Opening night

This Evening we went to the opening of the Whitsun Festival in Salzburg at the Haus fur Mozart one of the 3 halls in the Festival complex the other known hall the Felsenreitschule that appears in the movie the Sound of Music, it is all carved in the rock face of the mountain. The hall we were in is an addition. The opening work this year is an opera by Mozart, he composed at the age of 15 on a libretto by Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782), it is the story of Judith and Olofrenes. Story taken from the old Testament which tells how the widow Judith saved the Jewish people by killing the leader of the Assyrians, Olofrenes. It is a theme in classical painting that comes back all the time, Judith is seen using Olofrenes's sword to chop his head off while he is sleeping. She is the hand of God liberating his people (the Jews) from the oppressor, in this case the Assyrians or Persians. It is a story of Faith, Love and Hope and of the conversion of the Amonite Prince Achior to Judaism when he sees a defenseless woman win alone against a mighty foe with the help of the one true God.

Beautiful score which shows that Mozart as a child was a musical genius, Maestro Riccardo Muti, (my favorite conductor) did a superb job as always with his orchestra. The theme of this opera was very well received by the Austrian Emperor who saw in this score of the deliverance of the Jewish people an allegory to the liberation of Vienna from the Turkish menace in 1683. Faith in God the All mighty frees his people, the Turks being savages and godless barbarians. In the Felsenreitschule the Karl Böhm hall which use to be the setting for jousting matches and is now use for receptions, on its ceiling a large fresco of a match where Christian Princes are watching galant knights behead rather stylishly Turkish prisoners.

The audience is composed at the Festival of regulars, same people each year really, mostly Europeans and a lot of wealthy Japanese who appear to be guests of the official sponsor the watchmaker A.Lange & Sohne of Dresden, Germany (www.lange-sohne.de)