Open-Air Theater
The Felsenreitschule is not built against a cliff: it is carved into one. Three tiers of arcaded galleries cut directly into the Monchsberg provide the backdrop for one of the world’s most distinctive opera stages, open to the sky, inaugurated for the Salzburg Festival in 1926.
In 1693, Prince-Archbishop Johann Ernst von Thun commissioned a riding school on the edge of the Monchsberg, the long limestone ridge that forms the western boundary of Salzburg’s old town. Architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach cut 96 arcaded galleries in three stacked tiers directly into the quarry cliff, the same conglomerate that had supplied stone for Salzburg Cathedral for decades. The arena below was for horses; the arcades above were for nobles watching equestrian drills and animal hunts. It was not a theatre. It was a spectator space for military display.
After secularisation in 1803, the Austrian cavalry took over the site as a training ground. Their presence, routine and practical, kept the rock-cut structure intact through the 19th century and the First World War. When the Salzburg Festival was founded in 1920, director Max Reinhardt saw what the quarry could become. In 1926 he opened the space as an outdoor theatre with Goldoni’s Der Diener zweier Herren, the first performance under the open sky between those three tiers of carved stone. The first opera followed in 1948: Herbert von Karajan conducted Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, establishing the venue’s identity as an opera space as well as a drama stage.
Late 1960s renovations by architect Clemens Holzmeister added a proper understage area, an orchestral pit, and lighting infrastructure, but the essential element, the three tiers of rock-cut arcades rising behind the performing space, remains exactly as Fischer von Erlach left it. Capacity is 1,412. Performances are open to the sky. The three-tier rock face is one of the most photographed opera settings in the world.
The venue appears in The Sound of Music (1965) as the concert hall where the von Trapp family perform their farewell before escaping Austria. The scene was filmed here on location.
Felsenreitschule is at Hofstallgasse 1, in the same Festival complex as Grosses Festspielhaus and Haus fur Mozart, a short walk from Residenzplatz. Performances run during the Salzburg Festival (July to August) and the Salzburg Easter Festival; tickets range from EUR 30 to over EUR 300 and require advance booking. The building is visible from Hofstallgasse year-round, and guided tours of the Festival complex (check salzburgerfestspiele.at for dates and prices, approximately EUR 8) give access to the interior outside performance season. Allow 2-4 hours for a performance. Combine with Grosses Festspielhaus and Haus fur Mozart for the full Festival district.
Do it here
These experiences include this place in their authored route.
The Salzburg Festival Halls Guided Tour gives access to the three main Salzburg Festival venues on Hofstallgasse: the Grosses Festspielhaus with its 30-meter-wide stage, the Felsenreitschule carved directly into the Mönchsberg cliff, and the intimate Haus fur Mozart.
People
artist1864 - 1935
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.
conductor1867 - 1957
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.
conductor1876 - 1962
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.
singerb. 1966
One of the most celebrated mezzo-sopranos of her generation, and Artistic Director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival (Pfingstfestspiele) since 2012. One of the few singers whose connection to Salzburg is both personal (as performer) and institutional (as director).
conductorb. 1959
Artistic Director of the Salzburg Easter Festival from 2013, taking over from Seiji Ozawa. One of the foremost interpreters of Wagner, Brahms, and Richard Strauss of his generation. In the conducting lineage of Furtwangler and Bohm.
conductor1933 - 2014
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.
conductor1893 - 1954
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.
singer1915 - 2006
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.
conductor1912 - 1997
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.
director1943 - 2014
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.
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.
writer1874 - 1929
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.
director1932 - 1988
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.
singerb. 1969
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.
conductor1894 - 1981
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.
conductor1918 - 1990
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.
singer1923 - 1977
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).
directorb. 1958
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.
director1873 - 1943
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.
composer1864 - 1949
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.
conductor1935 - 2024
One of the first Asian conductors to lead major Western orchestras, and a protege of Karajan whose Salzburg connection ran for decades: he made his Salzburg Festival debut in 1966 and returned for some four dozen performances. From 2002 to 2010 he was Music Director of the Vienna State Opera.
conductor1886 - 1954
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.
conductorb. 1936
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.
Organizations
Prestigious Easter classical music festival. Founded 1967 by Herbert von Karajan with the Berlin Philharmonic. Now associated with Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden. One major opera plus concerts and recitals.
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.
Compact Whitsun weekend festival. Directed since 2012 by Cecilia Bartoli. Historically informed performance, Baroque opera, rare repertoire. Intimate, focused, stylistically adventurous.
Resident orchestra of the Salzburg Festival. Playing every summer Festival since 1925. Self-governing. The musical foundation on which the Festival's prestige rests. Warm, blended strings, particular weight in brass: the sound most associated with the Festival.
