Peter de Caluwe to lead Salzburg Festival from October 2027

Peter de Caluwe will become artistic director of the Salzburg Festival on October 1, 2027, stepping into one of the most influential roles in the arts world after a long tenure at Brussels' La Monnaie marked by world premieres and provocative programming.

De Caluwe, a 63-year-old Belgian who speaks French, Dutch, English, German and Italian, succeeds Markus Hinterhäuser, who was forced out in March after a decade in charge. He takes over a position once held by one of his mentors, Gerard Mortier, who reshaped the festival in the 1990s after the long reign of Herbert von Karajan.

"Opera is not a museum. It definitely never has been or it shouldn't be," de Caluwe said in a telephone interview on Friday, following a news conference in Salzburg, Austria.

Karin Bergmann, whose background is in theatre, was hired in April as interim artistic director for this year and next. Much of the 2027 planning was put in place by Hinterhäuser, and de Caluwe will work with Bergmann in a preparatory period beginning next month. He begins a five-year term on October 1, 2027, with his first largely programmed summer falling in 2029.

Kristina Hammer, a lawyer who became festival president in 2022, succeeding Helga Rabl-Stadler, has been given a second five-year term starting January 1.

During de Caluwe's time running La Monnaie, the company staged 160 productions, including 23 world premieres. Among the new works were Philippe Boesmans' "Au monde," Pascal Dusapin's "Penthesilea" and "Macbeth Underworld," and Mikael Karlsson's "Fanny and Alexander."

Andrea Breth's 2012 staging of Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata," which focused on prostitution and featured seminaked women, some in sadomasochism gear, was among only about five productions during his tenure that caused a stir. "That's too little," de Caluwe said. "I would have liked more to be controversy in the way that they cause so much discussion that people really almost felt like a revolution."

Karoline Edtstadler, provincial governor of Salzburg and a member of the festival's supervisory board, acknowledged that before hiring de Caluwe the festival also negotiated with Australian director Barrie Kosky and current Dutch National Opera director Sophie de Lint to form a joint leadership team.

This year's festival drew more than 261,000 ticketholders for 209 performances filled to 99 percent capacity from mid-July through August.

De Caluwe becomes the sixth artistic director since Karajan reigned from 1956 to 1989, following Mortier (1992-2001), Peter Ruzicka (2002-06), Jürgen Flimm (2007-10), Alexander Pereira (2012-14) and Hinterhäuser. He worked at La Monnaie under Mortier in the 1980s, moved to Dutch National Opera from 1990 to 2006, then returned to La Monnaie as general and artistic director from 2007 to 2025. He was also mentored at the Dutch company by Pierre Audi, who later became artistic head of France's Aix-en-Provence Festival and New York's Park Avenue Armory.

"What has inspired me is their constant existence of excellence," de Caluwe said.

Because the Grosses Festspielhaus is scheduled to be closed for reconstruction during the 2029 and 2030 festivals, an interim venue in the old city is envisioned for those years. De Caluwe said a staging of Richard Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier" is possible for the Grosses Festspielhaus' reopening in 2031.

"We are not bound to a building," Hammer said. "We are bound to a DNA, a vision."