Singers rehearse the opera Simon Boccanegra by Giuseppe Verdi as part of the Salzburg Festival in Salzburg on August 11, 2019. Photo: AFP

The Salzburg Festival of music and drama will go ahead in August, organizers said on Tuesday - but with special measures in place to meet the threat of the coronavirus.

And while it has escaped the global wave of cancellations caused by the pandemic, the 100th edition has been radically stripped down.

All 80,000 tickets on sale - down from the usual 230,000 - will be personalized to enable contact tracing in case of an infection.

Organizers will also operate a system for seating the audience similar to that used for boarding planes, with one group after another called to embark rather than all at once.

Spectators will have to wear masks until seated and there will be no intermissions.

"We know we are walking on thin ice... But the longing for performances is just so big," said artistic director Markus Hinterhaeuser.

The program has been slashed by almost half from the 200 performances originally planned to 110 performances.

The festival will include two operas and a play based on the writing of Nobel Prize winner Peter Handke, which is being staged for the first time.

The festival's two operas are Elektra by Richard Strauss and a production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte by German director Christof Loy.