This year saw the tenth and last Salzburg Festival under the artistic direction of Gerard Mortier, and the operas presented in the first part of that festival gave a reasonable picture of the strengths and weaknesses of Mortier’s reign. A firebrand young opera intendant (in Brussels) of uncompromising avant-garde principles, he was hired by the Salzburg Festival management in order to move away from, if not obliterate, the image of the Herbert von Karajan years: the big star performances (allied to almost a trade show for record companies) at high prices for affluent continentals.

The task was Sisyphean, given the implacable opposition of many ticket buyers, the Salzburg gentry, much of the management, and the Viennese press, but it must be said that Mortier succeeded to a surprising extent, through noisy confrontations and adroit backstage maneuvers—plus the stalwart support of American backers such as Betty Freeman and Alberto Vilar ...

This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchase