2024-11-30 15:16:00
The Salzburg Festival has parted ways with interim director Marina Davydova with immediate effect. The reason given was “breach of official contractual duties”. Davydova, born in Baku in 1966, woudl have had to register and get approval for a part-time job at the small Berlin Voices Performing Arts Festival. They didn’t just issue a warning, but went straight to terminating the contract. This shows how quickly Davydova’s star fell in Salzburg.
Almost exactly two years ago Davydova was introduced in Salzburg as the new interim director. Director Markus Hinterhäuser spoke of a “kindred spirit”. They knew each other from the days when he was director of the Vienna Festival, when Davydova was in charge of the theater.Shortly before her arrival in Salzburg, Davydova had left Russia, where she also worked as a theater critic and edited the magazine “Teatr”. After publicly calling for an end to the war in Ukraine,she was threatened.
One of Davydova’s first official acts in Salzburg caused a sensation. She quickly canceled the production of “Everyman” with Burgtheater star Michael Maertens in the lead role, which had only run for one season, even though a second season was stipulated in the contracts. A real surprise for the ensemble. For the new production, Davydova hired veteran Canadian star Robert Carsen, who, to critical acclaim, focused on opulence rather than an apocalyptic atmosphere. and Philipp Hochmair as the title hero.
“Boring meetings”
Another irritant was that Davydova publicly stated that she would prefer to invite international works to Salzburg rather than have them produced locally. A contradiction with the image that the festival has of itself, cultivated for decades. As reported by the “Standard”.not least Davydova’s statements – most recently on Facebook about “boring meetings” in Salzburg – led the company not to want to continue the collaboration. It also did not properly separate business and private travel.
Furthermore,their first edition at the Salzburg Festival was rather weak. Nicolas Stemann’s tease of “Oresteia” was disappointing, and Thom Luz also didn’t deliver anything exceptional with “Sternstunden der Mensch”. The program planned by davydova for next summer will, however, be implemented without changes and will include the premiere of Elfriede Jelinek and “The Last Days of Mankind” by Karl Kraus. The program will be officially presented on Tuesday. Director Hinterhäuser wants to appoint a new director of the acting department soon, without a tender.