Rumors had been already circulating on Saturday, sooner or later after the board of trustees assembly of the Salzburg Festival, that director Markus Hinterhäuser would now resign from his place. Now the case has occurred. As the pageant introduced on Thursday, the attorneys of the Salzburg Festival Fund and Hinterhäuser’s authorized counsel have mutually selected the instant separation. Hinterhäuser will likely be on depart till the tip of the present contract on September 30, 2026. It was agreed to not disclose particulars of the association.
Hinterhäuser actually not has any want to preside over a pageant whose board of trustees had demonstratively withdrawn their belief in him. The causes for this withdrawal of belief allegedly lie in a scarcity of “good behavior”, no matter that could be. Hinterhäuser was blamed for the nomination of Karin Bergmann because the pageant’s new performing director, bypassing the official utility course of. There had been additionally repeated rumors in regards to the director’s outbursts of anger and belittling habits in direction of staff. But none of these affected had their names made public, not even by way of authorized counsel. As lengthy as there may be nothing legally dependable, all rumors stay suspicious experiences bordering on a doubtful hunt for clicks.
The operation of the pageant, which can happen from July seventeenth to August thirtieth this 12 months, is unlikely to be in danger. The season is deliberate, the pageant president Kristina Hammer and the industrial director Lukas Crepaz are to take over the operational administration till an interim or everlasting appointment to the directorate has been clarified. The plans for the 2027 season are additionally nicely superior. However, two years earlier than the beginning of the renovation work on the Great Festival Hall and with out outlined areas for various venues, the board of trustees has now discovered itself in a scenario the place it has to discover a new director, a brand new drama director, a brand new pageant presidency and a brand new industrial director as a result of the latter’s contracts are additionally ending.
There at the moment are a number of too many centrifugal forces at work directly on the 106-year-old establishment of the Salzburg Festival, particularly because the Salzburg governor Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) has solely been on the head of the board of trustees for nearly a 12 months. Due to this management disaster, the world’s largest pageant for opera, drama and live shows is heading for its greatest disaster since 1944/45. Whoever dares to save lots of all the retailer will first have to ascertain calm in a local weather of intrigue, coldness and shabbiness of their dealings with each other. With Michael Haefliger, Matthias Schulz or Winrich Hopp, there can be skilled and prudent administrators with a transparent understanding of artwork who may run such a enterprise. But who can one severely ask to hunt skilled success in such a poisonous local weather?
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/musik-und-buehne/oper/salzburger-festspiele-trennen-sich-von-intendant-markus-hinterhaeuser-200674514.html