Outside, plague, war and chaos are raging – and in the Festspielhaus you dream of love that lasts forever. With a new “Tristan” at the opening, the Bayreuth Festival is banking on escapism.
Times are anything but rosy: a pandemic is still raging and a war of aggression in Ukraine. Climate change is hitting, there are unbearable temperatures and drought in parts of Europe. And in these times, the Bayreuth Festival dreams the dream of all dreams – that of eternal love.
It was actually the emergency solution: It was not until the end of 2021 that Katharina Wagner commissioned the director Roland Schwab for a new “Tristan” – for fear that Corona could cause other performances to burst. The festival opening shows that it was the right idea.
Ironic and romantic
At the premiere on Monday evening there was applause for several minutes and real cheering for the new Bayreuth version of “Tristan und Isolde”. The new production by director Roland Schwab, which shows a utopian, extremely romantic interpretation of Richard Wagner’s great love opera completely free of irony, obviously hits a nerve with the audience in times of war, crisis and chaos. Even after the individual lifts, the spectators are enthusiastic. At the end there is clapping, trampling and shouting “Bravo” for several minutes.
Director Schwab was celebrated
The jubilation applies above all to the powerful-voiced Catherine Foster as Isolde and Bayreuth’s marathon men Stephen Gould, who, in addition to Tristan at the 2022 Festival, also sings Tannhäuser and Siegfried in “Götterdämmerung” – as well as Georg Zeppenfeld as a brand in one of his four roles this year on the Green Hill. But director Schwab and his team were also celebrated – not a matter of course in Bayreuth. His idea is as simple as it is convincing: what if we just dared to dream of love that endures, the dream of Philemon and Baucis hand in hand?
Thanks to LED technology, Schwab lets Tristan and Isolde look either at the romantic starry sky or at a sea that turns blood-red like after a shark attack. Or he lets her almost sink into a love vortex.
However, there is even more applause than for this idea for conductor Markus Poschner, who took over the task at short notice from Cornelius Meister because he had to step in as “Ring” conductor for Pietari Inkinen, who was suffering from Corona.
Not only the corona pandemic caused problems for the festival this year, recently allegations of sexism overshadowed the start of the opera spectacle. The “Nordbayerischer Kurier” reported on women who were victims of abuse and lewdness. Festival director Katharina Wagner also confirmed that she herself was affected.
A contrasting program to the Richard Wagner Festival was presented at the opening at the foot of the Green Hill. “The world can’t afford the rich,” read a banner that climate activists had fixed between trees there. In the morning hours, the group had occupied the trees to demonstrate for more climate protection.
With all these stressful themes, it is possible that the aesthetic, dreaming, escapist Tristan is just what the crisis-ridden festival and its audience need. “I’m pretty happy here,” says boss Wagner at the traditional state reception after the premiere.
Escapism is important in our time
“For me, “Tristan und Isolde” is the most famous escapist opus in all of music history. And if there is a time when you need to escape from the world, then it is ours,” director Schwab said before the premiere and was primarily concerned with it related to the war in Ukraine. “Losing yourself in the universe, in a universal love. I would like to allow this longing. Especially in our current time context, that is very, very important to me.”
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Green) emphasizes that she does not forget “that a war is taking place that is a war against culture”. And she also says: “My heart is deeply touched by this evening.”
In addition to “Tristan”, the great choral operas “Lohengrin”, “Tannhäuser” and “The Flying Dutchman” are also on the programme. According to Schwab, he only had four weeks to come up with the concept. Because a new four-part “Ring des Nibelungen” is also on the programme, there are five new Bayreuth productions this year – a first in the long history of the festival. (dpa)