Salzburg Festival kicks off month of music, opera

The 89th Salzburg Festival was officially opened on Saturday by Austrian President Heinz Fischer, with Handel's opera "Theodora" kicking off a month of music and drama later in the day.

Austrian leaders turned up en masse at the opening, led by Fischer and his guest, Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva, on an official visit to Austria.

One of the world's most exclusive summer arts festivals, the month-long event will involve a total of 186 performances at 14 different venues ranging from opera to concerts and drama, with such big names as soprano Anna Netrebko and pianist Lang Lang.

This year's edition, under the motto "The Game of the Mighty", kicks off on Saturday evening with a new production of Handel's "Theodora" directed by Christof Loy.

Other operas over the next month will include Beethoven's "Fidelio", Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" and Haydn's "Armida", while concerts will feature such orchestras as the great Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Meanwhile, theatre buffs can relish in Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull", Samuel Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape" or Hugo von Hofmannsthal's "Everyman", the morality play performed every year since the Salzburg Festival was founded in 1920.

Russian superstar soprano Netrebko will return for a rare solo recital after her absence last year due to pregnancy, and some of the world's greatest pianists give solo recitals, including Martha Argerich, Evgeny Kissin, Grigory Sokolov, Lang Lang and Maurizio Pollini.

Ticket prices in Salzburg -- among the priciest in Europe for such an event -- range from as little as five euros to 370 euros (520 dollars) for the best seats.

The festival runs until August 30.