2023-07-10 17:34:47
Holländer, Tristan, Tannhäuser, Siegfried – and now also Parsifal: the Bayreuth Festival has lost all male title roles this year.
Bayreuth.
And then Parsifal got hit too: two weeks before the start of the Bayreuth Festival, Joseph Calleja, who had been scheduled to play the title role in the new production, canceled due to a persistent infection in his throat. Calleja is quoted as saying on the festival website that he is following the medical advice, the decision was very difficult for him.
There is already a replacement – Andreas Schager steps in: He immediately took over the seat rehearsals, festival director Katharina Wagner was very grateful, it said. Schager will thus open the world-famous festival as Parsifal on July 25th.
A replacement was quickly found
Before this season are the Bayreuth Festival All the singers for the title roles have already been lost: In May, John Lundgren canceled the title role in “The Flying Dutchman”. Michael Volle steps in. And finally, Stephen Gould’s health slowed him down, who was to take on the eponymous roles in “Tristan und Isolde” and “Tannhäuser” as well as Siegfried in “Ring des Nibelungen”. A replacement was quickly found: Schager stepped in as Siegfried and now, with the role of Parsifal, becomes the most important singer at the festival this year. The Bayreuth audience favorite Klaus-Florian Vogt sings Tannhäuser and Clay Hilley takes on the role of “Tristan”.
And there were also changes in other roles: After bass Dmitry Belosselskiy was absent due to illness, Günther Groissböck took over his role as Landgrave Hermann in “Tannhäuser”. Mika Kares steps in for Belosselskiy’s part of Hagen in “Götterdämmerung”. And because the Russian singer Ekaterina Semenchuk, who was scheduled to play Kundry in “Parsifal”, has canceled her participation “for private reasons”, Elīna Garanča will step in for her on July 25 and on two other dates. Ekaterina Gubanova will take care of the rest of the appointments.
So a lot of improvisation for the directors might be necessary. Musically, the quality of the stepping-in artists is beyond question. Example Schager: The 51-year-old Austrian sang Parsifal in Bayreuth for the first time in 2016, and he is also very familiar with the Siegfried role.
Augmented Reality at the Green Hill
The new production of “Parsifal” at the start of the Richard Wagner Festival is eagerly awaited: For the first time in the history of the Festival, it is a production with augmented reality. Virtual elements are added to a real stage design, which can only be recognized with the appropriate glasses.
However, only a few viewers will be able to fully enjoy the new “Parsifal”. For financial reasons, only 330 augmented reality glasses were purchased – almost 2,000 people have space in the Festspielhaus. Jay Scheib is directing and Pablo Heras-Casado is the musical director. (dpa)
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