The Salzburg Festival has chosen Belgian opera administrator Peter de Caluwe as its next Intendant, bringing to an end a turbulent search for a successor to Markus Hinterhäuser that appeared, until virtually the last moment, to be heading towards a very different outcome.
The Festival’s Kuratorium confirmed de Caluwe’s appointment on Wednesday, September 16. A formal presentation is scheduled for Friday. He is expected to take over after the 2027 Festival, succeeding interim Intendant Karin Bergmann.
The decision represents a striking turn in a succession process closely followed across the European classical music world. In recent days, Australian director Barrie Kosky and Dutch National Opera director Sophie de Lint had emerged in the Austrian press as the leading candidates, with reports suggesting that the two would share the leadership of the Festival.
According to Austrian media reports, negotiations over that arrangement collapsed on Tuesday evening amid disagreements over contracts and the division of responsibilities. Kosky was expected to concentrate primarily on artistic matters, while de Lint would have taken a larger role in management.
Instead, Salzburg has turned to de Caluwe, one of Europe’s most experienced opera administrators.
Born in Belgium in 1963, de Caluwe began his career at La Monnaie in Brussels in 1986 after being invited to join the company by Gérard Mortier, the Belgian impresario who would later transform the Salzburg Festival during his influential tenure in the 1990s. De Caluwe subsequently worked at Dutch National Opera before returning to Brussels, where he served as General and Artistic Director of La Monnaie from 2007 until 2025.
His appointment also completes an unusual circle in Salzburg’s recent history. De Caluwe was already among the leading candidates for the Festival’s artistic leadership in 2013, when Salzburg was searching for a successor to Alexander Pereira. On that occasion, the position ultimately went to Markus Hinterhäuser. Thirteen years later, de Caluwe has been chosen to succeed him.
A succession born out of crisis
The search was triggered not by the planned conclusion of Hinterhäuser’s tenure but by one of the most dramatic leadership disputes in the Festival’s recent history.
Hinterhäuser had led the Salzburg Festival since 2016 and, in April 2024, had been given a new term intended to extend his tenure until 2031. The agreement put him on course to become Salzburg’s longest-serving artistic leader since Herbert von Karajan.
Less than two years later, that arrangement had unravelled.
The immediate dispute centred on the appointment of a new head of drama. After the departure of Marina Davydova in late 2024, the Festival’s Kuratorium had requested a transparent selection procedure. Twenty-three candidates applied, six were invited to a hearing and five attended.
Hinterhäuser then publicly identified former Burgtheater director Karin Bergmann as his preferred candidate, even though she had neither applied for the position nor participated in the hearings. Members of the Kuratorium accused him of undermining the selection process and raised questions about the relationship of trust between the artistic director and the Festival’s governing body.
Hinterhäuser disputed that interpretation, maintaining that the appointment of the drama director ultimately fell within his responsibilities and that the Kuratorium had been informed about the process.
The confrontation escalated rapidly. In March, the Festival announced that Hinterhäuser and Salzburg would part ways with immediate effect because of what it described as “irreconcilable differences of opinion”. He was placed on leave until the expiration of his existing contract on September 30, 2026, while details of the agreement between the parties remained confidential.
The episode prompted criticism from prominent cultural figures, including Peter Handke and Elfriede Jelinek, and left Salzburg without the artistic director who had programmed its 2026 Festival only months before the summer season opened.
In one of the more unexpected turns of the dispute, Bergmann — whose possible appointment as drama director had helped trigger the confrontation — was subsequently selected by the Kuratorium to become interim Intendant of the entire Festival.
She will remain in charge through the 2027 Festival and has also begun preparations for 2028.
Twenty-one candidates and months of speculation
The permanent Intendancy subsequently attracted 21 applications, 17 from men and four from women, with around 90 per cent coming from outside Austria.
From early in the process, Kosky’s name featured prominently in speculation. The former Intendant of the Komische Oper Berlin is one of Europe’s most sought-after opera directors and has maintained a visible presence in Salzburg in recent seasons.
By September, however, speculation had developed into reports of a possible joint leadership involving Kosky and de Lint, who has led Dutch National Opera since 2018. For several days, the pairing appeared increasingly likely to become Salzburg’s new leadership model.
That possibility disappeared only days before the expected announcement.
The breakdown of those negotiations opened the way for de Caluwe, who will instead take the position alone, returning the Festival to the model of a single Intendant.
A demanding transition ahead
De Caluwe will arrive at an unusually demanding moment. Beyond the artistic questions raised by the end of the Hinterhäuser era, Salzburg is preparing for major renovation work at the Festspielhaus complex, including the temporary closure of the Großes Festspielhaus, creating significant logistical challenges for future editions.
He will therefore inherit not simply one of the most prestigious positions in international classical music, but a Festival emerging from an unusually contentious leadership transition and entering a period of major institutional change.
The Kuratorium has also confirmed that Festival President Kristina Hammer will remain in office.
De Caluwe and the new leadership arrangements are expected to be formally presented on Friday.
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