Click HERE to see photographs from the new production of Parsifal and to watch this production on BR Klassik Due to the recent terrorist attacks in southern Germany, Bayreuth has increased its security. Read the new safety guidelines on my WagnerBlog. |
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The Bayreuth Festival has announced that the Frank Castorf Ring will be broadcast on the Sky Arts HD channel in Germany, Austria, the United Kingdown, Ireland, and Italy. This is the first time that the Bayreuth Festival is televised live. UK & Ireland customers will be able to watch the complete Ring Cycle over two consecutive nights, culminating in a live transmission of Götterdämmerung simultaneously broadcast across the channels on Sunday 31 July 2016. Dedicated Wagner aficionados can watch the whole Cycle back to back from Sunday morning through to the live performance that evening. Opera and Wagner fan Stephen Fry will interview the cast and tour the Bayreuth Festspielhaus |
Click HERE for a schedule of the webcasts of the 2016 Bayreuth Festival performances |
Bayreuth's New PARSIFAL or Welcome to the Wagner Revolving Door |
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| It's been another year of controversy on the Green Hill yet again. What else is new? This time it involves the new production of Parsifal, Richard Wagner's last completed work. Performance artist Jonathan Meese was scheduled to head the new production. Mr. Meese is known to use Nazi symbolism in his work, and although the artist had promised that his new production would not have any Third Reich references, it seems that the powers that be at Bayreuth would not take a chance. |
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| Uwe Eric Laufenberg, a stage director and designer experienced in staging plays and operas will direct the new production of Parsifal. The word out on the street, however, is that his production involves Islamic imagery. This rumor is once again fueling the fires of controversy around this new staging, and it has caused another major change in the creative roster of this production. |
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Andris Nelsons, the gifted young conductor of the Boston Symphony, and soon to be the next conductor of the historic Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra withdrew from this production citing artistic differences with Mr. Laufenberg's staging. Mr. Nelsons is no stranger to avant-garde stagings of Wagner's works. In 2010 he conducted Hans Neuenfels's production of Lohengrin at Bayreuth, a staging that had the chorus members dressed as rats. Bayreuth insiders claim that the reason for Mr. Nelsons's departure was due to the fact that Christian Thielemann, Bayreuth's head conductor and music director, sat at one of his rehearsals and offered artistic input, something that is quite unusual among conductors. Meanwhile, Mr. Laufenberg defended his staging saying that Islam is not a theme of his “Parsifal” production. “There is a brief reference to Islam in ‘Parsifal,’ but this piece doesn’t revolve around Islam,” he was quoted as saying, “It’s about Christianity.” Peter Emmerich, a spokesman for the Bayreuth Festival, confirmed that Mr. Thielemann had sat in on some rehearsals, but said that he had done so in his role as music director and at the request of Mr. Nelsons. |
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| Maestro Hartmut Haenchen will conduct this production of Parsifal opening the 2016 festival on July 25. Mr. Haenchen is a well known personality in European operatic circles. He spent thirteen seasons as the music director of the Dutch National Opera, and he has conducted in all major European opera houses including The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Teatro Real, Madrid, and Teatro alla Scala, Milan. |
| This summer, the Bayreuth Festival will present the following works. Casts and dates are listed below. |
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Parsifal |
Performances: July 25, August 2, 6, 15, 24, 28 |
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Der fliegende Holländer |
Performances: July 30, August 3, 14, 18, 26 |
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Tristan und Isolde |
Performances: August 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 22 |
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Das Rheingold |
Performances: July 26, August 7, 20 |
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Die Walküre |
Performances: July 27, August 8, 21 |
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Siegfried |
Performances: July 29, August 10, 23 |
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Götterdämmerung |
Performances: July 31, August 12, 25 |
