The man who wrote the libretto for Mozart's Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) and played Papageno at the premiere. Schikaneder managed the city theatre in Salzburg in the early 1780s, where he personally knew the Mozart family. The Salzburg connection is the starting point of a relationship that ended in Vienna with a masterpiece.

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.

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.

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.

Director of The Sound of Music (1965), which won five Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. His decision to shoot on location rather than in a studio made Salzburg itself a character in the film, with consequences for the city's tourism identity that persist six decades later.