This new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival was the opera event of the 2022 festival season. Young director Valentin Schwarz reimagines the mythical story in the present day and tells a gripping family saga in the world of the rich and powerful. The musical direction is in the hands of Cornelius Meister. In the second part of the tetralogy, Schwarz delves in particular into the relationship between Wotan, the father of the gods, and his “favorite daughter” Brünnhilde, showing it as especially unhappy and traumatic. Lise Davidsen and Klaus Florian Vogt prove themselves audience favourites for their portrayal of the siblings and lovers Sieglinde and Siegmund.
Bayreuth Festival 2022: Götterdämmerung
This new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival was the opera event of the 2022 festival season. Young director Valentin Schwarz reimagines the mythical story in the present day and tells a gripping family saga in the world of the rich and powerful. The musical direction is in the hands of Cornelius Meister. The final part of the tetralogy sees Siegfried abandon his beloved Brünnhilde, allowing himself to be taken in by the Gibichungen and the unscrupulous Hagen and succumbing to the advances of Gutrune. Schwarz once more features the powerful symbol of a child and turns the horse Grane into a human companion of Brünnhilde, who also plays a central role in the shocking final image.
Bayreuth Festival 2022: Das Rheingold
This new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival was the opera event of the 2022 Festival summer. Young director Valentin Schwarz reimagines the mythical story in the present day and tells a gripping family saga in the world of the rich and powerful. The musical direction is in the hands of Cornelius Meister. In Das Rheingold, the antagonists Wotan and Alberich are hostile twin brothers and it is not the gold from the Rhine that is stolen at the outset, but a child, emphasizing the fact that dynasties are always overshadowed by the question of who will one day inherit power.
Bayreuth Festival 2024: Tristan und Isolde
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.