The Salzburg Festival has hosted every great star of the opera and concert hall, from Toscanini to Anne-Sophie Mutter, from Fischer-Dieskau to Barenboim, from Pollini to Mitsuko Uchida. In this film, the first to tell the story of this remarkable Festival, set in the birthplace of Mozart, director Tony Palmer has been granted unprecedented access to Austria's film archives. Highlights include performances of Jedermann from 1920 to the present day, featuring actors such as Maximilian Schell and Klaus Maria Brandauer; Don Giovanni (with Furtwängler in '54 and a controversial performance directed by Peter Sellars in the 1990s); a wealth of footage of Herbert von Karajan, including performances and never-before-seen home movies; and footage of the Nazi hierarchy at the Festival during the Second World War.
