An emergency helper and an orchestral conductor at Bayreuth's zenith – Culture

Everything happened very quickly. The enthusiasm aroused by the refusal of Roberto Alagna, who should have played the title role in Bayreuth's new production of Richard Wagner's opera "Lohengrin", has not yet really set in, the organizers of the festival having already proposed a replacement. And it's actually not a substitute: for many observers, 51-year-old Piotr Beczala is considered the most appropriate swan knight anyway. Alagna specializes in French and Italian subjects that he did not personally, but through his art agency problems by repeating the admitted game, was recognized by the experts with derision and mockery: It could have come earlier than at the end of June

But now, rehearsals at Grüner Hügel are in full swing to bring a "Lohengrin" to the stage at the start of the world-renowned festival Wednesday, which is expected eagerly for several reasons: How Nothelfer Beczala after his Lohengrin? Beginning in Dresden now in Bayreuth on the side of Elsa Anja Harteros? The soprano star wants to go in search of clues in the Festspielhaus of Richard Wagner, as she admits in the interview: "What was his operatic ideals? I am curious to see how it affects me and if I feel it at all.First of all, I'm looking forward to working with Christian Thielemann. "

But what does Thielemann's" Lohengrin "really look like at the Festspielhaus? The music director of the festival approaches the zenith in Bayreuth. "Lohengrin" is still missing, so he will have directed the ten Wagner operas listed on the Green Hill. This only succeeded in front of the legendary Felix Mottl (1856-1911).

The question of how Yuval Sharon, the American-American director with Israeli roots will interpret Wagner's romantic opera, is no less exciting. The analysis of Wagner's antisemitic attitude as well as the past of the festival in the Nazi era is still a hot topic, as evidenced not only the previous year, the premiere of "Meistersinger Nuremberg "led by Barrie Kosky. Sharon uses her interpretation of the opera as a call against xenophobia and anti-Semitism Sharon makes big footprints to "Lohengrin": The staging of Hans Neuenfels in clinical laboratory with the chorus in cute rat costumes threatening after cultivating the initial skepticism reached audience. However, the optics should not be neglected in the new production, as festival director Katharina Wagner hired the artist couple Neo Rauch and Rosa Loy for scenography and costumes

And: after almost 20 years of absence, Waltraud Meier the green hill back – like Ortrud. The former star of Bayreuth had been scrambled with former festival director Wolfgang Wagner. But she had already reconciled with him during her lifetime, she recently told the "Münchner Merkur". Now his daughter Katharina Wagner has approached them with the demand for the Ortrud game.

The world star Placido Domingo will lead for the first time

The festival can also claim important names apart from the production of "Lohengrin": Placido Domingo will perform for the first time in the famous pit. orchestra, for him three times the "Valkyrie", directed by Frank Castorf, returns to the repertoire, including the closing of the festival on August 29th.

And what else? Kosky's "Meistersinger" can be reviewed, as well as "Parsifal" by Uwe Eric Laufenberg and "Tristan und Isolde" in Katharina Wagner's production. In order to complete the program this year without the tetralogy "The Ring of Nibelung", after a few years of break, Jan Philipp Gloger's "The Flying Dutchman" returns to the game plan.

The crowd of guests on the red carpet at the opening is reliable filled with all kinds of political celebrities, conducted once again by Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). Royal guests as the year before the Swedish royal couple will not come this time. But there is the mysterious Swan Knight and Elsa von Brabant on stage – including a wedding.

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