Final Report on the 2021 Salzburg Festival
‘Rarely have we felt so clearly that a festival means leaving the everyday behind. And rarely have we experienced the effect of participation and community so intensely, especially in times of crisis. The power of theatre is manifested in identification – through commiseration, sharing even the darkest thoughts and most horrific deeds, through the shock created by the truthful presence of protagonists on stage and in the audience.
During this, our second anniversary summer, we fulfilled our promise of presenting all those productions we had planned for 2020, but were prevented by the pandemic. Creating a narrative for the centenary, we focused on two completely different ways of perceiving the world. On the one hand, that of the radical individualist – Don Giovanni, for example, but also Richard III or Elektra – who acts without human ties, without systems creating order, almost anarchically. As if on a rampage, Mozart’s Don Giovanni completed his ghostly trajectory towards his own destruction in Romeo Castellucci’s interpretation.
This unbridled individualism was counterbalanced by a collective model, as exemplified by Luigi Nono’s Intolleranza 1960. Ingo Metzmacher and Jan Lauwers translated Nono’s appeal for justice into our current reality. This haunting cry for humanism will reverberate for a long time yet; this reflection on tolerance and intolerance was presumably never more important than it is today,’ says Artistic Director Markus Hinterhäuser.
‘As the last Festival weekend begins, we are delighted to report threefold success. We were able to offer a safe Festival during times of the pandemic. We presented opera, drama and concert productions which are only possible at the Salzburg Festival with its ideal rehearsal and performance conditions; and we were able to register ticket revenues exceeding all our hopes. To me personally, this is the perfect ending to my time at the Festival. My presidency began in 1995 with the 75-year anniversary and now ends with the second part of the centenary. I am very grateful to fate for allowing me to help shape 27 Festival seasons,’ Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler summarizes.
‘This season, we were able to prove for the second time that cultural events can take place in times of the pandemic and specifically in this year of the Delta variant, and that they can be implemented safely, thanks to a detailed prevention plan which was implemented in all its consequences. Only two registered cases among 230,000 visitors without subsequent infections in the audience, and few individual cases backstage without subsequent cluster infections, prove that henceforth, the question cannot be whether cultural events can take place, but how. Thanks to the last-minute possibility of selling tickets at full capacity, the Festival was able to proceed as planned, avoiding a looming deficit,’ says the Executive Director Lukas Crepaz.
‘Charismatic theatrical figures and charismatic actresses and actors have filled this rich 2021 Festival summer with their exciting performances. Our fantastic audience was not to be swayed from participating in these evenings at the theatre with enormous interest and great empathy, showing its enthusiasm in ways that made all the performing artists grateful. I have rarely witnessed such an honest and grateful give and take in the artistic sector, following so many inspiring discussions. A Festival summer that was as joyful as it was complex now draws to a close, and we hope that cultural life will be able to continue on a positive path during the coming months,’ says Bettina Hering, Director of Drama.
‘To me, this Festival was special in many ways: the artists gave us the gift of outstanding interpretations which will remain in our memories for a long time, after this long period of coronavirus-induced standstill. We thank our unique audience, which contributed to many intense concert experiences with its curious and attentive manner of listening. We consider ourselves fortunate that despite the challenging organizational circumstances, we were able to present such a comprehensive and diverse concert programme. As the media representative of the Salzburg Festival, I am particularly pleased that together with our faithful partners, such as UNITEL, ORF, ZDF, ARTE, 3sat, Medici, Mezzo, Fidelio and NHK, we have managed to bring this year’s Festival to an international community of enthusiasts via 16 audio-visual productions and 24 radio recordings,’ says Florian Wiegand, Director of Concerts and Media.