Concerning Salzburg

Things are going well

Ever since Karl Kraus, it has been fashionable to mock or complain about the ticket prices at the Salzburg Festival. So what? The business is booming. The new "Jedermann" is even said to be four and a half times overbooked. A visit to the play on the cathedral square is still a bargain compared to a ticket to the Easter Festival. Some people spend astronomical sums just to hear "Die Netrebko". The name of the opera is almost irrelevant.

That's the way it is in the cultural sector. It's all about the money. A lot of money. The hotels, restaurants, gallery owners and many suppliers, from bakers to florists, all make money. No one has to justify this or dress it up with pompous talk about the social role of art.

It takes first-class people to make it all work the way it does. It is therefore a stroke of luck for Salzburg that Nikolaus Bachler at Easter, Cecilia Bartoli at Whitsun and Markus Hinterhäuser in the summer set the tone with a fine trio of world-class talent.

The Festival is a sensitive biotope with sensitive alpha animals. Poor personnel decisions can have dire consequences. It is now up to politicians to protect people who are not always easy as artists. Often from themselves. And from the schemers in the second and third rows. In phases of upheaval, they often develop a perverse desire to destroy what is working well.