Industry News
Bayreuth Festival 2021: Hardly Business as Usual
Forced by the pandemic to adapt, the Bayreuth Festival has cobbled together an unconventional season, opening July 25 with a new production of Der Fliegende Holländer by Dmitri Tcherniakov and conducted by Oksana Lyniv, the first woman to occupy this venerable festival’s pit. Swedish baritone John Lundgren will sing the title role, with Asmik Grigorian as Senta, Georg Zeppenfeld as Daland, and Eric Cutler as Erik.
“We do not know for sure how we can proceed with the chorus,” explained spokesman Hubertus Hermann in an email exchange. As a result, he continued, extra technical rehearsals have been required in the event the chorus has to be kept offstage.
The 2020 festival, cancelled entirely, was to have featured a new Ring cycle directed by Valentin Schwarz. That has been postponed until 2022, said Hermann, so rehearsals could go on this summer. Typically, Bayreuth debuts all four operas in a new Ring at once during a single short season, a tradition going back to the 1876 Ring premiere. This season had to be built around the 2022 Ring rehearsals as well as chorus concerns and the uncertainty about Covid restrictions.
In a typical “non-Ring season,” Bayreuth would present five fully staged operas. This year, besides the new Holländer, there are only two other full-scale Wagner productions, both revivals: Barrie Kosky’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, first seen in 2017, and Tobias Kratzer’s Tannhäuser, from 2019. Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan will return to conduct the Die Meistersinger, with a cast that includes Klaus Florian Vogt as Walther, Michael Volle as Hans Sachs, and Camilla Nylund as Eva.
German conductor Axel Kober will lead the Tannhäuser, replacing Valery Gergiev, who was booed loudly at the 2019 performances, his Bayreuth debut (critical reception was similarly harsh). Stephen Gould will sing the title role, with Lise Davidsen as Elisabeth, Ekaterina Gubanova as Venus, and Günther Groissböck as the Landgraf.
A mysterious departure
There is one other Wagner production, a Die Walküre that, for Bayreuth, amounts to a radical departure. The description is ambiguous and confusing: “The action artist Hermann Nitsch will design [the production].” The absence of other production team members in the credits, along with the limited run (three performances), would suggest that this will be a semi-staging or hybrid of some sort. It seems to have no connection to either the previous, wildly controversial, Frank Castorf Ring, or the forthcoming Schwartz Ring. Whatever it is, Die Walküre will be led by Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen, slated to conduct the complete new Ring in 2022. Günther Groissböck will sing the role of Wotan, joined by Iréne Theorin as Brünnhilde, Klaus Florian Vogt as Siegmund, and Lise Davidsen as Sieglinde. Since most of these singers are rumored to be in the 2022 Ring cast, it’s likely the festival, realizing they would be on hand for rehearsals, plugged them into this year’s calendar.
Other innovations include a single concert performance of Parsifal, led by Christian Thielemann, the festival’s music director, with Stephen Gould in the title role and Petra Lang as Kundry. And Andris Nelsons will conduct two concerts consisting of excerpts from Wagner operas, both featuring soprano Christine Goerke along with Groissböck and Vogt. The Nelsons concerts will take place the final week of the season, which ends on August 25.
It isn’t clear how large the audience will be or how it will be seated. According to Hermann: “We are currently working on different hall plans and also with different capacities between 200 and 1000 visitors” (the festspielhaus seats 1925). “We are strictly bound by the regulatory requirements and the instructions of the health department, both very dynamic at the moment.”
Ticketing priority will be given to those who had purchased tickets in 2020 and waived their rights to refunds. The remaining seats will be sold online as of June 6th and to “registered customers” after that date.
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