- The Bayreuth Festival concludes its run.
The crowd-pleasing Richard Wagner Festival on Bayreuth's Green Hill concludes with the wildly popular "Tannhäuser," directed by Tobias Kratzer signifying the end of the 2024 season.
Intendant Katharina Wagner must be elated. Despite some unsold tickets for the typically packed opera event in 2023, the Festival reported a full house this year.
Maestro Moments
However, the season is anticipated to be etched in the annals of collective classical music history for an extraordinary reason: for the first time ever, female conductors outnumbered their male counterparts at the podium throughout the Festival's history.
Simone Young made history as the first female conductor to lead Wagner's four-act opus "Der Ring des Nibelungen" in Bayreuth. Oksana Lyniv directed "The Flying Dutchman," and Nathalie Stutzmann conducted "Tannhäuser."
Chorus Changes
Just before the Festival's conclusion, chieftains revealed an impending change in leadership for the renowned Festival Chorus: Eberhard Friedrich, who had served in this position for nearly a quarter-century, was stepping down and Thomas Eitler-de Lint was set to usher in a new era.
2025: A New "Meistersinger"
As Green Hill quiets down for a bit, preparations for the coming season kick off. In 2025, Festival patrons can expect to be treated to a newly staged "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" by musical mastermind Matthias Davids, an artist from Bayreuth holding the position of artistic director at the musical department at the Landestheater Linz.
As previously announced, Christian Thielemann, former music director, will return to the Festival after his several-year hiatus. He will conduct "Lohengrin" and revive the stage design by art superstar Neo Rauch from a pause.
To celebrate the historic 150th anniversary of the Festival in 2026, Katharina Wagner plans to deviate slightly from the rigid tradition: Wagner's opera "Rienzi" shall be performed in the Festival House.
The Festival's success has encouraged other institutions to follow suite, with several major festivals announcing that they will also aim to have more female conductors in their upcoming seasons. The audience is already looking forward to the 2025 Festival, where they can witness a new staging of "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" directed by Matthias Davids.
