"Where the will is awakened, action has almost been accomplished." - Hugo von Hofmannsthal
by Dorothée Volpini, SFS Board Member
Dorothée Volpini de Maestri has been a Salzburg Festival Society Board Member since 2014. She is a Member of the Executive Committee and Secretary of the organization. Dorothée loves Salzburg, where she has her primary residence, living between New York, Florence and Salzburg. During this time when so many American and international guests are unable to travel to Salzburg, she wanted to share some of the daily views, that everyone enjoys when in this beautiful town. The city awaits you in 2021, as the Festival will continue celebrating its centenary!
Today, Wednesday, August 26th, was the last performance of Jedermann, which ended at 7 PM. Within minutes after the departure of the audience from the Domplatz, the dismantling crew arrived and is taking down, as it seems with it 100 years of Jedermann’s history.
Today, August 22nd, we are celebrating with Jedermann, 100 years of the Salzburg Festival. Even though the weather was superb these last days, today it will change and a storm front will keep us tonight in the Grosse Festspielhaus, instead on the Domplatz. The Festival always has a backup plan and keeps the show going!
Last Saturday’s Centennial talk, via video recording, the cellist and Auschwitz survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch spoke about her experience and survival through music in the concentration camp. She lives since 1946 in London. She was supposed to be the speaker at the opening ceremony of the Festival for 2020. Her speech remained a vital part of the 100th Anniversary message, even during this modified festival season. As she is 95 she was not advised to travel, therefore, she gave a video message. Her speech was followed by a performance by the cellist Julia Hagen.
Everything is different for this anniversary festival. In the audience, with the artists and last but not least, on the stage: when 50 concerts take place during the summer festival. The focus is on solo piano evenings, when orchestras are on stage, there are a few other special features in addition to the program being limited to two hour performances. The distance between the musicians on stage is among them.
It gets more complicated when a choir is on stage, for example with Beethoven's Ninth, which will be performed on August 14 under Riccardo Muti with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Choir: there will be a safety plexiglass wall between the choir and orchestra. A safety distance of one meter is provided as the distance between the musicians.
“We have the strange situation that in the morning the Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel play at a distance of one meter and in the evening the Berliner Philharmoniker come with Kirill Petrenko and have to sit at a distance of one and a half meters. " - Florian Wiegand
Placido Domingo Receives Special Award
In Salzburg under strict security precautions, the Austrian Music Theater Prize was awarded on Thursday evening at the Salzburg Airport. The Spanish opera singer Placido Domingo was also honored for his life's work. He had traveled for the first time since contracting coronavirus. Domingo received a standing ovation for an emotional acceptance speech. The prize fills him with pride and gratitude.
“The months of lockdown showed us our fragility." - Placido Domingo
Salzburg is certainly a different place this summer. Due to half the size only allowed into the Festival halls and no intermissions, the social gathering is really only possible before or after a performance. But even that is kept to small groups only, as people rightfully remain careful.
Everyone is very respectful of the safety measurements around the Festspielhaus, and due to the wearing of masks and distance from others while seated, there is not much talking possible.
There are fewer ‘Zaungäste’ watching everyone arriving at the Hofstallgasse (must all keep distances from one another) before the performances and the frenzy TV and newspaper reporters have little to report in the social columns due to a lack of celebrity visitors.
The town has been very busy during these past days because of the rainy weather, which brought all the tourists from the lakes and nearby mountain resorts for a day visit to the Mozartstadt. But this will calm down a lot from now on as there is only sun in the forecast, starting tomorrow.
From the beginning, the Salzburg Festival had an extraordinary mission: to create meaning in times of crisis. Four lectures about the century lead us towards the Salzburg Festival’s centenary, exploring the question whether the belief in the power of the arts – of which our founding fathers were convinced – still endows the Festival with meaning in our changed times. They invoke the world of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Life came back slowly but steadily. Austrians discovered Salzburg and were the first ‘tourists’. Then by mid-June the borders re-opened and Continental Europe visited our beautiful Festival town. The streets began to feel crowded again....
A City Coming Back to Life, June 2020
Everyone who knows Salzburg, knows the crowded streets and squares. This early spring we were able to experience something totally different, something so magical (if the cause of it were not so severe...): streets emptied of people and cars, total silence due to no air traffic and ducks taking over the Furtwängler Park. The beautiful buildings in the old part of town took such a presence and prominence that they became the only players in town.
Salzburg, A City Gone Silent, April/May 2020
Credits:
Salzburg Festival Dorothée Volpini