The annual new production at the Bayreuth Festival is always one of the most eagerly awaited events in the operatic calendar. And 2024 was no exception, as it’s the turn of Wagner’s great “opus metaphysicum”, Tristan und Isolde to be staged afresh at the festival the composer founded in 1876. A revolutionary work of music theatre, Tristan presents any director with a fascinating mixture of challenges and opportunities, which will be taken on by the innovative Icelandic director Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson, making his Bayreuth debut. The production’s musical director is Semyon Bychkov, who conducts a cast led by Camilla Nylund singing Isolde for the first time on the “Green Hill” and Bayreuth regular Andreas Schager as Tristan.
Bayreuth Festival 2023: Parsifal
Any new production of Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival – in the theatre for which Wagner conceived his “Bühnenweihfestspiel” – is a major operatic event. But US director Jay Scheib’s new staging for the 2023 Festival, which employs Augmented Reality, is likely to break new boundaries in terms of technological innovation – even for a theatre whose history is bound up with revolutionary theatrical ideas. Pablo Heras-Casado, making his Bayreuth debut, conducts a superb cast, with tenor Andreas Schager and mezzo Elina Garanca – also making a highly anticipated Bayreuth debut as Kundry – leading the line-up alongside Georg Zeppenfeld’s seasoned Gurnemanz.