Festival

Talk story about this year's Bayreuth Festival in Germany, at the Festspielhaus, the theatre that Richard Wagner built for the performance of his operatic works. It was the premiere of a controversially eclectic new "Ring"directed by Sir Peter Hall & conducted by Sir Georg Solti. The Festival opened in the middle of the worst heat wave Bavaria has experienced in 14 years. After 2 1/2 hours of "Das Rheingold," a good portion of the elaborately dressed opening-night audience was glued to its seats. Then came "Gotterdammerung." The heat broke 2 days later, during the 2nd act of"Parsifal." There were thunderous boos for Hall, the director & the designer, William Dudley. One German friend said: "They booed Chereau because he challanged them to think & made them angry; they're booing this production because they think it's inept." The audience singled out 3 outstanding performances Hildegarde Behrens, Jeanne Altmeye & Aage Hauge. Manfred Jung took the title role after a young E. German tenor couldn't cope with the music & Bent Norup took over Wotan when the baritone scheduled became ill. Lengthy discussion of the stage set, performances use of the Ring as a "Konzept" for the production. Sir Peter said: "I'm talking about working honestly in terms of passion, purity & clarity of emotion. That, if you will, is our Konzept."

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com