Of course, the Bayreuth Festival is different, especially the opening weekend. Significantly fewer guests are allowed to come, 911 in number instead of the usual 1974, everyone must show up an hour earlier, please, prove that they are not corona-positive and arrows everywhere show them where to go and how to go. Just not over the red carpet, this time there is no and therefore hardly any onlookers.
Anyway, the city and the Festspielhaus are happy that things can start again after a year of Corona break, as are the guests who have announced themselves, such as Chancellor Angela Merkel, Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters, Gloria von Thurn und Taxis. Lord Mayor Thomas Ebersberger comes first, adjusts his chain of office in front of the photographers, followed by EKD chairman Heinrich Bedford-Strohm. Prime Minister Markus Söder expresses anticipation on Instagram and posts his fly. It is so well-tried and classic that it is fashionable on the Green Hill. A turquoise caftan here or a shiny short skirt there, otherwise the women’s robes are long, flowing, monochrome. At least that’s what it looks like in the afternoon, hardly any experiments. And the masks are, well, sterile too.
It is more the musical aspect that stands out: In the opening production of Wagner’s “Der Fliegende Holländer” (The Flying Dutchman), Oksana Lyniv is the first to have a female conductor at the podium in Bayreuth, in the 21st century, that should be noted. And the topic of conversation on the park benches around the music house is bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny. Before the opening, the festival management announced that he would spontaneously sing Wotan in Die Walküre instead of Günther Groissböck in five days.
And the corona pandemic could have one good thing for some: Because foreign guests cancel their arrival, tickets are sold again, only of course not for the opening. An employee laughs tiredly: “You should have come in January.”