Sexism debate, corona chaos – and all this in times of war and crisis. The Bayreuth Festival is taking place in a special environment this year.
The opera world has been waiting for the new “Ring des Nibelungen” in Bayreuth for two years – now they even get a surprise “Tristan” on top.
Roland Schwab is the director of the new production, whose concept he designed in just four weeks. In an interview with the German Press Agency, he tells of an exceptional situation on the Green Hill and why he doesn’t dare to play anything other than Wagner on a Bayreuth piano.
Question: You described your “Tristan” concept as a kind of escape from the world, as a utopia. Did it stay that way?
Answer: Absolutely. For me, “Tristan and Isolde” is the most famous escapist opus in all of music history. And if a time knows the need to escape from the world, then this is ours. Everyone wants to make this journey: detaching yourself from the world, overcoming borders, losing yourself, losing yourself in the other. There is no more I and you. Losing yourself in the universe, in a universal love.
I want to allow this longing. This is very, very important to me, especially in our current context. The analytical “Tristan” productions abound. I don’t mean that as a rating at all. It’s absolutely right that they exist. But here I’m trying to tackle poetry with poetry. I just want to follow the ecstasy of the piece, these intoxicated states, and ignite an intoxication of beauty in the viewer. I might have staged it differently ten years ago, I would have been more on the analytical, disillusioned side. But reality already has enough of that.
Question: Can such an aesthetic intoxication make a difference beyond the moment?
Answer: “Beauty that happens is something you take with you for the rest of your life. This enchantment remains as a value. It’s like travel impressions, where you really experienced a beauty beyond clichés, a real, honest beauty. In lean times one draws on this beauty. And so I now see our, our mission. Because the viewer does not go to “Tristan” to find himself, but to lose himself.”
Question: How did you find the work on the Green Hill?
Answer: I can work freely here, and I find Katharina Wagner only supportive. I think it was very clever of her to teach this “Tristan” to anticipate that it will also be a nervous situation and that the festival needs this joker. In this situation, of course, we didn’t think too much about rehearsals. We had maybe a third of what is usual in final rehearsals. It helps enormously that I have few debutants, but that everyone already knows the games. This is essential for our “Tristan”. Catherine Forster knows Isolde well and if anyone really knows Tristan inside and out, it’s Stephen Gould.
Question: Your “Tristan” is primarily intended in the event that one of the major choral operas cannot be performed due to the corona. So was your requirement: as uncomplicated and corona-compliant as possible, as few people as possible on stage?
Answer: Roughly, yes. So I don’t have – like the Vienna State Opera – more than 100 naked extras.
Question: After you lost your conductor because Cornelius Meister is now conducting the “Ring” – how afraid are you for your Tristan Stephen Gould? He also sings “Tannhäuser” and Siegfried in “Götterdämmerung”.
Answer: “I think someone who manages this workload at his age can also take on such a virus.”
Question: What makes this place so special for you?
Answer: For me, Wagner is the one who opens borders. And as a youngster, when I really came into contact with his music for the first time, it’s good to see no boundaries anymore. This music takes off, carries you away. Along with Johann Sebastian Bach, Wagner is the universal artist who most peoples have adopted. And in Bayreuth it all culminates because this festival theater was built for him. The architecture and location of the Festspielhaus is unique.
If the Festspielhaus had been built in Munich, it would now be the Gasteig, one of many venues. It was totally right to think of this place of pilgrimage. You don’t have to deal with people who say: Well, I actually like Verdi better. Here at the festival there are pianos everywhere, but you don’t dare sit down at one of these pianos and play anything other than Wagner. Everyone has an inhibition threshold. Maybe a few other bars will sound, but they’re over quickly because you have a bad conscience. This is sacrilege.
ABOUT PERSON: Roland Schwab works as a freelance director on numerous stages in Germany and abroad. He also teaches at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and the Bavarian Theater Academy. (dpa)