Salzburg 2026

I just received the full program booklet for this year's festival and I'm wishing I could go. Every program shows a thoughtful creativity that is often missing in typical classical performances. The 150 page booklet, beautifully illustrated by drawings and sketches by Andy Warhol, lists nine opera productions, ranging from Mozart's Così Fan Tutte, to the Rossini rarity Il Viaggio a Reims, to Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos, to the rarely performed Saint Francis of Assisi by Messiaen, to newer works by Henze and Dusapin. The Vienna Philharmonic, as well as being the pit orchestra for most of the operas, will also give five concerts and the Berlin Philharmonic, two. There are also six guest orchestras including the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Vienna Radio Symphony.

No fewer than nine concerts feature music by György Kurtág, this year's featured composer. There are also four concerts devoted to the music of Olivier Messiaen including performances of the Catalogue d'oiseaux, the Visions de l'Amen and the Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Opportunities to hear any of these works are rare, but they are all on the program in Salzburg in August.

There will be solo recitals by Grigory Sokolov, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Evgeny Kissin, Arkadi Volodos, Alexander Malofeev, András Schiff, Igor Levit and Yuja Wang.

There is also a wealth of other performances of chamber music, spiritual music, vocal music and a whole bunch of Mozart. Not to mention a lot of theater works.

I very much wish I could go, but it comes down to a housing problem for me! The cost of attendance at the Salzburg festival is first and foremost the cost of spending two or three weeks in Salzburg in the summer. Even AirBnb places are expensive and hotels are out of sight. After that is the cost of the flights. Third is the cost of the actual tickets, which are really very reasonable considering the superb quality of the performances. Two years ago I spent only €1,400 for tickets to fifteen concerts. But housing can easily cost four to six thousand dollars. The other housing issue is that this summer I will be building my new house, so that is where  my funds are going.

But I am very much looking forward to the 2027 and 2028 festivals and hoping to be there. 

Visiting Campeche

Instead of jetting off to Europe to hear some wonderful concerts, last year and this coming year I am focussing on visiting various places in Mexico. I was in Puebla at Easter, Oaxaca in October and I just got back from Campeche. This last is not a tourist spot, which I usually avoid, but it is a charming place and has a number of attractions. The place to stay is the Holiday Inn, though it is an hour's walk to the historic Centro. The walk is a pleasant one, though, along the Malecón or seawall. 

Along that seawall can be found a lot of pelicans:

The historic district features two large fortresses, each with a museum and well worth a visit. They were built to defend the port against pirates and the English back in the 17th and 18th centuries. Calle 59 has a lot of coffee places and souvenir shops. And the occasional pirate.

Not to be missed is a fine seafood restaurant named Marganzo where all the waitresses wear traditional dress. I had a lovely meal of shrimp risotto (accompanied by sangria)

Followed by grilled sea bass:

And flan with capuchino:

But the real highlight of the trip was the ancient Mayan city of Edzna. Only the central area of about two square kilometers of large buildings have been excavated and are open to visitors. The whole city occupies some 22 square kilometers. That central area includes some apartments, a combination amphitheater and strip mall, a ball court and a large temple sitting on a very large base. The sheer cost in terms of slave labor must have been staggering--no heavy equipment or power tools. Not even a wheelbarrow. 

This is a bedroom:

This is the amphitheater and at the top are spaces for little shops or tiendas.

This is the ball court where the ball was sometimes made of rubber and sometimes was a human head covered in rubber.

And here is the main temple pyramid:

Finally a sunset over the Gulf of Mexico: