Together with Orfeo, Bayreuth Festival presents Hans Knappertsbusch’s 1955 interpretation of “The Flying Holländer” with Astrid Varnay as Senta, Wolfgang Windgassen as Erik, and Hermann Uhde as Holländer. With this eighth edition, which began in 2003 with “Tristan und Isolde” (Herbert von Karajan, 1952), this Orfeo CD series now features all festival works (including Beethoven’s 9th Symphony) for the first time.
The chronological scope of the present Orfeo series begins in 1951 with the opening concert of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under Wilhelm Furtwängler and extends to 1968 with “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” under Karl Böhm. This provides a representative cross-section of the first two decades of the so-called “New Bayreuth” for the first time. Legendary singers such as Astrid Varnay, Wolfgang Windgassen, Hans Hotter, and Josef Greindl can be heard in various roles in the Orfeo series.
Hans Knappertsbusch conducted “The Flying Holländer” only once on the Green Hill, and this opening performance of the 1955 Festival appears extraordinary even in retrospect. At the same time, this earliest work of the Bayreuth Ten was experienced for the first time in the post-war period at the Festspielhaus, and all prior discussions about the romantic opera’s suitability for the festival seemed moot given the quality of the performance.