Richard Wagner Festival: New head for Bayreuth Festival Choir

Richard Wagner Festival
New boss for Bayreuth Festival Choir

Thomas Eitler-de Lint will lead the renowned choir in the future. Photo: Bayreuth Festival/dpa

Thomas Eitler-de Lint will lead the renowned choir in the future. Photo

© Bayreuth Festival/dpa

Eberhard Friedrich was choirmaster at the Bayreuth Richard Wagner Festival for almost a quarter of a century. Now a new era is dawning.

The choir of The Bayreuth Festival has a new boss: Thomas Eitler-de Lint will lead the choir in the future, as the festival announced “after an intensive search and numerous discussions with potential candidates”. The choir director at the Leipzig Opera will succeed long-time director Eberhard Friedrich, who will have reached retirement age in the coming festival season.

Friedrich had also submitted his resignation, stating that he was very concerned that the festival choir would change due to “conditions for which I am not responsible” and that the sound, musical quality and precision would suffer as a result.

At the end of last year, the board of directors of the world-famous opera festival decided to make savings based on a financial plan presented by the management, which also affected the choir.

Critics feared “job cuts” in the choir

The Association of German Opera and Dance Ensembles (VdO) feared a “job cut” because the number of permanent choir members was to shrink by 40 percent from 134 to 80. The festival, on the other hand, spoke of a “restructuring of the festival choir”. In future, it will consist of a main choir and a special choir – “which means that the usual 134 choir members will continue to be seen in all of the featured choral works”.

According to the festival, the reason for the cost-cutting measures was “significant cost increases” that affected all opera houses. High energy costs, expensive materials and increased personnel costs “due to very high wage agreements in the public sector” were mentioned.

“Mr Eitler-de Lint sees the restructuring as an opportunity and, above all, as timely,” the festival said. He also has “proven Wagner expertise” and “a sound that is highly valued in Bayreuth.”

dpa

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