A special Ring Cycle will be performed for the 150th anniversary Bayreuth Festival in 2026, the annual Richard Wagner showcase said as this season’s schedule ended with sellouts for all 30 performances.
In conjunction with the end of this season on Tuesday night, Bayreuth announced its new production of “Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg” will open the 113th festival next July 25.
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Valentin Schwarz’s 2022 staging of the four-night “Der Ring des Nibelungen” will be revived for the final time next summer and the 2026 Ring will be “not purely a concert version,” according to festival spokesman Hubertus Herrmann. He said festival head Katharina Wagner, the composer’s great granddaughter, will reveal more details next year and there will be a new staging of the Ring in 2028.
The 150th anniversary festival will feature Bayreuth’s first production of “Rienzi,” Wagner’s third opera, along with all 10 of his mature works that have traditionally been performed at the opera house built in Bavaria to the composer’s specifications. It also will include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, conducted by Wagner at the concert following the foundation stone ceremony in 1872 and played at the 1951 reopening of Bayreuth following World War II.
Bayreuth said 58,000 people attended this season’s performances. Last season, overall attendance dipped to 97% for 31 performances and just 92% of tickets were sold for the three Ring cycles.
“Meistersinger” next year will be conducted by Daniele Gatti and directed by Matthias Davids, and the cast will include Georg Zeppenfeld, Michael Spyres, Christina Nilsson and Michael Nagy. It replaces Barrie Kosky’s 2017 production.
Next season 29-performance schedule also includes revivals of Jay Scheib’s 2023 staging of “Parsifal” (opening July 28), Yuval Sharon’s 2018 production of “Lohengrin” conducted by Christian Thielemann and starring Piotr Beczala (Aug. 1) and Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson’s 2024 production of “Tristan and Isolde” (Aug. 3). Simone Young will return to conduct the Schwarz Ring in two cycles from July 26-31 and Aug. 15-20.