It’s hard to ignore what’s happening in the world right now. The festival team clearly didn’t want to. Under artistic director Markus Hinterhäuser, this year’s lineup doesn’t sugarcoat anything. Operas like Macbeth, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, and Maria Stuarda don’t just showcase historical figures they draw eerie parallels to the chaos we see in today’s headlines. It’s heavy, yes. But it’s also honest. And maybe that’s what makes it feel necessary.

Here’s the thing these characters might wear crowns and command armies, but they’re also deeply human. Some fight fate, some crumble, others just spiral. Watching them up close? It makes you think about leadership, ego, and how easily control can slip through your fingers. It’s less about the past and more about seeing our present reflected in someone else’s downfall. Theater doesn’t solve the world’s problems, but it sure knows how to hold a mirror up to them.

The lineup doesn’t play it safe. Sure, there’s Jedermann on the cathedral steps a Salzburg staple. But then you’ve got Peter Sellars and Esa-Pekka Salonen blending Schoenberg and Mahler into one surreal piece. And Kirill Serebrennikov’s The Blizzard? It’s a storm of its own, quite literally. That mix of the familiar and the daring is what keeps the festival alive. It nods to its roots while still shaking things up.

It’s walking a fine line, no doubt. Russian artists are all over the program but many of them have distanced themselves from the regime, some in very public ways. Still, not everyone’s happy. The firing of Marina Davydova, a vocal Putin critic, sparked backlash. But the inclusion of Ukrainian voices like Marianna Kiyanovska balances things out. It’s messy, like the world itself. But maybe art isn’t supposed to be neat and comfortable. Maybe it’s meant to challenge, to question, to make space for both tension and truth.

Because even in uncertain times, or maybe especially then, people need connection. They need stories. And this year, Salzburg isn’t offering escape it’s offering a kind of confrontation laced with hope. The stage might be filled with emperors and chaos, but beneath all that? There's a reminder that change starts with awareness. And awareness? Well, that starts the moment the curtain goes up.