Whitsun 2007 marked the start of a new era for the Whitsun Festival, focusing on the Neapolitan school. New festival directors Jürgen Flimm and Markus Hinterhäuser, inspired by maestro Riccardo Muti's discoveries in his native city have started, in conjunction with the Ravenna Festival, to perform rediscovered operatic and sacred Neapolitan masterpieces in Salzburg's Haus für Mozart.

Domenico Cimarosa's Il ritorno di Don Calandrino, which Muti had discovered in the library of the Conservatorio San Pietro a Maiella (where he himself studied), was followed by Giovanni Paisiello's opera buffa Il matrimonio inaspettato.

The Whitsun Festival 2009 boasted two performances of Neapolitan Niccolò Jommelli's late opera Demofoonte from 1770, setting a very popular libretto by Pietro Metastasio (used for some 73 operas) about the titular Thracian king who wants to stop the sacrifice of virgins but is confused by the oracle's reply, that the practice will continue as long as there is an innocent usurper on the throne. The tortuous plot reveals that everyone is not who they thought they were (but there is a happy ending). This co-production with Opéra de Paris was directed by Cesare Lievi.

The concert programme opened with Francesco Nicola Fago's Il faraone sommerso (The Submerged Pharaoh), based on the exodus story, played by Europa Galante under Fabio Bionde, with James Gilchrist as Moses and Havard Stensvold as the Pharoah. Fago was Jommelli's teacher. In addition to Guido Morini and Mark Beasley's investigation into alchemist and politician Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero, entitled Tempted by Evil and countertenor Philippe Jaroussky's recital of works by Porpora, Vinci, Hasse and Leo with Ensemble Matheus conducted by Jean-Christophe Spinosi, the festival ended with Muti conducting the traditional Whit Monday mass: this time, Giovanni Paisiello's Missa defunctorum.

For full details, visit the Salzburg Festival website.