Salzburg, Austria

Lucky me, I received a box of chocolates from Fürst, just about the best sweet-maker in creation. The chocolates had a special wrapping — something I had never seen before (and I had downed a few Fürst chocolates, believe me). The wrapper said, “90.” And, clever as I am, I figured it out immediately: Must be the 90th anniversary of the Salzburg Festival. It was.

The festival began on August 22, 1920, with a performance of Hofmannsthal’s treatment of Everyman, called, in German, Jedermann. I knew a man who attended that performance: He was seven years old and went with …