The Salzburg Festival will be one of classical music’s few offerings in the summer of the coronavirus pandemic, staging a reduced 100th anniversary celebration with capacities limited to about 50%.Europe’s top festival announced Tuesday it will present 90 performances, down from 212 originally intended.
Venues will be cut from 16 to seven and intermissions eliminated to reduce audience interaction. The only operas will be a Mozart’s “Cosi fan Tutte” in the Grosses Festspielhaus, limited to about 1,000 of its 2,300 seats, and Richard Strauss’ “Elektra” in the Felsenreitschule, which will hold roughly 700.