Katharina Wagner used the opening press conference of this year’s festival to already look ahead to the 2018 season: Christian Thielemann conducts, Yuval Sharon directs “Lohengrin” with set designs by Neo Rauch & Rosa Loy. Anja Harteros (Elsa) and Roberto Alagna (Lohengrin) will be featured in this production, as will Waltraud Meier (Ortrud), Georg Zeppenfeld (King Heinrich), and Tomasz Konieczny (Telramund). Additionally, in the Ring-free season, there will be three individual performances of “Walküre” (directed by Frank Castorf), with returning conductor Placido Domingo on the podium.