Pleasing balance sheet

Strong increase in income for the Easter Festival

This year's Easter Festival has drawn a positive balance before "La Gioconda" was performed for the last time in the Festspielhaus on Monday evening. With an overall occupancy rate of 86 percent and the best income result for more than 20 years, the festival was also a financial success, the festival reported on Monday.

Thematically, the Easter Festival was all about Italy. The two concerts by the choir and orchestra of the Roman Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under festival conductor Antonio Pappano, the world premiere of the danced St. John Passion by Sasha Waltz and the three performances of "La Gioconda" in a new production achieved 100 percent capacity utilization. The financial result was 250,000 euros higher than in the previous year, but no concrete figures were announced.

Premiere for dance and electro

The new dance and electro sections introduced the previous year presented two world premieres in 2024: Sasha Waltz and her company created their version of Johann Sebastian Bach's "St. John Passion" and British multimedia artist Max Cooper brought an audiovisual, immersive electro evening to the Felsenreitschule stage with "Seme".

Colourful program next year

The Festival has announced a diverse program for 2025, created by artists from all over the world. Three orchestras, one conductor and three conductors will perform. The focus will be on Modest Mussorgsky's "Khovanshchina", a new production with which the internationally sought-after theater maker Simon McBurney will present one of his rare operatic interpretations.

Conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen juxtaposes this monumental work with Gustav Mahler's Second, the so-called "Resurrection Symphony", and brings the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra to Salzburg for the first time. Also taking part will be the young Russian conductor Maxim Emelyanychev with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda, the young Norwegian conductor Tabita Berglund with Sondra Radvanovsky and Simon Keenlyside. Details of the dance and electro sections will be announced at a later date.