Music festivals were held in Salzburg at irregular intervals since 1877 by the
International Mozarteum Foundation but were discontinued in 1910. A festival was planned for 1914, but it was cancelled at the outbreak of
World War I. In 1917, Friedrich Gehmacher and Heinrich Damisch formed an organization known as the
Salzburger Festspielhaus-Gemeinde to establish an annual festival of drama and music, emphasizing especially the works of Mozart. At the close of the war in 1918, the festival's revival was championed by five men now regarded as its founders: the poet and dramatist
Hugo von Hofmannsthal, the composer
Richard Strauss, the
scenic designer
Alfred Roller, the conductor
Franz Schalk, and the director
Max Reinhardt, then intendant of the
Deutsches Theater in
Berlin, who had produced the first performance of Hofmannsthal's play
Jedermann at the Berlin
Zirkus Schumann arena in 1911. According to Hofmannsthal's political writings, the Salzburg Festival, as a counterpart to the Prussian-North German uncompromising worldview, should emphasize the centuries-old Habsburg principles of "live and let live" with regard to ethnic groups, peoples, minorities, religions, cultures and languages. The Salzburg Festival was officially inaugurated on 22 August 1920 with Reinhardt's performance of Hofmannsthal's
Jedermann on the steps of
Salzburg Cathedral, starring
Alexander Moissi. The practice has become a tradition, and the play is now always performed at Cathedral Square; since 1921 it has been accompanied by several performances of
chamber music and
orchestral works. The first operatic production came in 1922, with
Mozart's
Don Giovanni conducted by Richard Strauss. The singers were mainly drawn from the
Wiener Staatsoper, including
Richard Tauber in the part of Don Ottavio. '' theatre The first festival hall was erected in 1925 at the former
Archbishops' horse stables on the northern foot of the
Mönchsberg mountain, on the basis of plans by
Clemens Holzmeister; it opened with
Gozzi's
Turandot dramatized by
Karl Vollmöller. At that time the festival had already developed a large-scale program including live broadcasts by the Austrian
RAVAG radio network. The following year the adjacent former episcopal
Felsenreitschule riding academy, carved into the Mönchsberg rock face, was converted into a theater, inaugurated with a performance of
The Servant of Two Masters by
Carlo Goldoni. In the 21st century, the original festival hall, suitable only for concerts, was reconstructed as a third venue for fully staged opera and concert performances and reopened in 2006 as the
Haus für Mozart (House for Mozart). During the years from 1934 to 1937, famed conductors such as
Arturo Toscanini and
Bruno Walter conducted many performances. In 1936, the festival featured a performance by the
Trapp Family Singers, whose story was later depicted in the musical
The Sound of Music (featuring a scene of the Trapp Family singing at the
Felsenreitschule, but inaccurately set in 1938). In 1937,
Boyd Neel and his orchestra premiered
Benjamin Britten's
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge at the festival. The festival's popularity suffered a major blow as a consequence of the
Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by
Nazi Germany in 1938. Toscanini resigned in protest, artists of Jewish descent like Reinhardt and
Georg Solti had to emigrate, and
Jedermann, last performed by
Attila Hörbiger, had to be dropped. Nevertheless, the festival remained in operation until in 1944 it was cancelled by the order of Reich Minister
Joseph Goebbels in reaction to the
20 July plot. At the end of
World War II, the Salzburg Festival reopened in summer 1945 immediately after the
Allied victory in Europe. ==Post World War II festivals==