The Bayreuth Festival
Uwe Eric Laufenberg stages Parsifal with up-to-date references
“It’s about religion,” says director Uwe Eric Laufenberg as he talks about his new production of the opera Parsifal for the opening of the Bayreuth Festival 2016. Laufenberg sees many parallels in Wagner’s final opera to the present-day relationships between Christianity, Islam and Judaism. He first developed the concept for the Cologne Opera in the Wagner Year 2013. But the project was never realized, because he left to become the artistic director of the Hessian State Theatre of Wiesbaden. But then, Katharina Wagner, the great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner and head of the festival, contacted him and asked him to present his concept. She was immediately inspired. Laufenberg quotes her response: “That’s up-to-date. That’s completely new.”
Unprecedented live television transmission
The Bayreuth Festival was founded in 1876 by the composer, poet and conductor Richard Wagner. He wanted to create a place away from the big cities where people could enjoy his works without urban distractions. Nowadays Bayreuth is one of Germany’s major cultural festivals. And because visitors often have to wait years for a ticket, many cinemas in Germany have been showing new productions in live transmissions since 2012. In 2016, for the first time in the festivals’ history, there will be an international live television transmission of The Ring of the Nibelung on the new private pay TV channel Sky Arts. The music journalist Axel Brüggemann will be accompanying the programme as commentator. Katharina Wagner says that reaching as many culturally interested people as possible is exactly what Richard Wagner wanted.
Bayreuth Festival from 25 July until 28 August 2016
