The Salzburg Festival began with “Jedermann”. The play by Hugo von Hofmannsthal about the death of the rich man had to be moved from the Domplatz to the Festspielhaus because of the rainy and cool weather at times.
The audience responded with friendly applause to this year’s new production starring Burgtheater actor Michael Maertens. Climate activists of the last generation committed themselves to a brief disruptive action during the play, when some demonstrators in the Festspielhaus shouted, among other things: “We are all the last generation”.
For director Michael Sturminger, who is restaging the play for the third time, the fate of Jedermann was an occasion to address current issues such as the climate crisis. “We experience with him what happens when we only start thinking and acting when it’s too late,” says Sturminger.
Comparatively pale spectacle
Right at the beginning, climate sprayers – belonging to the piece – demonstratively marred the marble facade of the super-rich’s castle-like villa with a large blob of orange paint. The initially alarming hint loses more and more of its effect in the staging.
The famous table society of Jedermann seems to be owed to the zeitgeist. The meeting, designed as a picnic happening, is a celebration of diversity thanks to its almost exclusively non-binary guests.
The relationship between Jedermann and paramour, which was embodied by the Austrian Valerie Pachner, remained comparatively pale. For the first time at the festival, paramour also played death. Helmfried von Lüttichau, known from the TV series “Hubert and Staller”, acted as everyone’s good companion.
Outlook for the festival
This season’s new productions include the Mozart opera “Le nozze di Figaro” in a production by Martin Kusej, in which women are to be the focus. Verdi’s “Macbeth” with the star soprano Asmik Grigorian is considered a musical highlight.
Director Karin Henkel dares to stage a stage version of Michael Haneke’s film “Love”, which won an Oscar and a Palme d’Or. She doesn’t want a chamber play-like performance, but relies on choreographic, poetic images with a large ensemble to ask questions about how to deal with illness and death in a self-determined manner, according to the festival in the run-up to the festival.
The festival offers 179 performances in the categories of opera, music and theater until August 31st. Around 212,000 cards were issued. According to the festival, the total budget for 2023 is 67 million euros.
