At the beginning of June, the festival announced that the Latvian singer in the role of Votān Rhine gold will replace the Swedish baritone Jon Lundgren, who for personal reasons cannot participate in the intensive rehearsal process of the Ring of the Nibelung. On the other hand, Wotan in Valkyrie and Traveller in Siegfried Polish bass-baritone Tomasz Konecny will sing. (Valkyries in the premiere on June 1, Tomasz Konecny was injured and in act 3 Votan was sung by Michael Kupfer-Radeckis.)
For Egil Silin, this is a return to Wagner’s music mecca – in 2018 and 2019 he played the small role of the king’s herald Lohengrin in a new production (conductor Kristiāns Tīlemanis, director Juvals Šarons; recording available on DVD). Egils Siliņš is the first and so far the only Latvian singer who has been invited to participate in the Bayreuth Festival.
Until August 30 Ring of the Nibelung the cycle will be performed here three times (Wagner has built the Bayreuth Festival House especially for the performance of the tetralogy Festival Hall, where the premiere of the cycle took place in August 1876). This time, the creation of the new production was entrusted to the 33-year-old Austrian director Valentin Schwartz (the previous A ring the interpretation was created by the legendary German director Frank Castorf in Bayreuth in 2013).
Initially, it was expected that the new A ring the Finnish maestro Pietari Inkinen will conduct, but during the rehearsals he was infected with Covid-19 and was unable to continue the work. The baton was urgently taken over by the German conductor Cornelius Meister, who at the same time was cooking in Bayreuth Tristana an Izoldes premiere. He, on the other hand, conducts the Nibelungen Ring this season Tristanam an Isolde the German conductor Markus Poschner was brought in. It should be recalled that nine years ago under the leadership of Cornelius Meister The ring triumphantly sounded at the Latvian National Opera, at that time it was the first complete performance of the tetralogy in the young conductor’s career. at the 2023 Bayreuth Festival A ring will be conducted by Pietari Inkinen.
Tetralogies Ring of the Nibelung creators of the new production – conductor Kornelius Meisters (from the left) and director Valentin Schwartz. Photo – Enrico Navrats
Ring of the Nibelung the production and the performance are reminiscent of climbing Everest, a conversation with a newspaper The New York Times emphasizes the director Valentíns Schwartz. “The music of the tetralogy lasts fifteen hours, but there are not too many characters in the work – thirty or forty people. It reminds me of typical modern stories – serials and novels. You can dive into them and get to know the characters who do not unfold in only one dimension. We follow Wotan, Brynhilde, Siegfried, and it never feels like one character is good and the other is downright evil, we get to see their motivations, which are often unconscious. The ring is primarily the story of one large family. Throughout the long history, we live it through different generations, through children and grandchildren. Guests intervene in the family story – expected and unexpected. The main conflicts are similar to those of the Greeks. Here we are dealing with anger, hatred, love, lust for power. What is it that motivates each character? It is the consciousness of the end – they sense that they will die, that everything will end, that time is running out. They are trying to deal with it and find a solution,” says the director.
Valentin Schwartz adds that the best-educated Wagner audience in the world gathers in Bayreuth: “They know everything about the history of perception of this repertoire. Therefore, my task is not to retell the story written by Wagner, but to offer a new vision and approach. Every few years, one production in Bayreuth is replaced by another, shows live in cycles and nothing lasts forever – that means I don’t have to create A ring production “forever”. I make something just for the moment, not something that has to last forever. It is a stone in the great mosaic of Wagner’s history.”
The 2022 Bayreuth Festival was opened on July 25 Tristana an Izoldes premiere. There is still in the program Lohengrin, The Wandering Dutchman and Tanheizers. On August 31 and September 1, a concert conducted by Andris Nelsons will be held at Bayreita Festival House. Soprano Katrina Foster and tenor Klaus Florians Vogt sing. Excerpts from The Wandering Dutchman, Tanheizera and Tristana an Izoldes.
Information: www.bayreuther-festspiele.de
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