MA artists at the 2026 Salzburg Festival

This summer's Salzburg Festival will feature three MA artists. Ulrich Rasche directs a new production of Goethe's Faust I (25 July to 6 August). It is his fourth Salzburg piece, following The Persians (2018), Nathan der Weise (2023) and Maria Stuarda (2025). His cast includes Stephen Scharf as Faust and Valery Tscheplanowa as Mephistopheles.

Ersan Mondtag makes his Salzburg Festival debut directing a new production of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos (2 to 20 August), with Manfred Honeck conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. 

Jonian Ilias Kadesha also visits the festival to perform chamber music by Bartók, Ligeti, Kurtág and Mozart alongside Patricia Kopatchinskaja and other colleagues (25 August).