For all Wagner fans, the Bayreuth Festival, together with BR-KLASSIK and 3sat, will be staging Wagner’s works as a Gesamtkunstwerk from 25 July – the original opening day of the Bayreuth Festival. With Corona-compatible live events, exclusive archive treasures and special broadcasts, Germany’s oldest music festival will be adequately celebrated this summer of culture.
One highlight of the programme: three historically significant productions of the “Ring of the Nibelung” on different play-out routes. These are the ring productions by Frank Castorf (premiere 2013), Harry Kupfer (premiere 1988) and Patrice Chéreau (premiere 1976).
BR-KLASSIK will be exclusively on the radio from July 25 to 28, daily at 6.05 pm with the previously unreleased recording of the highly praised and intensively discussed ring production by Frank Castorf and Kirill Petrenko (recording from 2015), which will also be part of this year’s ARD Radio Festival (from July 18).
ARD-alpha and the streaming offer “BR-KLASSIK Concert” present together with the Bayreuth Festival the century ring by Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Boulez. For the first time, this production can be experienced on August 7th from 8.15 p.m. in the big “Ring Night” on free TV.
The Bayreuth Festival in 3sat
3sat celebrates the Bayreuth Festival with the “Ring of the Nibelung” in a production by Harry Kupfer. At the podium is Daniel Barenboim, who has had a decisive influence on the Bayreuth Festival for 18 years. With the “Rheingold”, the eve of the Ring tetralogy, followed by a documentary about the singer Günther Groissböck, the television evening on 25 July from 8.15 p.m. will be under the sign of Wotan. The other parts of this Ring by Harry Kupfer will be shown in the media library of 3sat, on br-klassik.de and on www.festspiele-online.de.
Despite the difficult circumstances caused by Corona, the city of Bayreuth and the Bayreuth Festival will be organising a concert on 25 July to mark the opening of the festival. Music director Christian Thielemann and members of the Festival Orchestra will perform works by Wagner with the Bayreuth singing stars Camilla Nylund and Klaus Florian Vogt. BR-KLASSIK will broadcast the concert live on the radio from 4 pm. This summer, the video work “The Loop of the Nibelung” by Simon Steen-Andersen will provide insights into the Festspielhaus. The Danish composer and performance artist, who has received many awards, will go on an audiovisual exploration of the mythical Bayreuth Festspielhaus and the work of Wagner with singers and musicians from the Festspielorchester. The video work can be experienced from July 28th in the streaming offer BR-KLASSIK Concert and on www.festspiele-online.de.
In “Hier gilt’s der Kunst”, Daniel Barenboim, Barrie Kosky, András Schiff, Martina Gedeck and Thea Dorn, among others, devote themselves to the theme “Wagner, Music and Politics” in a series of talks from the Pierre Boulez Hall in Berlin. The talks of the series “Diskurs Bayreuth” will be published on BR-KLASSIK Concert from 28th July.
Archive Beads and Video Extras
BR-KLASSIK will also broadcast two special archive treasures on the radio: André Cluyten’s “Lohengrin” from 1958 on July 29 at 6.05 pm and “Tristan und Isolde” under the direction of Herbert von Karajan from 1952 on July 30 at 6.05 pm. The interpretation comparison offers listeners an exciting and compact insight into a selection of interpretations of the “Flying Dutchman” on 31 July at 6.05 pm.
On the websites of BR-KLASSIK and the Bayreuth Festival, exciting video formats such as the “Opera Crash Course Wagner”, the “klassik shorts”, the “Ring Profiles” and the “Wagner ABC” invite you to learn more about the power of Wagner’s music and to dive into the mythical worlds of the “Ring”.
Further information on the programme highlights at bayreuther-festspiele.de, www.festspiele-online.de,
br-klassik.de/bayreuther-festspiele and 3sat.de/culture/festspielsommer/bayreuther-festspiele-2020.
