Bayreuth Festival 2016
News from the 2016 Bayreuth Festival is coming soon.
See Bayreuther-Festspiele website for details.
News from the Bayreuth Festival 2015
I have just returned from a very satisfying, if emotionally and physically exhausting, week (it was unbelievably hot) at the 2015 Bayreuth Festival and have the following to report:
Katharina Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde was wonderful – dark, rich, sombre, innovative yet simple, stunningly designed and lit, and divinely sung and even more divinely conducted by Christian Thielemann. The principals were all brilliant, and, with the exception of Evelyn Hertlitzius, have been confirmed in their roles for 2016. I do urge as many of you as possible to see it. For those who would like a visual or audible taster, please contact our librarian Andrew Burton
andrewrburton@btinternet.com
Lohengrin was also fantastic and is now in its final year. French conducter Alain Altinoglu made a worthy successor to Andris Nelsons in the pit and Klaus Florian Vogt sang as beautifully as ever. Annette Dasch returned to the role of Elsa after her maternity break last year, and Petra Lang gave her usual outstanding performance as Ortrud. It is sad to bid farewell to the rats after five happy years.
I also saw Siegfried – which was gloriously sung and conducted (Petrenko, also doing the Ring for the last time this year – he will be replaced by Polish conductor Marek Janowski in 2016). Stefan Vinke has taken over from Lance Ryan in the title role and makes a wonderful job of it. He was in excellent and energetic form. A new Mime – Andreas Conrad – also joined the team and gave a very fine performance in the role. I won’t comment on the production, except to let you know that the crocodiles have been so happy in Bayreuth that they have bred two youngsters since last year!
I was lucky enough to meet both Georg Zeppenfeld (King Mark) and Stefan Vinke (Siegfried) and both will be coming to London over the coming period. Stefan told me that he will be performing in the ROH 2018 revival of the Ring cycle with Nina Stemme, which is great news for us in the UK. Zeppenfeld will sadly not be singing any Wagner in London in the foreseeable future, but he will appear at Covent Garden some time over the coming few years.
Future new Bayreuth productions are as follows:
2016 – Parsifal directed by Uwe Eric Laufenberg and conducted, of course, by Andris Nelsons. Klaus Florian Vogt will sing Parsifal, Georg Zeppenfeld, Gurnemanz and Petra Lang, Kundry.
2017 – Meistersinger directed by Barrie Kosky and conducted by Philippe Jordan. Michael Volle will sing Hans Sachs, Johannes Martin Kranzle, Beckmesser, Krassimira Stoyanova, Eva and Andreas Schager, Walther.
2018 – Lohengrin directed by Alvis Hermanis and conducted by Christian Thielemann.
2019/20 – Tannhaeuser and The Ring (no further details as yet)
Finally, booking for next year has been brought forward, and those who book via the box office, whether by paper or online application form will need to complete their requests by 14 September.
Online booking will open on 31 january 2016.
Andrea Buchanan
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