WALDHEIM SOURS SOME : SALZBURG FEST TO OPEN UNDER CLOUD

Officials predict a sellout for the prestigious Salzburg Festival, which opens Saturday and runs through Aug. 31, despite the shadows cast on it by the election of Austrian President Kurt Waldheim.

West German sociologist Prof. Ralf Dahrendorf withdrew his pledge to give the opening speech, traditionally done by a reputed scientist or artist, saying he does not want to speak in front of an audience that includes Waldheim.

Waldheim, the former United Nations secretary general, has been the focus of charges that he knew or even participated in atrocities while a German army lieutenant in World War II.

Dahrendorf was replaced by Clemens August Andreae, professor of economics at the University of Innsbruck.

Then New York Times columnist William Safire appealed to James Levine, chief of the New York Metropolitan Opera, to cancel his participation to protest Waldheim’s election.

Organizers said Levine will honor his contract and conduct seven performances of Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” and eight performances of Mozart’s “Die Zauberfloete.”

“All the conductors and artists are sticking to their contracts. We did not have a single cancellation,” said Hans Widrich, the festival’s press chief. That also goes for audiences.

“We had only one major cancellation, from a group of some 100 U.S. congressmen who were due to come to the festival for one night,” Widrich said. “They canceled their European tour for security reasons.”

But Widrich said despite some other American cancellations he expects to sell between 99.5% and 99.7% of festival tickets. The 46-year-old festival is, after all, Austria’s No. 1 summer cultural attraction, drawing tourists from all over the world.

To fit its prestige, it has also been called the most expensive in the world. Officials deny this.

Ticket prices, unchanged from last year, range from 300 schillings ($20) for the cheapest seats to 2,800 schillings ($190) for the most expensive.

“We have equal prices for all performances while other opera houses charge extra prices, higher than ours, for a premiere,” Widrich said. “All our opera performances were sold out months in advance, and there are just a few tickets left for chamber concerts.”

The only opera premiere will be “The Black Mask” by Krzysztof Penderecki, conducted by the Russian-born Woldemar Nelsson, now living in West Germany, and produced by Harry Kupfer of East Germany.