The Bayreuth Festival has announced that Oksana Lyniv will open the festival in 2021.

In an interview with Welt, Katharina Wagner announced that Lyniv will become the first woman conductor to open the festival in a production of “Der Fliegende Holländer.”

Lyniv made history when she became the first female conductor to be named chief conductor of the Graz Opera and the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra. She concluded her tenure in Graz at the end of the 2019-2020 season. This season she is scheduled to conduct at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Oper Frankfurt, Theater an der Wien, Opera de Paris, and Staatsoper Stuttgart.

The Bayreuth Festival’s 2021 season will include productions of “Lohengrin,” “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,” and “Tannhäuser.” The festival has not announced when its anticipated Ring Cycle will take place.