The Salzburg Festival is one of the largest musical and theatrical events, within the framework of which all the outstanding works of Austrian and world drama are staged. For 90 years, it has been gathering guests from different countries who want to enjoy the performance of geniuses and talents.
The idea of creating the Salzburg Festival belongs to the Austrian actor, director and the brightest theatrical figure Max Reinhardt. It was he who, in a duet with the Austrian writer Hugo von Hoffmannsthal, organized the world's largest musical and theatrical event at the end of the First World War. In 1917, he proposed in Vienna a memorandum on the establishment of the festival, and two years later, Hoffmannstahl published the program of this event.
Max Reinhard was born in 1973 to a Jewish family and devoted his entire life to art. From 1905 to 1933 (before the Nazis came to power), Max Reinhard headed the German Theater in Berlin, having gone down in the history of the performing arts as a bright innovator of theatrical technique - he was behind the idea of abandoning the ramp and revolving stage. After the annexation of Austria to Germany, he moved to live and work in America.
It was during the time of Max Reichard that the Salzburg Festival won worldwide fame, immediately captivating art connoisseurs with the play “Imyarek. The idea of the death of a rich man”, which was staged in the first season of the festival on August 22, 1920 on Cathedral Square. With the re-showing of the play at the Salzburg Festival, various concerts began to take place, and then opera performances appeared. With the coming to power of the Nazis, Reichard had to leave his native Austria, and after the war, the Salzburg Festival was headed by Karajan, who, alas, marked the beginning of the crisis.
Today the festival is headed by Alexander Pereira, who succeeded Jurgen Flimm in 2011. And the Salzburg Festival itself is again experiencing interesting times, discovering new talented stars such as Anna Netrebko, Yulia Novikova, Daniele Gatti, Nino Machaidze, Ingo Metzmacher, Matthias Goerne, Damiano Machieletto and many others.
