At the end of the year the festival president wants to end her office – and the successor carousel is picking up momentum every week. Although the official announcement is not due to take place until early autumn, the (currently female) candidates are already being eagerly discussed behind the scenes.
When insiders of the Salzburg Festival talk shop about successor candidates for the outgoing President Helga Rabl-Stadler, in the end there is usually an illustrious ladies’ group left. Salzburg’s state parliament president Brigitta Pallauf is assigned the favorite status, followed by DomQuartier boss Elisabeth Resmann, a close confidante of state governor Wilfried Haslauer.
European Minister Karoline Edtstadler is sometimes more, sometimes less in discussion. The same applies to ex-minister Maria Fekter, who would have to resolve a conflict of interest beforehand. She currently sits on the Festival Board of Trustees, that is, on the committee that advertises the president’s job. The first course for the Rabl-Stadler successor will be set there on Monday in the next meeting.
According to Festspiel-Adabeis, the opera singer Angelika Kirchschlager appears new in the candidate carousel, but always with the addition: “Two artists on the three-man board of the Salzburg Festival? Director Markus Hinterhäuser and a President Kirchschlager? That can’t go well in the long run. ”Advantage for the singer: She wouldn’t be a“ political ”candidate like all of the women mentioned above.
An accomplished insider tip is still the Easter Festival Supervisory Board member Sarah Wedl-Wilson. The cultural manager and former Mozarteum rector is currently the head of the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin. In response to specific inquiries, she emphasizes that she wants to fulfill her contract there by September 2023, but admits to the appeal of the Festival Presidium: “This is the most beautiful job in culture in Europe.” Which is why, despite multiple denials, Governor Haslauer has not yet done so have finally written off as the new Festival President.