For the primary time in years, the Wagner Music Competition started on the finish of final week in Bayreuth, Bavaria, with out former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who excused herself to attend. The viewers watched a brand new manufacturing of the opera Tristan and Isolde beneath the baton of Semjon Byčkov, chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, DPA company mentioned.
Even earlier than the opening, the German authorities consultant for tradition, Claudia Roth, brought on a stir when she prompt that operas by different composers be carried out in Bayreuth. Richard Wagnerwho based the competition for this objective in 1876.
“I can assume, for instance, of Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck,” she talked about a piece from the tip of the nineteenth century, which the creator helped, at Wagner’s invitation, within the efficiency of the opera Parsifal in Bayreuth and , furthermore, teaches the poet’s son. “It is crucial that the competition opens as much as younger individuals and goes in the direction of them. Bayreuth must be extra various, colourful and new,” Rothová thinks.
In keeping with the DPA company, the assertion angered the Wagnerian world. “Nonsense,” replied Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder, for instance, in accordance with whom “Berlin has no say in what will probably be performed in Bayreuth”.
On the opening ceremony final Thursday, the politician already selected a extra cautious tone when she emphasised that “Bayreuth is the same as Wagner, Wagner is the same as Bayreuth and the guts of the competition will all the time be operas Wagner, I actually do not count on to. change something.” However she identified once more that the composition of the viewers will probably be an increasing number of various within the coming years and that it won’t be sufficient to deal with Wagner alone.
Because the competition is essentially funded by the federal authorities, it was the Monetary Instances it’s only a matter of time earlier than exterior strain for reforms comes. Nevertheless, the organizers resisted for now.
Wagner’s great-grandson, an opera director and supervisor, remains to be on the helm Catherine Wagner. This Might she expanded contract for the following 5 years, though she agreed that an operations supervisor would additionally stand by her facet. Extra productions of Wagner’s operas are anticipated subsequent 12 months, and in 2026, the a hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the competition’s founding, organizers need to current the ten most well-known, in addition to early works the creator Rienzi from 1842.
in accordance with German Deutsche Welle This 12 months’s new manufacturing of Tristan and Isolde gained lengthy reward. The viewers particularly appreciated the efficiency of the Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund and the Austrian tenor Andreas Schager within the title roles, in addition to the mezzo-soprano Christa Mayer because the maid Isolde Brangäne.
Folks additionally praised the director Semjon Byčkov, way more than the Icelandic director Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson, whose distinctive feeling and concepts at first, in accordance with the critic Gaby Reucherová, shortly light away. Ultimately, not a lot occurred within the bleak, largely static scene, evoking the inside of a distant wreck. Richard Fairman from the Monetary Instances additionally has doubts concerning the course, whereas he praises the singing performances and the director Byčkov.
Extra ladies than males
Music competition in Bayreuth, which is crucial opera competition in Germany, which is visited by tens of 1000’s of individuals yearly. This 12 months, for the primary time after a number of a long time, when males have been accountable for the actors, there are extra productions led by ladies.
Nathalie Stutzmann, who’s from France, took management once more Tannhäuser final 12 monthsThe Wandering Dutchman right here once more it sounds Beneath the baton of Ukrainian star Oksana Lyniva and Australian director Simone Younger, they’re really helpful right here for Gold of the Rhine, the primary a part of the Ring of the Nibelung tetralogy.
Along with Semjon Byčkov, this 12 months the viewers can even see the Spanish Pablo Heras-Casado, forty years outdated, directing. He’s once more presenting the manufacturing of Parsifal final 12 months in Bayreuth, however he’s slowly beginning to consider a brand new cycle of Ring of the Nibelung for the 12 months 2028.
The present has been organized by the Bayreuther Festspiele since 1985, by which the Federal Republic of Germany, the Free State of Bavaria and the help affiliation of the Pals of Bayreuth maintain twenty-nine % shares, and the Metropolis of Bayreuth owns on the remaining 13 %. .
The competition at the moment manages 27.7 million euros, which interprets to roughly 704 million crowns. One other 84.7 million euros, i.e. greater than two billion crowns, has already been dedicated by the federal authorities for the deliberate reconstruction of the Competition Theater constructed by Richard Wagner and the architect Otto Brückwald on the Inexperienced Hill so known as.
Nevertheless, the renovation of the constructing accomplished in 1875 will probably be much more costly. The state of Bavaria promised the organizers about one time as a lot for the reconstruction, the DPA company mentioned.
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“It is unlucky when a feminine director tries to model herself as a person,” director Anna Novotná Pešková mentioned within the Highlight program. | Video: Blahoslav Baťa
