Diskurs Bayreuth 2026

Hauen und Stechen is a Berlin-based music theater collective that has been developing radically accessible, cross-genre music theater since 2012. Its works combine opera, drama, film, philosophy, visual arts, and performance into a distinctive and audience-friendly theatrical language. The collective’s productions have been presented at venues including the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, the Bavarian State Opera, the Hamburg State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Ballhaus Ost.

With REALITOT OR WAGNER IN END-TIME MOOD, they are guests at the Bayreuth Festival for the first time, inviting audiences to an immersive discourse program about the power of tradition and the myth of redemption.

FIRST DISCOURSE DAY

Monday, July 27

I. KLINGSAU. WAGNER INCLUSIVE / 12:00–2:00 PM

The world is burning and everyone is dressing up as Grail Knights. A quasi-religious collective of conspirators gathers in a ritual circle to wait for redemption. Outside, the storm rages, but here there is unity, here there is peace… Or is someone opposed?

Following the performance, actors from Theater Thikwa and the Münchener Kammerspiele will speak with the audience about what it means to sing and perform Wagner as a person with disabilities, and about how much diversity Wagner can tolerate.

With: Maria Buzhor, Louis Edler, Teresa Heiß, Nele Jahnke, Johanna Kappauf, Roman Lemberg, Julia Lwowski, Gina-Lisa Maiwald, Max Murray, Peter Pankow, Vasyl Ratmansky, David Ristau

II. WOUND SHOW – WAGNER IN END-TIME MOOD / 3:00–4:30 PM

In a political talk show of a special kind, those affected by Wagner lay bare their wounds and discuss promises of salvation and healing methods. Richard Wagner’s political transformation from a fugitive left-wing revolutionary to an established reactionary serves as a backdrop for a conversation about today’s conservative turn. What role does art, and Wagner’s operas in particular, play in this? Should they heal or put a finger in the wound?

As a special guest, Winifred Wagner (played by actress Gina-Lisa Maiwald) honors the discussion with a cooking segment. Moderated by Maria Buzhor, with musical interventions by Alexandra Holtsch.

With guests: Dr. Ulrike Hartung (musicologist and theater scholar), Alexandra Holtsch (composer, director)

III. DISCOVER THE WALKÜRE WITHIN YOU / 6:00–7:30 PM

Under the motto “Discover the WalKÜR Within You,” director Julia Lwowski and musician Roman Lemberg offer a Valkyrie workshop for you. Under guidance, participants develop an opera scene, stage it, and finally perform it themselves. This is followed by a joint evaluation and a conversation about the Valkyries and their traces within us. Costumes, props, and working materials will be provided. Registration requested at: kollektiv@hauen-und-stechen.com

IV. MUSIC MAKES THE WORLD GO ‘ROUND / 8:30–10:00 PM

The first discourse day concludes with a RING turntable set by DJ Vasyl. Everyone is cordially invited to celebrate and dance and will be welcomed with the golden magic potion of forgetting.

SECOND DISCOURSE DAY

Wednesday, July 29

I. MYTH MACHINE / 1:00–2:30 PM

Festival Hill enters a state of collective overwhelm. Festival guests arrive. Still in the car, robes, ties, and evening gowns are thrown on. Three Wagner preludes collide. Nurse Ursula takes over. She diagnoses Wagner exhaustion and prescribes the only effective remedy: even more Wagner. Her character is inspired by the Nazi propaganda film Stukas (1941), in which a traumatized Luftwaffe officer is made “combat-ready” again through a visit to the Bayreuth Festival.

From there, the machine begins to run: Wagner’s Die Wibelungen becomes the blueprint for his mythical world, leitmotifs are dissected, screams catalogued, puppets take the floor, films, music, and lectures interlock. Bayreuth becomes an experimental arrangement between healing, contagion, and ideology.

With: Katja Czellnik (performer), Franziska Kronfoth (director), Roman Lemberg (keyboard instruments), Wieland Lemke (costume designer), Florian Loycke (puppetry), Max Murray (composer), Janine Ortiz (dramaturg), Vera Pulido (sound artist), Nolundi Tschudi (performer, multi-instrumentalist)

INTERLUDE: FORGE PERFORMANCE / 2:30–3:30 PM

Outside, the iron glows. A real Bayreuth blacksmith, Philipp Ott, forges ring and sword. Fire, hammers, metal, and conversations about one of humanity’s oldest technologies.

With: Philipp Ott (blacksmith and medieval expert)

II. RED GOLD / 3:30–5:00 PM

Tarnhelm, sword, and ring are created anew between fire and hammer. In conversation with blacksmith expert Philipp Ott, Wagner’s famous forge scene is traced back to its material foundations. Then the fire itself raises its voice and speaks about its transformations in the Ring des Nibelungen: destructive, seductive, practical in the forge, and purifying in the world’s conflagration.

But gold is never innocent. It bears traces of violence, exchange, and desire. Freia is bartered for the Nibelung treasure, props become relics, things gain power over people. Performance, lecture, and music follow the traces of this red gold into our present.

Finally, nurse Ursula returns and attempts the final healing: Richard Wagner himself is summoned. Brünnhilde’s final song resounds, newly invented on the singing saw.

With: Katja Czellnik (performer), Franziska Kronfoth (director), Roman Lemberg (keyboard instruments), Wieland Lemke (costume designer), Florian Loycke (puppetry), Max Murray (composer), Janine Ortiz (dramaturg), Philipp Ott (blacksmith), Vera Pulido (sound artist), Nolundi Tschudi (performer, multi-instrumentalist)

III. RECORD HOUR – ACOUSTIC GHOST TRAIN / 6:00–7:30 PM

Wagner’s music theater is full of revenants, immortals, and the undead, full of motifs that return and cannot be killed off. Bring your favorite recording! Vinyl records, CDs, or digital memories. Together we’ll listen to historical voices, lost sounds, and your personal Wagner stories.

With: Nolundi Tschudi, Franziska Kronfoth, Roman Lemberg, Max Murray, Janine Ortiz

IV. THE SOUNDING CAVE / 8:30–10:00 PM

To conclude the day, eerie rushing, chants, diffuse screams, hammering, and pulsing in Wagner’s underworlds. Fafner’s dragon cave, Alberich’s Nibelheim, Venusberg, and Erda’s magic realm – an electronic Wagner set to close out the performative conference.

With: Vera Pulido (sound artist), Roman Lemberg (organ), Max Murray (tuba)