Just in: Salzburg fires director

The Salzburg Festival has taken the unusual step of sacking one of its directors for alleged breach of contract.

The Russian Marina Davydova took up the post as Director of Drama just over a year ago.

Today we learn:
The Salzburg Festival has terminated Marina Davydova’s employment, effective immediately, due to a breach of her contractual duties, specifically her work at a theatre festival in Berlin that the Directorate of the Salzburg Festival was not informed of and had not authorized. The decision of the Directorate, Kristina Hammer, Markus Hinterhäuser and Lukas Crepaz, was submitted to the Supervisory Board and approved by it. The Directorate of the Salzburg Festival regrets this development enormously.

Th dismissal came days before Davydova was due to present next summer’s programme. Clearly, the other directors felt a complete breakdown of trust in their relations with her.