Salzburg Festival: the essential briefing, 19 August

The Cultural High Mass The Salzburg Festival is in its final stretch. Since mid-July, the European establishment has gathered for six weeks of the world's most serious opera. This is not a vacation. It is the cultural high mass of the German-speaking industrial dynasties, arts-patron billionaires, and the boards of everything. The signal is clear: premium premiere tickets approach €500. That is merely the cheap part of an evening that includes the dinner after.

The Society Season The opera is the anchor, but the real business happens in the alpine society season around it. Sponsorships are negotiated between acts. Deals are struck over Gault Millau-rated menus. The whoGoes list reads like a directory of old money and new influence. Arrivals are by jet. The festival is the pretext. The networking is the point.

The Final Stretch We are now in the third week of August. The festival runs through the end of the month. The premium tickets are long sold out. The cheap seats are a memory. What remains is the society circuit: the private boxes, the charity galas, the closed-door meetings. The cultural programming is world-class. The social programming is the real attraction.

The Takeaway Salzburg is not for tourists. It is for the European establishment to reaffirm its status, negotiate its deals, and celebrate its cultural credentials. The opera is serious. The society season is serious business. The €500 ticket is the entry fee. The real cost is the dinner after.