central to his life.

The most influential opera composer in history. Wagner's operas became central to the Salzburg Festival's identity from the postwar era onwards. Herbert von Karajan's legendary Ring cycle productions made Salzburg a Wagner city as much as a Mozart city. Richard Strauss, Festival co-founder, directly built upon the tradition Wagner established.

Austrian gallerist who opened his Salzburg gallery in 1983, two years after a first space in Lienz, making the city the base for one of the most influential contemporary art dealerships in the world. His Salzburg gallery on Mirabellplatz shows Baselitz, Kiefer, Rauschenberg, and Warhol. Later expanded to Paris and London.

One of the most important and provocative Austrian authors of the 20th century. Bernhard grew up partly in Salzburg and repeatedly targeted the city and its festival culture in his darkly comic, furiously nihilistic work. He died in Gmunden, in the Salzkammergut.

One of the supreme conductors of the 20th century, and perhaps the most controversial. Furtwangler's decision to remain in Germany during the Nazi period made him a figure of perpetual moral debate. His post-war Salzburg Festival performances in the early 1950s are among the most legendary in recording history.

The conductor who brought classical music to genuinely global audiences. Music Director of the Israel Philharmonic for over fifty years and one of the Vienna Philharmonic's most beloved conductors. Conducted the legendary Three Tenors concert in Rome (1990), watched by an estimated 800 million people.