After 172 performances over 44 days at 15 venues, the Directorate of the Salzburg Festival, Kristina Hammer, Markus Hinterhäuser and Lukas Crepaz, is delighted to announce that the percentage of occupied seats reached 98.2%.
Lukas Crepaz, Kristina Hammer and Markus Hinterhaeuser, photo SF/Peter Rigaud
More than 250.000 visitors from 77 countries, 40 of them non-European, attended this year’s programme of events.
Markus Hinterhauser, photo SF
34 performances of five staged and four concert productions made up the opera programme, flanked by 85 concerts. 14 of these formed part of the series Ouverture spirituelle, whose motto this year was “Et exspecto”. On the 150th anniversary of Arnold Schoenberg’s birth, the Salzburg Festival dedicated a concert series to the composer. In addition to the live concerts, the Director of Concerts Florian Wiegand was also responsible for numerous televised and streamed productions as well as radio recordings. Thanks to the partners in the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Festival’s radio broadcasts and audiovisual transmissions reach an audience of millions all over the world.
Florian Wiegand, photo SF/Marco Borrelli
Marina Davydova, Director of Drama, presented a wide-ranging programme during her first season. Apart from three staged new productions, two world premieres, a multi-disciplinary performance and a ballet, she had conceived several readings for this year’s programme.
Marina Davydova, photo SF/Jan Friese
Jedermann, the play of the rich man’s dying, was shown in a new production directed by Robert Carsen. Of the 14 performances, nine took place on Cathedral Square and five at the Großes Festspielhaus.
The Education Manager Ursula Gessat presented three new productions on the Schauspielhaus stage, part of the young programme jung&jede*r, which has been firmly established since 2020. The Festival Mentorship programme was successfully continued; furthermore, 6,000 tickets were offered to those under 27 years of age for events in all three genre categories.
Kristina Hammer, photo SF/Erika Mayer
Summer Revenue
30.4 million Euro gross
Visitors
217.993
4.577 at 2 ticketed dress rehearsals
15.973
(master classes, Festival Opening Party etc.)
238.543
16.609 at 26 ticketed rehearsals and dress rehearsals
255.152
The rate of occupied seats will be 98.2%.
Provenance of Visitors
77 Nations in total, of which
40 Non-European Nations
Richard Strauss – Capriccio, photo SF/Marco Borrelli
The Press Office accredited 424 journalists writing for print media from 32 countries this year. A further 270 media representatives were accredited for television and photography rehearsals of staged productions. In total, 694 journalists reported on the 2024 Festival for 281 media.
Mieczyslaw Weinberg – The Idiot, photo SF/Bernd Uhlig
Benefit Ticket Sales for Dress Rehearsals
The Salzburg Festival was able to open the dress rehearsals for Don Giovanni and Jedermann to a paying audience for a good cause. The artists agreed to perform these without fees.
186,000 Euro Raised for Charitable Causes
Altogether, these ticket sales amounted to 186,000 Euros. Of these, 75,000 Euros will be donated to the aid organization “Doctors without Borders” for urgently-needed humanitarian help in the Gaza Strip and in Sudan. A further 40,000 Euros go to Salzburg’s Children’s Cancer Society, whose mobile “Rainbow Team” enables children to be treated at home with their families. A sum of 36,000 Euros will be donated to the Salzburg chapter of the Malteser Hospitaldienst Austria, which offers child refugees from Ukraine musical and creative support, giving them perspectives for a better future and social integration. Another 35,000 Euros will be donated to the association “Superar”, whose Salzburg project group “Community Choir” offers children and teenagers aged 4 to 18 free, valuable access to music and cultural exchange.
Thanks to Siemens, ORF Salzburg and UNITEL, for more than 20 years the Siemens Festival>Nights, the largest public screening event of its kind, has offered broadcasts using daylight-compatible technology on an LED screen as well as a state-of-the-art sound system. Every year, culture-loving audiences enjoy historical and current Festival performances free of admission. This summer, 46 screenings attracted approximately 40,000 guests.
Music, drama, readings, exhibitions and dance – on three days, Salzburg’s citizens and guests enjoyed the Festival Opening Party, which traditionally launches the Festival summer. It took place on 19, 20 and 26 July, featuring 76 events and more than 11,000 free tickets to 32 performance venues.
Young Singers Project
Young Singers Project, photo SF/Marco Borrelli
16 young vocalists from ten nations participated this year in the Young Singers Project. The public master classes – led this year by Malcolm Martineau, Violeta Urmana and Stéphane Degout – and its practical relevance make the YSP a unique young artist programme. As every year, the Young Singers performed the opera for children, a new production of Carl Orff’s Die Kluge, and their final concert, which took place at the Haus für Mozart for the first time. Since 2008, 212 young vocalists from 48 countries have benefitted from this unique career opportunity.
Young Singers Project, photo SF/Marco Borrelli
Steinway Grand Pianos: “Salzburg Festival Edition”
The long-standing cooperation between the Salzburg Festival and the piano manufacturer Steinway & Sons has been expanded to include a designated edition. At the SalzburgKulisse, the company presented the limited “Salzburg Festival Edition”. The period during which one of the eight designated grand pianos could be purchased was limited to this year’s festival. Part of the revenue from these sales is destined to support young artists as part of the Salzburg Festival’s youth programme jung&jede*r.
A New Concert Shell for the Haus für Mozart
The construction of a new concert shell has significantly improved the performance conditions at the Haus für Mozart. Planned and built by the Festival’s own workshops, the new “concert room” consists of two side walls, a rear wall and a ceiling and is custom-made for the Haus für Mozart, fulfilling higher acoustic, technical and aesthetic standards.
The new concert shell at the Haus für Mozart, planned and built by the Festival’s own workshops
The programme books for the series “Time with SCHOENBERG” were designed with support from the Arnold Schönberg Center, depicting numerous photographs, oil paintings, sketches of works and excerpts from scores. These complemented the musical focus, offering meaningful documentation of Schoenberg’s life and work.
Salzburg Festival Archive: Hugo von Hofmannsthal
At the newly-opened Archive, the Salzburg Festival has already offered insights into the multi-faceted, genre-bending work of the poet and Festival co-founder on the occasions of the Archive Days, during the Festival Opening Party and during special guided tours of the Archive commemorating Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s 150th birthday. The Festival’s history was thereby told as it is reflected in its own performances and through archival materials.
Riccardo Muti, photo Marijan Zlobec
Every summer, the Association of Friends of the Salzburg Festival offers numerous artist conversations and complementary events which are inspired by the Festival programme and illuminate its issues in greater depth. This year, Friends of the Festival were able to choose between approximately 76 such events.
Everyman, photo Monika Rittershaus
The Association of Friends of the Salzburg Festival with its approximately 6,600 members from 60 countries has become one of the Festival’s main financial pillars. The Association contributes almost as much to the Festival budget as the City, State and Salzburg Tourism Board, who are responsible for deficit financing. In addition to an annual programming contribution, the Association underwrites most of the international Festival programme presentations and for example the initiative Festival Ticket = Bus Ticket, an important measure to reduce individual traffic in the city. Furthermore, the Association regularly conducts fundraising campaigns for construction and purchasing projects of the Salzburg Festival.
Don Giovanni, photo SF/Monika Rittershaus
The Salzburg Festival also thanks the international Associations of Friends in Germany, the USA, Switzerland and France for their financial and idealistic support.
Special thanks are due to the members of the Golden Club and Silver Club from all over the world.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Don Giovanni
In addition, we wish to thank the Festival’s many private donors. First and foremost, these include Professor Dr. h.c. mult. Reinhold Würth, to whom the city of Salzburg already owes a debt of gratitude for his contributions to the visual arts. He and the Würth Group are also among the great patrons of the Salzburg Festival. It is only thanks to his generosity that the Ouverture spirituelle can offer such artistic riches.
Ambroise Thomas – Hamlet: Lisette Oropesa (Ophélie), Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, photo SF/Marco Borrelli
Dr. Hans-Peter Wild is one of those people whose love for the arts and for the beauty of the city of Salzburg have led them to become a great supporter and patron of the Salzburg Festival. His donation is the largest individual gift from a private patron. The Festival owes its Festival Centre to this visionary, a building being created as a new space for encounters between all music lovers and Festival friends. Construction begins in the autumn of 2024.
Don Giovanni
Broad Festival Echo includes 14 Television and Streamed Productions as well as 21 Radio Recordings
The 2024 Salzburg Festival was celebrated not only by the audience in Salzburg, but also by viewers all over Europe and throughout the world, on all the ORF channels, on ARTE, NHK, 3sat, Mezzo, on the online platforms ARTE Concert, BR Klassik, medici.TV, Stage+ and Carnegie Hall+ as well as in cinemas.
In addition to the new production of Jedermann, all the new opera productions of the 2024 Festival summer – Les Contes d’Hoffmann, The Gambler and The Idiot – were recorded audiovisually for television and streaming.
Sergey Prokofiev – The Gambler, photo SF/Ruth Walz
In addition, there were recordings of the reading Hallo, hier spricht Nawalny as well as seven concerts:
- The concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Andris Nelsons, Gustavo Dudamel and Yannick Nézet-Séguin
- The Mozart Matinees of the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg under the baton of Roberto González-Monjas and Adam Fischer
- The concert of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Simon Rattle
- The concert performance of the opera Il prigioniero in a double bill with Il canto sospeso by the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maxime Pascal
Cecilia Bartoli – La Clemenza di Tito, photo SF/Matthias Horn
UNITEL, the Festival’s exclusive audiovisual media partner, and its further partners ORF 2, ORF III, BR/SWR/WDR for ARTE, NHK, 3sat, as well as medici.TV, Mezzo and Deutsche Grammophon made a multitude of recordings possible.
The cinema transmissions to South Korea continued this year, featuring four productions.
Peter Sellars, photo SF/Neumayr
With steady continuity, the ORF radio station Ö1 broadcast from Salzburg this summer. Apart from the two opera productions The Gambler and Les Contes d’Hoffmann, the concert performance of the operas Capriccio, Koma, Begehren, Il prigioniero in a double bill with Il canto sospeso as well as 15 further concerts were or will be broadcasts; 6 of these were LIVE transmissions. Given these 21 productions, Ö1 can be considered THE Salzburg Festival station.
Daniel Behle (Tito) – La clemenza di Tito, photo SF/Marco Borrelli
Through the partners of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), all recordings were transmitted worldwide, therefore, some productions were heard not only in Europe, but also in Israel, Japan and China. Thus, Capriccio, Les Contes d’Hoffmann and the matinee under the baton of Riccardo Muti on the national holiday of 15 August were taken on by 13 to 21 radio stations, each reaching an audience of approximately 10 million persons.
Salzburg Festival Documents
New Releases in 2024
For more than 30 years, the Salzburg Festival has been releasing treasures from the ORF Archive as well as recordings of current Festival productions by its media partners through its own edition of SALZBURG FESTIVAL DOCUMENTS, for listening and viewing at leisure. Since 1972, more than 500 audio and video documents have been published, forming the “resounding memory” of the Salzburg Festival.
(After Press materials)
Marijan Zlobec