This production created for the opening of the Salzburg Festival
in 1966, which remained on the programme for five years, was Karl
Bms last Salzburg Figaro. After multiple tries to stage Figaro at
the Salzburg Festival in the 1950's and 60's, the successful team Karl
Bm/Gther Rennert mounted this production with new dor, costumes by
Rudolf Heinrich and with a practically new, young cast of singers. It
was not only the celebrated highlight of the festival summer 1966 but
also became a standard for Mozart that at least was the headline
the German critic and future director of the Stuttgart Opera, Wolfram
Schwinger, gave his report in the Stuttgarter Zeitung of 27 July
1966. "Never before has Figaro been staged in such a totally
meaningful way and so balanced in its theatrical and emotional
elements." As far as the critics are concerned, the singers of this
Salzburg Figaro are also "a stroke of luck for the Festival, who right
at the beginning set a risky standard for anything that follows". This
film from the archives of Austrian Television, which has been
digitally restored in sound and picture for this DVD, preserves an
exemplary Mozart performance in its fascinating immediacy, which is
rare even at the Salzburg Festival.