DG Stage presents recent Bayreuth productions of six Wagner operas on the day of their originally planned performance at this year’s festival
A comprehensive programme: two Ring cycles (the latest by Frank Castorf and the legendary one by Patrice Chéreau) as well as Barry Kosky’s visionary staging of Meistersinger and gripping performances of Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal
Performers include Bayreuth Music Director Christian Thielemann as well as Marek Janowski, Lise Davidsen, Klaus Florian Vogt, Piotr Beczala, Anja Harteros, Michael Volle, Georg Zeppenfeld and other world-class Wagner specialists
This year, Deutsche Grammophon proudly presents the first virtual Bayreuth Festival. The Yellow Label’s digital initiative was conceived in partnership with the Bayreuth Festival management and runs for 16 evenings between July 25 and August 29 as part of DG Stage – The Classical Concert Hall. The four works planned for the 2020 Bayreuth Festival – Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and Der Ring des Nibelungen – will be streamed online in recent or legendary productions from the festival’s archive. Each work will be shown according to the original schedule of this year’s Wagner summer and will then be accessible for another 48 hours.
DG Stage ticket holders can also see successful productions of Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal on the otherwise free days of the 2020 Bayreuth Festival calendar. As a substitute for the new Ring production, DG Stage will show Frank Castorf‘s much-discussed staging of the 2013 cycle (a 2016 recording conducted by Marek Janowski) as well as Patrice Chéreau‘s celebrated Centennial Ring, the groundbreaking 1976 production with Pierre Boulez on the podium (a 1980 recording). Each production will be preceded by an introduction from the director, conductor, or a key singer who participated in the original production; the respective prologue was filmed specifically for the festival season on DG Stage. Speakers include Music Director Christian Thielemann for Tristan und Isolde and Lohengrin; Marek Janowski for the Castorf Ring; Barrie Kosky, Michael Volle and Philippe Jordan for Die Meistersinger; Elena Zhidkova and Lise Davidsen for Tannhäuser and Georg Zeppenfeld for Parsifal.
“It is with great regret that we have decided to put our productions on hold for this year”, explains Heinz-Dieter Sense, Managing Director of Bayreuth Festival. “This unique event means an enormous amount to many people around the world. We are therefore delighted to be working with Deutsche Grammophon and to be able to present our entire festival program online. Of course, we look forward to welcoming artists and audiences back to the Green Hill in 2021, but this summer, on DG Stage, we can offer the best of Bayreuth to a global audience. Together with the festival management, the Friends of Bayreuth are setting up the emergency fund for artists of the Bayreuth Festival. Artists and participants who have fallen into hardship due to the Corona pandemic are to be supported with the help of this fund.”
“The Bayreuth Festival and Deutsche Grammophon have decided to make this year’s festival an international experience despite the cancellation of all performances – online on DG Stage”, says Dr. Clemens Trautmann, President of Deutsche Grammophon. “This cooperation, which has been widely reported in the media, is the natural continuation of the series of new Bayreuth productions since 2015, which Deutsche Grammophon has released on DVD/Blu-ray and digitally.”
The Bayreuth Festival on DG Stage begins on Saturday, July 25, with Barrie Kosky‘s staging of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The Australian director’s interpretation, which premiered in Bayreuth in 2017 under the direction of Philippe Jordan, was hailed as a “triumph” by the Berliner Morgenpost, while Opera News praised “its immense understanding and great quality”. The season continues on Sunday, July 26, with Tobias Kratzer‘s provocative and exciting 2019 staging of Tannhäuser (“entertainingly transgressive”, according to the Los Angeles Times), which also marked Valery Gergiev‘s long-awaited Bayreuth debut. On Sunday, August 2, Lohengrin follows in Yuval Sharon‘s 2018 staging, the first by an American director since the festival’s founding in 1876. “This Lohengrin offers tradition for traditionalists and critique for progressives”, wrote the New York Times. Christian Thielemann conducted the acclaimed production.
Deutsche Grammophon and the Bayreuth Festival have selected two Ring cycles (August 8, 9, 12. & 13 and August 24, 25, 27 & 29): Firstly, Frank Castorf‘s staging of Wagner’s revolutionary work, for Bachtrack “one of the most controversial in the festival’s history”. The cycle is conducted by Marek Janowski, with Catherine Foster, Stefan Vinke and John Lundgren among its excellent cast. Secondly – conducted by Pierre Boulez – the legendary Ring production by Patrice Chéreau, which premiered in 1976 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the first complete performance of the cycle and the Bayreuth Festival. The video recording, filmed in 1980 during the last performances of the staging, features Manfred Jung, Gwyneth Jones, Donald McIntyre and Siegfried Jerusalem in the main roles, among others.
Katharina Wagner‘s “radical reinterpretation” (The Guardian, London) of Tristan und Isolde from 2015 and Uwe Eric Laufenberg‘s Parsifal from the 2016 festival, “sublime and provocative” (The New York Times), appear on DG Stage on Tuesday, August 4 and Friday, August 28, respectively. Christian Thielemann conducts Tristan und Isolde, while the versatile German conductor Hartmut Haenchen makes his belated Bayreuth debut with Parsifal.
DG Stage was launched at the end of June 2020 with the first concert in a series of full-length performances by internationally renowned artists. The project offers a global audience access to a rich spectrum of classical concerts that are produced exclusively for DG Stage and performed by stars from the Universal Music Group’s artist family. The productions from the Bayreuth Festival archive, including their new introductions, undoubtedly enhance the appeal of the digital platform’s program.
Tickets for DG Stage Bayreuth performances cost €4.90 and can be purchased securely online via credit card and standard payment services. Festival visitors gain access to unique events in state-of-the-art audio and video quality.
BAYREUTH FESTIVAL 2020
July 25 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Kosky/Jordan)
July 26 Tannhäuser (Kratzer/Gergiev)
August 2 Lohengrin (Sharon/Thielemann)
August 4 Tristan und Isolde (K. Wagner/Thielemann)
August 8 Der Ring des Nibelungen: Das Rheingold (Castorf/Janowski)
August 9 Der Ring des Nibelungen: Die Walküre (Castorf/Janowski)
August 12 Der Ring des Nibelungen: Siegfried (Castorf/Janowski)
August 13 Der Ring des Nibelungen: Götterdämmerung (Castorf/Janowski)
August 15 Lohengrin (Sharon/Thielemann)
August 19 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Kosky/Jordan)
August 20 Tannhäuser (Kratzer/Gergiev)
August 24 Der Ring des Nibelungen: Das Rheingold (Chéreau/Boulez)
August 25 Der Ring des Nibelungen: Die Walküre (Chéreau /Boulez)
August 27 Der Ring des Nibelungen: Siegfried (Chéreau /Boulez)
August 28 Parsifal (Laufenberg/Haenchen)
August 29 Der Ring des Nibelungen: Götterdämmerung (Chéreau/Boulez)