The “Parsifal” opens up virtual worlds and two women stand at the conductor’s desk. But someone is missing who was otherwise always there. And the aura of exclusivity is shaking.
The Bayreuth Festival opens up new worlds. On July 25, the opera event on the Green Hill starts with a production that has never existed before: The new “Parsifal” comes on stage as an augmented reality version.
The American Jay Scheib, professor at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), tells the story of the Richard Wagner opera about the Knights of the Grail and the “pure fools” Parisfal with virtual elements intended to complement what is happening on stage. These become visible with special AR glasses, of which there are only 330 for almost 2000 viewers.
“The project was planned with 2000 glasses, but as a result of a change in the commercial management, 330 glasses could ultimately be realized,” says festival director Katharina Wagner in an interview with the German Press Agency. “The demand for the AR glasses was significantly higher, so our audience is also curious.”
The main reason why glasses are not available for everyone is that they are quite expensive. “Maybe we can find a sponsor and expand it,” says director Scheib, who had the kite fly virtually on the Green Hill for the “Sei Siegfried” project in 2021. “Innovation has its price.”
The partly virtual “Parsifal” is probably the largest augmented reality project on a German stage – and one that could have a signal effect, because it’s Bayreuth.
From the point of view of Ulrike Kolter, editor-in-chief of the theater magazine “Die Deutsche Bühne”, the project fits in well with the more recent developments on the Green Hill: “Of course, the whole thing fits in with the direction that Katharina Wagner has been taking for a few years in order to make the house fit for the future and also to open up a younger audience.”
The festival, which was hit by a particularly large number of singers’ failures this year, is also trying to do this with an open air on the eve of the grand opening, with children’s operas for years and this year also with the “Wagner for Beginners” offer – cheaper tickets for young people.
The new production “Der Ring des Nibelungen” by the young Austrian director Valentin Schwarz, which became known as “Netflix-Ring” and was very controversial after its premiere last year, also points in a new direction – to the displeasure of many long-established Wagnerians and with at least initially manageable success.
A week before the start of the festival, tickets were still available for each of the four-part “Ring” cycles and also for the individual operas. The fact that “Rheingold”, “Valkyrie”, “Siegfried” and “Götterdämmerung” can be bought individually at all is a novelty in the history of the Festival and an unmistakable sign that something is changing on the hill – and probably has to change.
Because those who have been making pilgrimages to Bayreuth to worship Richard Wagner (1813-1883) for decades and want to pay hundreds of euros for a ticket are becoming fewer every year. The fact that the aura of exclusivity is now shaking can also be an opportunity to open up a new audience of people who previously seemed suspicious of this exclusivity.
Richard Wagner’s great-granddaughter Katharina Wagner, of whom it is not yet clear whether she wants and should remain festival director beyond 2025, is now focusing on younger people – and more femininity. After Oksana Lyniv, Nathalie Stutzmann is only the second woman to take the baton in Bayreuth this year. With Joana Mallwitz there are talks about an engagement for the festival anniversary in 2026, where – another novelty – Wagner’s “Rienzi” should also be on the schedule.
So a lot is new – but one veteran is missing this year: For the first time in a quarter of a century, conductor Christian Thielemann is not there. “Very specific talks about conducting had already taken place with Christian Thielemann, but he had to cancel them due to other commitments in Dresden and Salzburg,” says Wagner. And: “We are very well positioned with the current and future musical directors.”
The festival ends this year on August 28th with Tobias Kratzer’s celebrated “Tannhäuser”. At the latest when the last curtain falls, it will be asked with even more emphasis: the question of how things will continue in Bayreuth. Because it is not only about the extension of Wagner’s contract that has to be decided, but also about the future structure of the festival as a whole.
Because the association of patrons of the Society of Friends of Bayreuth has announced that it will no longer be able to pay so much for the opera spectacle in the future.
What that means is expected to be discussed in the appropriate committees from this fall, as will Wagner’s contract extension.
Bavaria’s Minister of Art Markus Blume (CSU) called for reforms in the “Nordbayerisches Kurier”. “I’ll say it very clearly: there must be changes. Even a well-known festival has to keep up with the times in some areas if it wants to be successful in the long term,” he said in the newspaper interview. Wagner had also called for reforms and a new structure.
“I can very well imagine the festival in the future with Katharina Wagner at the artistic helm, but there must be a common understanding of sustainable structures on the Green Hill,” said Blume. “For me, Bayreuth and Wagner belong very closely together.”