(Credit: picture-alliance/dpa/ M. Merz)

The Bayreuth Festival has reached out to OperaWire in response to the recently published article regarding statements of the Festival Director Katharina Wagner.

In an e-mail to OperaWire, the Bayreuth Festival explained the circumstances around the new production of Wagner’s iconic tetralogy “Der Ring des Nibelungen.”

“It is a special feature of the Bayreuth Festival that all works of the four-part ‘Ring of the Nibelung’ are premiered in a new staged production within one week. Only very few houses worldwide are able to bring out all four productions at once. In order to make a premiere of the new production possible at the end of July/beginning of August, we must begin rehearsals in April. For revivals of the tetralogy in subsequent years, a rehearsal start in late May/early June is again sufficient,” said Hubertus Herrmann, the Press Officer of the Bayreuth Festival.

“Due to the suspension of the Bayreuth Festival in 2020, rehearsals for the new production of the “Der Ring des Nibelungen” were also not possible. The singers needed for rehearsals in April and May 2021 have already had completed other national and international commitments for years. In order to be able to provide sufficient rehearsal time, we therefore had to reschedule. A large part of the rehearsals will now be held during the 2021 festival season, and another rehearsal period will then take place in 2022, when the regular revival rehearsals would have taken place. As a result, the complete cycle can premiere in 2022. This serious postponement, and another crucial point, had an impact on the 2021 schedule,” added Herrmann.

Regarding the presence of the chorus at the festival, Hubertus Herrmann stated: “Since it can be assumed that the pandemic is still present, we are now planning to broadcast the chorus live from the chorus hall. Scenically, there will be „small actors/Kleindarsteller“ on stage instead of the choir. This again requires a certain amount of rehearsal to ensure scenic and also musical quality. Since we do not have a permanent ensemble and especially the members of our orchestra, but also partly of the choir, are not available earlier, one piece has to pause in order to be able to generate an artistically sufficient rehearsal time.”

The production of “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” by Barrie Kosky will be performed for the last time in 2021. The production of “Tannhäuser” by Tobias Kratzer will see its first revival in 2021.

“We are happy that Neo Rauch’s and Rosa Loy’s blue ‘Lohengrin’ will be seen again in 2022,” concluded Hubertus Herrmann in the e-mail to OperaWire.