Music - Conductor Thielemann before returning to Bayreuth
Star conductor Christian Thielemann is to return to the Green Hill. The Deutsche Presse-Agentur has learned that the Bayreuth Festival is planning to work with the 64-year-old again. This was announced at the most recent meeting of the administrative board of the Festspiel-GmbH. Thielemann "will return, yes", said Festival spokesman Hubertus Herrmann on request.
The designated General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden himself confirmed to dpa that he will conduct"Lohengrin".
The opera will return to the Richard Wagner Festival schedule in 2025 after a two-year break in the production by Yuval Sharon, which was actually canceled last year, with a stage design by artist Neo Rauch. Thielemann was also the conductor of this Bayreuth production of "Lohengrin" until last year.
The future of the star conductor on the Green Hill was recently uncertain - even though he was inextricably linked to Germany's most famous opera festival for many years.
One of the best Wagner interpreters in the world
He made his Bayreuth debut in the summer of 2000 with "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg"; the long-serving Festival Director Wolfgang Wagner, who died in 2010, was more of a mentor to him than a boss. Since then, he has "shaped the festival every year with benchmark interpretations", as the festival website states.
Thielemann is regarded as one of the best Wagner interpreters in the world and is only the second conductor after Felix Mottl (1856-1911) to have conducted all ten Wagner operas performed in Bayreuth on the Green Hill.
He became musical advisor to the Festival in 2010 and Music Director five years later. However, he has been out of this post since 2020. There has been no real talk of an official post on the Green Hill for some time now.
This summer, the current chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden, who had shaped the Festival musically for over a quarter of a century, was no longer even there - he is now set to return in 2025.
New production of "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg"
A new production of "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" is also planned for this year. In the summer, Festival Director Katharina Wagner announced Daniele Gatti as its conductor, who will succeed Thielemann in Dresden in 2024.
In 2022, the last year of the Bayreuth "Lohengrin" production - for the time being - Thielemann and Festival Director Wagner had clashed over the question of whether the word "Führer" should be used in the opera at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, where Adolf Hitler once came and went.
After the dress rehearsal, Katharina Wagner asked the tenor Klaus Florian Vogt, who sang the title role, to replace the word "Führer" with "Schützer" at the end of the opera about the Swan Knight - much to Thielemann's incomprehension.
"For me, it's always like this: the originally intended text is the original text and you stay true to it," he told dpa in the summer. "I don't change any notes - then I don't change the text either and ask the artists in my performances to sing the original text. But everyone sees it differently and you have to accept that."
Read also:
- Thielemann's return to Bayreuth will be a highly anticipated event for opera lovers, particularly those in Bavaria and Germany.
- Prior to his return, Thielemann will operate "Lohengrin" at the Berlin State Opera in Berlin.
- The Neo Rauch-designed "Lohengrin" production, which was originally set to premier in 2023, will now be seen in the future, in 2025, after a two-year hiatus.
- The German Press Agency reported that the Festspiel-GmbH administrative board announced Thielemann's 2025 return, to the delight of many music enthusiasts.
- The future of Thielemann's role at the Bayreuth Festival was uncertain, but his love for Wagner's operas led him to return to Green Hill.
- People from all over Germany and beyond will be excited to attend the Festivals festivities, as Thielemann has operated "Lohengrin" at Bayreuth in the past.
- The renowned artist Neo Rauch's stage design for the "Lohengrin" production will be a stunning addition to the Bayreuth Festival in 2025.
- Operas and festivals in Dresden will also see a return of Thielemann's talents, as he's set to operate in Dresden in 2024, after conducting the "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" in Bayreuth that year.
- The Bayreuth Festival, an important cultural event in Germany, will be even more captivating with Thielemann's presence and his ability to bring to life operas like "Lohengrin," which showcase the best of German music.
Source: www.stern.de
