Composer
11 June 1864, Munich, Bavaria, Germany - 8 September 1949, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
Richard Strauss co-founded the Salzburg Festival in 1920 and served as its first musical president. His operas, written in close collaboration with Hugo von Hofmannsthal, have been Festival staples from the opening season to the present day.
Richard Strauss came to Salzburg not as a native but as the most celebrated living composer in the German-speaking world. When Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Max Reinhardt were assembling the artistic case for a new summer festival after the First World War, Strauss’s name lent immediate legitimacy. He became the first president of the Salzburg Festival Theatre Association and shaped the program’s musical ambitions from the start.
His relationship with the Festival ran through his operas. Three of the works that defined his reputation had been written in partnership with Hofmannsthal: Der Rosenkavalier (1911), Ariadne auf Naxos (1912), and Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919). All three became Festival standards. Salome and Elektra, the works that made him famous at the start of the century, were performed there repeatedly. He also conducted Mozart revivals at the Festival, insisting on the Vienna Philharmonic, and the standards he set in the early years influenced the Festival’s identity long after he had stepped back.
The relationship with the Nazi period requires acknowledgment. After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Strauss accepted the presidency of the Reichsmusikkammer, the Nazi music administration. He resigned under pressure in 1935 after his correspondence with his Jewish collaborator Stefan Zweig was intercepted, and he spent the war years in a deteriorating position, briefly placed under house arrest near the end. These facts sit alongside his music.
Strauss lived and died in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, not in Salzburg. His villa there was his home for over 40 years. But the institution he helped build in Salzburg has performed his work every season since 1920, and his operas remain among the most performed in the Festival’s history.
On the map
The 2 places on this page, where they actually stand.
Locations
Built 1693
The Felsenreitschule is a theater carved directly into the Moenchsberg cliff face, which means the backstage wall is living rock and three tiers of 17th-century arcades form the auditorium. It was originally built in 1693 as a summer riding school for the Archbishop's horses.
Completed 1960
The Grosses Festspielhaus (Large Festival Hall) opened in 1960 as a major expansion of Salzburg's Festspielhaus complex, carved in large part from the Moenchsberg cliff face to achieve its 2,179-seat auditorium. Architect Clemens Holzmeister cut the main stage directly into the rock, creating one of the widest stages in the world at 100 meters.
Organizations
One of the world's most prestigious performing arts festivals. Held annually late July to end of August. Founded 1920 by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Max Reinhardt, Richard Strauss, Franz Schalk, and Alfred Roller. Inaugural event: Jedermann on Domplatz. Herbert von Karajan defined the postwar era. Opera, drama, concerts.
