Our dear friend and colleague, Stephen Gould, has had to end his career due to illness immediately after this year’s Festival. We were all very saddened by this news. Stephen Gould was, with interruptions, one of the mainstays of the Bayreuth Festival from 2004 to 2022. Highly esteemed by audiences, the press and within the Festival family, he was rightly dubbed the “Wagner Marathon Man” and thrilled audiences with his distinctive voice and condition in countless performances. Our thoughts are with him at this difficult time.