Wednesday, 22 January 2020

1210) 100 Years of the Salzburg Festival, Austria (1920-2020): Austrian Post has issued a postage stamp celebrating the milestone: Date of Stamp issue: 21.01.2020:

1210) 100 Years of the Salzburg Festival, Austria (1920-2020): Austrian Post has issued a postage stamp celebrating the milestone: Date of Stamp issue: 21.01.2020:

A Festival of High Culture:

Every year it is the cultural highlight of the summer in Austria and throughout Europe - the Salzburg Festival.

This year, Austrian Post has celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the Festival with a commemorative stamp titled "SALZBVRGER FESTSPIELE.100 JAHRE. 1920-2020. OSTERREICH" (meaning "Salzburg Festival. 100 Years (1920-2020). Republic of Austria").

Using a design adapted from a coin issued by the Austrian Mint, the commemorative stamp shows stylised masks and a reduced violin, representing music and the performing arts.A dove of peace in a reduced linear form symbolises the Festival's character as a "Peace Project" after the end of World War I.

The 2019 Salzburg Festival highlights:

In 2019, more than 270,000 visitors from around the globe attended a total of 199 performances. Every year the best-known artists and orchestras from around the world put on a diverse artistic programme with theatre, opera and concert performances spanning the entire range from classical to modern.

The central focus is on the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the best known citizen of Salzburg, as well as, those of Richard Strauss, who was one of the co-founders of the Festival. 

The performances of Jedermann (Everyman) in the Cathedral Square always attract a lot of interest. Hugo van Hofmannsthal's famous "Spiel vom Sterben des reichen Mannes" ("Play of the Rich Man's Death") has been performed there for almost every single year, since the production by Max Reinhardt on 22.08.1920, which is considered to be the birth of the Festival

The founding of the Salzburg Festival:

The idea of organising a regular Mozart Festival in the city was mooted back in the 19th Century.

Eventually, a circle of persons around Max Reinhardt, Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss succeeded in getting the festival established with the performance of Jedermann in 1920.

The first concerts followed in 1921 and in 1922, Richard Strauss himself conducted the first opera performance - Don Giovanni.

In contrast to the Bayreuth Festival, the Salzburg Festival is not confined to a single venue, with the venues instead comprising the Large Festival Hall, the House for Mozart, the Felsenreitschule, the Cathedral Square and the Collegiate Church.

During the Festival, Salzburg truly becomes "the heart of the heart of Europe" - as Hugo von Hofmannsthal once said.

Technical specifications:

Date of stamp issue: 21.01.2020

Printed by: Joh. Enschede Stamps B.V.

Designer: Helmut Andexlinger

Print Style: Offset

No.of Stamps issued: 180,000 pieces










Links to posts on Austrian Mint Coin issues on this blog:










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21) 100 Years of the Salzburg Festival, Austria (1920-2020): Austrian Post has issued a postage stamp celebrating the milestone: Date of Stamp issue: 21.01.2020

For posts on COTY (Coin of the Year) winners since 2015 in a competition held by Krause Publications of Germany, please visit the following links:

Links to posts on Federal Republic of Germany issues and other posts on this blog:





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