Celebrating its centennial next summer, the Salzburg Festival has been chosen Festival of the Year for the 2020 Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts.
In the wake of the First World War, the Salzburg Festival was launched in 1920 as "a project for freedom," in the words of Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler, to combat "crises--the crisis of meaning and loss of values, the crisis of identity of the individual human being as well as entire nations."
The Festival today--200 opera, concert, and drama performances jam-packed into six weeks and 16 venues, attracting tens of thousands of guests from 80 countries, half of them outside of Europe--is barely recognizable from its humble beginnings with a performance of Jedermann (Everyman) on the steps of the Salzburg Cathedral.
