After 32 sold-out performances, the Bayreuth Festival 2019 successfully concluded on August 28. More than 62,000 guests from numerous countries attended the festival.
After an artistically creative and lastingly impressive season, the 108th Bayreuth Festival ended on August 28, 2019. Following a ceremony on the eve of the festival celebrating Wolfgang Wagner’s 100th birthday, the festival opened on July 25 with the premiere of the new production “Tannhäuser” under the musical direction of Valery Gergiev and directed by Tobias Kratzer. Stage and costume design were by Rainer Sellmaier. This production received widespread and positive acclaim, generating enthusiasm among both the audience and the media. Stephen Gould (Tannhäuser) and Lise Davidsen (Elisabeth), Markus Eiche (Wolfram), and Elena Zhidkova (Venus) were particularly celebrated. Similarly, the participants in the revivals of “Lohengrin”, “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”, “Parsifal”, and “Tristan und Isolde” were also lauded. The artistic standard of the festival performances remains internationally leading, impressively demonstrating the uniqueness of the Bayreuth Festival as the most important venue for engaging with Wagner’s work.
Within the festival’s supporting program, “Diskurs Bayreuth” took place for the third time, centered in 2019 on the premiere of a commissioned work by the Bayreuth Festival, the spoken play “Siegfried. Ein Monolog” by Feridun Zaimoglu and Günter Senkel, whose staging received broad and exceptionally appreciative recognition. A symposium titled “Szenen-Macher”, a panel discussion on Siegfried Wagner’s 150th birthday, and several concerts rounded off the programme of “Diskurs Bayreuth”. Information about events for the next “Diskurs Bayreuth” will be provided in spring 2020.
The project “Wagner für Kinder” entered its second decade in 2019 with ten performances of a version of “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” specially created for children. All performances were completely sold out and evoked joyful enthusiasm from visitors. Next year, the project will continue with a version of “Tristan und Isolde”.