GLENN LONEY'S ARTS RAMBLES A FAREWELL TO SALZBURG—IF
NOT TO ARMS?
Please click on " * " to skip to each subject in this index: THIS WAS THE FEST THAT USED TO BE * Follow Up on Arrival in Salzburg * So: Is It To Be: GOOD BYE TO SALZBURG & VIENNA & ALL THAT? * For the Record * Preview of Coming Attractions * Visual Arts & Museum Shows On View During the Salzburg Festival 2012 * The Trapp Family Lives Again at the Panorama: Reality & The Sound of Music Special Exhibition. * At Salzburg’s MoMA—or Museum der Moderne: John Cage und… * At The Rupertinum of the Museum der Moderne: Merce Cunningham Dance Movement Photos! * Celebrating Marcus Sitticus in the Dom Museum * Curtains—on 2 September—for Salzburg’s Barock Museum in the Mirabel Gardens! * Die Kunst zu Wohnen—Good Housekeeping in the Late 18th Century… * Sunday, Bloody Sunday in Salzburg: Not a Creature was Stirring, Only Some Masses … * See Some of the Austrian Alps! * THIS WAS THE FEST THAT USED TO BE After waiting Months & Months for a Reply to my Annual Request for Press Tickets to the Prestigious Salzburg Festival—which I have been attending & reporting upon for more than Fifty Five Years—it was a Sudden Surprise, in June 2012, to receive an E Mail from the Press Chief, denying me "Akkreditation": on the Basis that the Festival had become So Famous World Wide that there were no longer Any Tickets for Wretches like Your Internet Stained Roving Arts Reporter. Just in case My Veracity might be doubted, here’s the Actual E Mail from Frau Magister Ulla Kalchmair:
From: "Salzburger Festspiele Pressebuero" <presse@salzburgfestival.at> Date: 10 June 2012 13:11:01 EDT To: "Glenn Loney" <glenn.loney@verizon.net> Cc: "Presse Salzburger Festspiele" <presse@salzburgfestival.at>, <presse.karten@salzburgfestival.at> Subject: AW: Press Tickets Dear Mr. Loney: Thank you for your interest. We are very sorry to tell you that, due to the vast requests worldwide, we are forced to tell you that this summer we will not be able to accreditate you. It is not easy to write you this negative answer and thank you very much for your understanding. Kindest regards, Mag. Ulla Kalchmair Leitung Presse und PR Salzburger Festspiele Hofstallgasse 1 5020 Salzburg www.salzburgerfestspiele.at
So, here’s what I wrote to the Salzburg Fest Press Chief—who had [formerly] been Very Thoughtful: E Mail from Glenn.Loney@Verizon.Net… An Die Frau Magister Ulla Kalchmair: Dear Frau Magister Kalchmair: After waiting Weeks, even Months, for an Answer to my 2011 Request for Press Tickets & Press Privileges for this Summer’s Salzburg Festival, it was an Unpleasant Shock & a Deep Disappointment to discover that you were denying me Press Akkreditation this Season. The Reason—if I understood you correctly—is that the Salzburg Festival has now acquired such World Wide Fame that Previously Uninterested Opera & Drama Critics are now clamoring for Press Tickets, of which there is a Declining Allocation? I would have written you earlier—in answer to your Negative Response—but the Annual Conference of the American Theatre Critics Association was in Chicago & Milwaukee in June, while the Music Critics of North America met in St. Louis, with the Dance Critics of America meeting in Manhattan. So I was fairly busy with traveling here & there to attend these Conferences… As I am sure you are aware, I have been reporting on Salzburg Festival Productions—as well as doing Interviews & providing Technical Information—for a number of Leading Cultural & Academic Publications at least since 1960. But I first came to the Festival in 1956… I have always done this at My Own Cost, even when writing for such Journals as Opera News, Opera, & Opera Monthly. As well as for Theatre Crafts, Entertainment Design, & Theatre Design & Technology… Doesn’t this kind of Long Range Festival Expertise have some Value? As you may know, I am always warmly welcomed at your Sister Festival in Bregenz. In fact, I am writing this from the Hotel Mercure, just steps away from the Bregenzer Festspielhaus. Also, I do remember with gratitude your Thoughtfulness & Generosity when I was reporting on Dr. Peter Marboe’s Excellent Adventure, with the Mozart Jahr in Vienna! Of which you were Peter’s Resourceful Secretary! So, I do hope that you will re consider & provide me with Press Tickets for at least some of the Forthcoming Productions I originally requested? In any case, I had already booked my Customary Accommodations—at Hotel Schwarzes Rössl—at the same time that I wrote to you. Thus, I will be in Salzburg at the Usual Time… Fortunately, even if I do not get any Press Tickets, there is always something to see: Jedermann high up atop the Mönchsberg, in Festung Salzburg. Or Sung Sunday Mass in the Glorious Baroque Salzburg Cathedral! Even if I am not permitted to enjoy & report on New Productions, I can certainly see them Almost Live on that Giant Siemens TV Screen, behind the Cathedral. But I fear that your Negative Decision may have been caused by something that was Not My Fault. Although I have been regularly reporting for over Five Decades of Salzburg Festivals—most recently for such Web Sites as Total Theatre.com, NYTheatre Wire.com, & TheArtsArchive.com—I have long been a Contributing Editor for Western European Stages, produced by the PhD in Theatre Program of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Unfortunately, neither our Founder Editor, Distinguished Professor of Theatre Dr. Marvin Carlson, nor his PhD Graduate Student Publication Assistants ever show me Galley Proofs of my Reports & Reviews. Nor do they show me the Page Layouts… Had they done so for my 2011 Festival Report, I would at once have caught & corrected the Mixed Up Captions that wrongly identified Munich & Salzburg Productions. Perhaps I should never have sent you that Defective Issue at all, preferring to let the Web Masters & Editors of my other Publication Venues E Mail you my Reports… I should very much regret missing the Salzburg Festival in Coming Summers, but, without the Press Privilege, what is the Point? This Weinachts Abend 2012, I will be 84 Years Old. I hope this is not yet another Instance of Age Discrimination? With Respect…
GLENN LONEY Dr. phil., Professor of Theatre Emeritus, CUNY Graduate Center; Contributing Editor: Total Theatre.com, NYTheatre Wire.com, TheArtsArchive.com, & Western European Stages; American Theatre Critics Association, International Federation of Theatre Critics, Music Critics of North America, Dance Critics of America, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, etc.
Follow Up on Arrival in Salzburg As there was No Response forthcoming from Frau Magister Kalchmair to my Letter, I decided to drop by the Press Office in the Mother Rock of the Great Mönschberg that looms above the Altstadt/Old City of Salzburg. Posted on the Press Office Door was a Notice that only Press Personnel with AKKREDITATION were Welcome. That the Word AKKREDITATION had to be reproduced in Bold Face & Extra Large was rather like Rubbing Salt into the Wounds of Loyal Old Friends… As I was, thus, not to be Numbered among the Critic Saints who went Marching In to the Festival Venues, I do not know who among my Old Critic Colleagues were, in fact, "AKKREDITATED." Nonetheless, I did chance to see on a Fest Poster the news that an Old Manhattan Critical Hand— Jeremy Gerard, Onetime Variety Honcho—was to be on a Panel or Interviewed, or Something. But Jeremy—who has never been known for his Fondness for Foreign Opera Festivals—was representing Bloomberg News! [Which probably Paid His Way…] An American Old Timer at the Salzburg Festival—also on Posters—was the Neo Con Critic Jay Nordlinger, who once wrote for the Now Defunct but then Neo Con & Pro Israel NY Sun. He has long been a Panel Moderator at the Salz Fest for the somewhat Neo Con American Friends of the Salzburg Festival, as well as representing the Neo Con National Review, founded by the Late Wm. F. Buckley. Good To Know Who Among American Critics Deserve Akkreditation…
So: Is It To Be: GOOD BYE TO SALZBURG & VIENNA & ALL THAT? I fear that that must be so… As I have already Photographed almost every Historic Building & Major Monument in both Vienna & Salzburg—not to mention Linz, Sankt Pölten, Erl, Rottenegg, Kloster Melk, Sankt Valentin, Kitzbühel, Hallein, KZ Mauthausen, Wörgl, Bischofshofen, Graz, Hoch Tirol/Alto Adige, Eisenstadt, Wolfgangsee, Bregenz, Sankt Anton, Hohenems, Bad Gastein, Maria Zell, Zell am See, Bad Ischl, Attersee, Die Dolomiten, Jenbach, Schwarzach Sankt Veit, Obersalzburg, Ammersee, Innsbruck, Villach, Wels, Sankt Johann im Pongau, Krumpendorf, Bruck an den Mur, Dornbirn, Lamprechtshausen, Feldkirch, Wiener Neustadt, Leonding, Klosterneuberg, Krems, Tirol, Baden, Spital Millstättersee, Leoben, Klagenfurt, & Vistas of the Donau/Danube—for the INFOTOGRAPHY™ Archive, included in Glenn Loney’s TheArtsArchive.com, I guess I really do not need to return to Vienna or Salzburg ever again… [Somehow, I seem to have missed a Photo Safari to Judenburg: Did Imperial Austrian Jews have a Burg of Their Own?] After all, what is Vienna—now that the Habsburg Imperium is Long Gone—but a Collection of Architecturally Interesting Historical Landmarks—sited on the Slovakian Border of a Once Great Territorial Empire that was dismantled—if not entirely destroyed—in The Great War. Well, of course there is still the Vienna State Opera & the Beloved Sacher Tortes…
It would be Churlish of me, however, not to share the Names of the Productions I had hoped to see this Summer, notably Die Soldaten of the Late Bernd Alois Zimmermann, as well as Peter von Winter’s Das Labyrinth, oder Der Kampf mit den Elementen. The Latter is known as the Second Part of Emmanuel Schikaneder’s Magic Flute or Zauberflöte. Also on offer—but not to me—were Mozart’s Zauberflöte & his Il Re Pastore; Georg Friedrich Händel’s Tamerlano & Giulio Cesare in Egitto, plus Carmen, Bohème, & Ariadne auf Naxos. Not to Overlook the Salzburg Signature Staging of Jedermann! Created, in fact, by Christoph Stölzl, whose Antonius & Cleopatra I had just seen in Oberammergau… Then there were both of Irina Brook’s Stagings: Hank Ibsen’s Peer Gynt & Bill Shakespeare’s Tempest. As the Daughter of Peter Brook, she has Good Avant Garde Credentials… I do regret not seeing Kafkas Schloss or Mojo. But how often do you ever get to see Der Bauer als Millionär or Heinrich von Kleist’s Prinz Friedrich von Homburg? Especially in The United States of America! But I don’t feel too Bad about missing Bauer: it’s done with Puppets…
Hey! If you—like I—missed out on the Salzburg Summer Festival [in Salzburg, but not at the Festival], you might want to Check Out the Salzburg Osterfestspiele, founded by the late Herbert von Karajan, partly as a means of using the Huge Festival Theatres more than a mere Five Weeks per Year. But it was also His Revenge on Bayreuth: He could mount & conduct his own Wagner Operas without having to deal with Wieland or Wolfgang Wagner! This Coming Easter, instead of Hunting for Easter Eggs on the Mönchsberg, you could be enjoying Parsifal in the Grosses Festspielhaus, conducted by Bayreuth’s Favorite Son, Christian Thielemann. Even Better: This Pfingsten, you could be back in Salzburg for Norma! Cecila Bartoli—who will sing Norma—now heads this Religion Linked Fest: Pfingsten is, after all, better known in the English Speaking West as Pentecost… The Theme of the 2013 Fest is sacrifice OPFER victim—with just that kind of Kooky Kapitalization. Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem will share the Bill with Haydn’s Seven Last Words from the Cross, better known to German & Austrian Christians as: Die sieben lezten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuz… Another Sacrificial Victim will be offered up in Igor Stravinsky’s Sacre du Printemps, presented by Valery Gergiev & the Mariinsky Ballet, Chorus, & Orchestra—once the Pride of Leningrad, but now returned to the Glory of St Petersburg.
Visual Arts & Museum Shows On View During the Salzburg Festival 2012 Each Year, the City of Salzburg acquires one or more Examples of Cutting Edge Post Post Modern Art! Old Favorites, like the Towering CHAIR of Marina Abramowic—recently Very Big at MoMA—are always a Treat… This Season, Post Modernist Benches—decorated with a Variety of Images—at least provide Opportunities to Sit Down: Useful Arts!
The Trapp Family Lives Again at the Panorama: Reality & The Sound of Music Special Exhibition. When The Sound of Music Movie—featuring Julie Andrews & Christopher Plummer—was initially released in Austria, it bore the Title of Meine Lieder, Meine Träume: Or My Songs, My Dreams… Although much of it had been filmed in & around Salzburg—notably in the famed Jewish Producer/Director Max Reinhardt’s Schloss Leopoldskron—it was not very Popular, as it suggested that Salzburg had been a Nest of Nazis! Nonetheless, Sound of Music Tours have now become a Major Industry. Tourists flock to Yellow Busses, with S o M Images on their Flanks, visiting all the Sites seen in the Film! With Lunch Included… Not only that! The Salzburger Marionetten Theater now relives this Rodgers & Hammerstein Classic almost as often as its Signature Mozart Classics. Even more Amazing: For the first time ever, the Salzburger Landestheater is presenting this Beloved American Musical LIVE ON STAGE! But there’s a Lot More to the Saga of The Trapp Family Singers—who Escaped the Nazis & ended up with a Ski Lodge in Vermont. The seemingly beatific Mater Familias, Baroness Maria von Trapp, was something of a Tyrant… At the Salzburg Panorama, you can find out all the Dirt!
At Salzburg’s MoMA—or Museum der Moderne: John Cage und… Astounding that the Two Major Summer Exhibitions at the two Venues of Salzburg’s Museum der Moderne are devoted to American Artists: John Cage & Merce Cunningham! High upon the Hill of the Majestic Mönchsberg, where once the Café Winckler flourished, the Titular Museum der Moderne is showing lots of John Cage Stuff, celebrating his Aleatory Excesses. The Show is titled John Cage und… Visual Artist—Influences, Impulses… But there’s More to Come: in October, Chuck Close Multiple Portraits! Another American!
At The Rupertinum of the Museum der Moderne: Merce Cunningham Dance Movement Photos! The Rupertinum is down in the Altstadt, across from the Grosses Festspielhaus. The Photos of the Dance Movements of Merce’s Minimalist Dancers are Not without Interest. But they will surely be Eclipsed in this coming October, when Che Guevera takes over! Not Another American…
Celebrating Marcus Sitticus in the Dom Museum Although he reigned as Prince Archbishop of Salzburg only from 1616 to 1619, Marcus Sitticus of Hohenems was one of the City’s most important Builders. He not only reconstructed the Cathedral & commissioned the Summer Palace of Hellbrunn—with its Baroque Gardens & Water Tricks—but he also founded the University of Salzburg, produced the First Opera North of the Alps, & vigorously fought Dr. Martin Luther’s Heretic Reformation. Nonetheless, he has always been lurking in the Shadows of his Illustrious Predecessor, Prince Archbishop Wolf Dietrich, & his Powerful Successor, Prince Archbishop Paris Lodron… Historic Portraits & Rich Treasures were on view, as well as the Magnificent Garments in which he arrayed himself—the better to Serve God & to dazzle the Peasant Faithful. Costly Goblets & Altarpieces were also on display. These were Gifts from such Monkish Orders as the Franciscans, as well as from Salzburg Parishes, to thank him for his Battle Against the Reformation!
Curtains—on 2 September—for Salzburg’s Barock Museum in the Mirabel Gardens! Salzburg’s charming Jewel Box Barock Museum has been sending Your Roving Arts Reporter both Snail Mail & E Mail Exhibition Announcements & Illustrated Brochures for some years now. So it’s with some Sadness that I have to report its Imminent Demise. One of its Strengths—not only in Showcasing Its Own Collections—was that it frequently mounted Impressive Exhibitions from other Museums, or from Private Collections, that were accompanied by Richly Illustrated Catalogues, with Invaluable Essays by Leading Experts! Not only was it a Repository of the Actual Plans for some of Salzburg’s most impressive Architectures, Monuments, & Gardens, but it was also a Treasure Trove of Baroque & Rococo Period Paintings, Decorative Objects, & even Stage Designs! Of course, these Historic Testimonies to the Grand Old Times, when the Salzburg Land & City was ruled by Prince Archbishops—with both Temporal Princely Powers & God or Vatican Granted Spiritual Dominion over All the Inhabitants, including Protestants—won’t disappear. But they may go into the Storage of the Salzburger Landes Museum… Vintage Posters & Post Cards were being offered FREE in the Foyer, while admirable Catalogues of Past Exhibitions were available for only Euro 2.50 per copy. A Major Study of the remarkable Baroque Architecture of Johann Fischer von Erlach was on offer for that Bargain Sum, but it was Huge & Weighed a Ton… Nonetheless, I did buy several copies of Barockberichte 40/41 2005 to share with Critic Collegues because it deals with the earliest attempts to Project Images—think Magic Lanterns!—as well as to create the Impression of Motion, with a Series of Rapidly Flipped Images. This fascinating Exhibition was based on the Optical & Pre Film Collection of Werner Nekes: List und List im Augenblick… But if you’d like to have a copy of this Nekes Catalogue—not to mention the Fischer von Erlach Tome—you are probably Out of Luck, as All the Publications seem destined for the Waste basket, come 2 September. But you could go On Line & find the Website of the Museums of Land und Stadt Salzburg. Surely they are not going to throw away such Excellent Visuals & Great Scholarship?
Die Kunst zu Wohnen—Good Housekeeping in the Late 18th Century… Actually, the Subtitle of this interesting Show is: Raumdesign im Rokoko. Instead of having a Bulky Dollhouse to play with, a Young Girl from a Good Family could, instead, fill Meter Long Painted Paper Rooms with Cut Out Colored Images of Furniture, Table Settings, Complete Kitchens, & even Fashionably Dressed Gentlemen & Ladies! This helped to teach both Girls & Boys of Prosperous Parents how to Furnish & Maintain an Elegant Household in the Era of Rococo Excess. The 19 Room Panels on view once belonged to Regina Barbara Walther of Augsburg. This Colorful Collection should be More Widely Seen, but there is a Catalogue. To Order one of these Handsome Keepsakes, however, may be Difficult after 2 September… Why is the Land und Stadt Salzburg closing this Unusual Museum? Will it soon re open as a Casino/Cabaret for Salzburg Festival Tourists?
Sunday, Bloody Sunday in Salzburg: Not a Creature was Stirring, Only Some Masses … This Summer in Salzburg, the Streets in the Old Town were so jammed one could Hardly Move! But, come Sunday, the Altstadt seemed Vacated: Had an Ancient Plague struck again? No, no! No Need for another Oberammergau Passion Play… Instead, both the Pious & the Tourists were enjoying Holy Mass in the Salzburger Dom & the Fransikaner Kirche. With Opera Soloists, Outstanding Choirs, Mini Symphonic Orchestras, & the Masses of Charles Gounod, Franz Schubert, & Ludwig van Beethoven…
See Some of the Austrian Alps! There are Alps looming behind Salzburg. There are Alps looming on both sides of the Corridor that leads from Bregenz down to Innsbruck. Via the Österreichesches Bundesbahn, you can zoom alongside the Dolomites… But the Best Alpine Experience—aside from actually Climbing some of the Towering Peaks—is the Rail Trip down from Salzburg, via Hallein—where once the Celts settled—down to Villach! Breathtaking Vistas! If you continue on to Klagenfurt—Capitol of Kärnten/Carinthia—you can see the Famous Medieval Fountain of the Lindenwurm! Actually, this Medieval Art Installation—which also had the Useful Virtue of providing Drinking Water to the Citizens—includes a Towering Figure of Hercules, complete with a Menacing Mace. The Winged Monster is, of course, not a Worm at all. Nor is it made out of Linden Holz… This remarkable Survival of the Historic Past represents one of the Labors of Hercules, who was not only a Lion Killer but also a Dragon Slayer! Not far away is the Historic Pest Säule, which celebrates the Salvation of those Fortunate Citizens who did not drink the Water from the Lindenwurm Fountain, when it was infested with Plague Bacilli… At least the Good Folk of Klagenfurt were content with a Plague Pillar—oddly topped with the Cross of Lorraine. They didn’t feel Obligated to Present a Passion Play every Ten Years as the Good Catholics of Oberammergau still do! Caricature of Glenn Loney in header is by Sam Norkin. Copyright © Glenn Loney 20012. No re-publication or broadcast use without proper credit of authorship. Suggested credit line: "Glenn Loney Arts Rambles." Reproduction rights please contact: jslaff@nymuseums.com.
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