Scandal surrounding the Salzburg Festival: Davydova makes serious allegations!

Scandal surrounding the Salzburg Festival: Davydova makes serious allegations!

The Salzburg Festival is currently at the center of a heated dispute: Marina Davydova, the festival's former acting director, made serious allegations against the director Markus Hinterhäuser in an interview and spoke of “mental problems”. These surprising statements cause excitement among those responsible, but the Salzburg Cultural Office still sees Davydova's departure as positive. “The festival can be happy that it is no longer part of the organization,” the office says directly, as Kurier reports.

The allegations surrounding Hinterhäuser are now also being dealt with by the Salzburg Festival's board of trustees. This will meet on December 12th to review the situation. Salzburg's governor Karoline Edtstadler and mayor Bernhard Auinger are taking the allegations seriously, while Theresia Niedermüller, chairwoman of the board of trustees, emphasizes that things have already been concluded with an out-of-court settlement. In this context, reference is also made to the vacant acting directorship, which is currently being advertised and the application deadline for which ends on December 14th, according to Die Presse.

Power games and challenges

The festival recently presented an exciting program that deals with global crises and discusses power games between the lines from antiquity to the First World War. Recorded operas and plays are about power and its effects on rulers. The planned performances include Handel's “Giulio Cesare in Egitto”, Verdi's “Macbeth” and “The Last Days of Mankind” by Karl Kraus. The diversity of the program is reflected in a total of 174 performances, which are almost sold out and have received well over 223,000 tickets. DW emphasizes that the festival takes place from July 18th to August 31st.

These contrasts are also evident in the line-up of directors and conductors, who are strongly embedded in current social discourse. In particular, the theme of solidarity with cultural workers who have left Russia is prominently represented. Among other things, the concert series in honor of the 50th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich's death will be an important element of the program.

A dazzling spectacle

The threads of the Salzburg Festival run through a rich history of conflicts and power games. Older employees of the cultural office still vividly remember the “strangling affair” with Frank Baumbauer and an incident from 1972 with Thomas Bernhard. It remains exciting to see how the current situation around Davydova and Hinterhäuser will develop. After all, the director will continue his responsibility until 2031, since the contract was extended in April 2024. But the pressure is increasing, not least because of Davydova's statements, where she describes Hinterhäuser as "subtle and intelligent", but also accuses him of mental problems with statements about Donald Trump's behavior.

The ongoing debate about the festival shows once again how intertwined art and politics are and the challenges that come with managing such a cultural treasure. Having a good hand is becoming more of a necessity here than ever.