Ensemble des Salzburger Marionettentheaters

The Salzburg Marionette Theatre is one of the world’s most traditional puppet theatres. It was founded in 1913 by the sculptor Anton Aicher, and launched with a performance of Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne. The puppetry practice developed by Aicher and maintained to this day at the theatre has been recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. From the 1950s, the Salzburg Marionette Theatre became known worldwide for its productions of the great Mozart operas. Today, the theatre’s wide repertory includes productions in the fields of opera, musical theatre, theatre, fairytales and ballet, in addition to contemporary productions and co-operations with renowned cultural partners and artists. The art of the Salzburg Marionette Theatre gained media attention during the 1990s through television screenings with Peter Ustinov for ZDF / 3 sat and through ORFs streaming services.

The ensemble consists of ten puppeteers who have each been trained in a wide variety of skills, which allow them to create their own puppets, stage sets and props. The theatre has its own tailoring workshop, a carpentry workshop, a metalworking workshop and, last but not least, a puppet workshop. All the ensemble members are notable for their musicality and extreme dexterity, which means that the diverse characters onstage bear a striking resemblance to human actors. Twenty to ninety puppets are used in individual performances; and more than 700 little performers in total are currently engaged by the Salzburg Marionette Theatre. Alongside around 160 performances a year in Salzburg, the ensemble makes annual tours worldwide.

In 1996 the Salzburg Marionette Theatre gave its first performance at the Salzburg Festival with Carl Maria von Weber’s Oberon; in 2006/07 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor followed, along with Bastien und Bastienne as part of the major project Mozart 22.