31 cancellations since April 2020, not a single opera performance – but then, on 1 August a resounding, exemplary reunion: the Elektra premiere at the Salzburg Festival, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. What power, what a signal to an opera world that had been gagged for months! Consistently Covid-tested, the musicians fashioned themselves into a unified collective and fought for the right to make music without social distancing: go big or go home! The night after they raised the ante further with a magnificent production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, led by Joana Mallwitz.