Tony Palmer

The Salzburg Festival Tony Palmer

The Salzburg Festival has hosted every great star of the opera and concert hall, from Toscanini to Anne-Sophie Mutter, from Fischer-Dieskau to Barenboim, from Pollini to Mitsuko Uchida. In this film, director Tony Palmer has been granted unprecedented access to Austria's film archives. Highlights include performances of 'Jedermann' from 1920 to the present day featuring actors such as Maximilian Schell and Klaus Maria Brandauer; 'Don Giovanni' (with Furtwangler in '54 and a controversial performance directed by Peter Sellars in the '90's); a wealth of performance footage of Herbert von Karajan, including never before seen home movies and film of the Nazi hierachy at the festival during WWII.

Alongside this historical footage the film interviews current stars including Placido Domingo, Valery Gergiev, Lang Lang, Riccardo Muti and Simon Rattle, who tell their stories and open their hearts about this unique festival.