Wagner Festival
Singer Stephen Gould has to cancel Bayreuth
Stephen Gould 2017 as Otello in Giuseppe Verdi’s “Otello” at the Semperoper in Dresden. photo
© Arno Burgi/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
Tristan, Tannhäuser and Siegfried: Stephen Gould wanted to take on three title roles in Bayreuth this year. After the cancellation, the position will be reassigned. The festival begins on July 25th.
A few weeks before the start, the Bayreuth Festival had to cast three important roles: Stephen Gould cannot appear at the world-famous festival for health reasons, as the festival announced on its website. As in the previous year, Gould would have been intended for the title roles in “Tannhäuser” and “Tristan und Isolde” as well as Siegfried in “Götterdämmerung”.
Festival director Katharina Wagner thanks the three artists who are now taking over, it said on Saturday: Andreas Schager jumps in as Siegfried, Klaus-Florian Vogt sings him Tannhäuser and Clay Hilley takes over the “Tristan” part.
The Bayreuth Festival begins on July 25 with a new production of Richard Wagner’s Parsifal. A cast change just before the start of three productions in such important roles should be delicate and a challenge for the director.
Gould canceled his participation in Bayreuth on urgent medical advice, the festival officials said. Gould made his debut in Bayreuth in 2004 as “Tannhäuser”. Last year he not only had celebrated appearances in the three productions in the Festspielhaus, but also as a singer at the Festspiel-Open-Air under the open sky in the Festspielpark.