Letter from Salzburg
When I met Canadian baritone Russell Braun in Salzburg for an early morning coffee in August, he said that one of the biggest challenges of rehearsing the star role in Hans Werner Henze’s The Bassarids at this year’s Festival was surviving the heat. Throughout the month of July, the thermometer regularly rose to 40° and for the majority of the production, Braun had to wear an over-sized, red Canada Goose parka. But he also said how motivating it was to work with one of today’s most searingly radical stage directors, Krzysztof Warlikowski.
To the credit of Salzburg Intendant Markus Hinterhäuser, now in his second season at the helm of the prestigious Festival, the 2018 edition went much further than the previous in terms of daring scenic interpretations. If in the past, the Festival has boasted consistently stunning, all-star casts, this year the spotlight was on the
