After 32 sold-out performances, the Bayreuth Festival 2018 concluded on August 29. More than 62,000 guests from numerous countries attended the festival.
After a very artistically productive and fruitful season, the 107th Bayreuth Festival ended on August 29, 2018. They opened on July 25 with the premiere of the new production Lohengrin under the musical direction of Christian Thielemann and directed by Yuval Sharon. Stage and costumes were designed by visual artists Neo Rauch and Rosa Loy. This production received widespread acclaim and was largely met with enthusiastic approval. Piotr Beczała (Lohengrin), Anja Harteros (Elsa), Waltraud Meier (Ortrud), and Georg Zeppenfeld (King Heinrich) were particularly celebrated. Similarly, the soloists of the revivals Parsifal, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Der fliegende Holländer, and Die Walküre were also lauded, as was, to a special degree, the conductor of Parsifal, Semyon Bychkov, who conducted the Festival Orchestra for the first time. The artistic level of the festival performances is internationally leading and impressively demonstrates the uniqueness of Bayreuth Festival as the most important place for engaging with Wagner’s work.
For the second time, “Diskurs Bayreuth” took place within the festival’s accompanying program, focusing in 2018 on the world premiere of a commissioned work by Bayreuth Festival, the opera der verschwundene hochzeiter by Klaus Lang, which received great and very positive attention. A symposium titled “Prohibitions (in) Art” and several concerts rounded off the programme of “Diskurs Bayreuth”.
The project “Wagner for Children” celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2018 with eleven performances of Der Ring des Nibelungen, again in a version specially created for children aged 8 and above. All performances were completely sold out and received ovations from visitors.
Next year’s festival will open with a new production of Tannhäuser on July 25, 2019. As previously announced, Valery Gergiev will take over the musical direction. Tobias Kratzer will direct, and Rainer Sellmaier will design the stage and costumes. Stephen Gould (Tannhäuser), Lise Davidsen (Elisabeth), Stephen Milling (Landgraf Hermann), Markus Eiche (Wolfram von Eschenbach), and Ekaterina Gubanova (Venus) will be featured in the main roles.
The 2019 program will be completed by Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, as well as Parsifal and Tristan und Isolde (these two productions will be on the festival program for the last time). Krassimira Stoyanova and Anna Netrebko will debut as Elsa in Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival.
With a festive act, Bayreuth Festival will commemorate Wolfgang Wagner’s 100th birthday on July 24, 2019, thereby honoring the long-time festival director.
The festival will commemorate the 150th birthday of Siegfried Wagner, Richard Wagner’s son, within “Diskurs Bayreuth” through the world premiere of a play written by Feridun Zaimoglu (co-author: Günter Senkel) on behalf of Bayreuth Festival, as well as with a panel discussion. The third “Diskurs Bayreuth” will also present another symposium (titled: “Scene Makers” – Richard Wagner’s Music Dramas and their Scenic Realization) and various concerts.
“Wagner for Children” will also continue, in 2019 with a version of Meistersinger von Nürnberg.