Using Mozart To Promote The New And Different

It’s the year of Mozart in Vienna, with festivals on top of festivals celebrating Austria’s most famous son. So what is notorious provocateur Peter Sellars doing here? And why isn’t his new festival (which claims to be “inspired” by the boy wonder) featuring a single note of Mozart? “The music of New Crowned Hope ranges from operas by John Adams and Kaija Saariaho to a concert series by illegal immigrants living in Vienna. Alice Waters is cooking; Cambodians are dancing a version of “The Magic Flute”; homeless women are serving tea.”