Salzburg Festival, musical club for the super-rich, opens

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

VIENNA (AFP) — The 88th edition of the annual Salzburg Festival formally opened Saturday with a ceremony in the city's Felsenreitschule hall, one of the main venues for the month-long festival of music, opera and theatre.

The opening ceremony was attended by Austrian President Heinz Fischer and Austria's political elite and the keynote speech was given by German writer Elke Heidenreich.

Under the motto "For love is strong as death" -- a line from Solomon's Biblical Song of Songs -- this year's festival explores the inextricable links between love and death.

Among the operatic offerings are Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and "The Magic Flute", Verdi's "Otello", Gounod's "Romeo and Juliet", Dvorak's "Rusalka" and Bartok's "Bluebeard's Castle".

Theatre buffs...