The Bayreuth Festival is an annual celebration of the works of Richard Wagner. Wagner founded the festival in 1876, with the view to glean more financial and creative control over performances of his work.
Wagner’s music has become a cultural staple: Ritt der Walküren, the Ride of the Valkyries, from Die Walküre, was used to such powerful effect during the Vietnam movie Apocalypse Now that the piece is as evocative of helicopters as it is for Norse warriors for many people.
The first Bayreuth Festival opened with Das Rheingold, the first of the four operas comprising Wagner’s magnum opusDer Ring des Nibelungen – The Ring of the Nibelung, also known as the Ring Cycle. That inaugural performance, on August 13, 1876, was the first time the cycle had been performed in its entirety, over the course of four evenings.
The 2010 Bayreuth Festival opened on Sunday July 25th with a production of Lohengrin, Wagner’s romantic three act opera from 1850.
The Ring Cycle began on Tuesday July 27th with the opening performance of Das Rheingold. The shortest of the cycle, The Rhine Gold introduces the titular mythical substance which is forged into a magical ring. The Norse gods conspire to obtain the ring and use it as a bargaining tool with the myriad dwarves, giants and fantastical creatures they contend with.
Wagner’s epic study of Norse and Teutonic mythology then continues with Die Walküre, Siegfried and the final instalment, Götterdämmerung.
The Ring Cycle is punctuated at this year’s Bayreuth Festival by performances of Parsifal, Wagner’s rendering of the search of the Holy Grail, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, probably Wagner’s most popular and enduring opera, the true life inspired story of the Master Singers of Nuremberg.
Performances of these celebrated works continue throughout the summer, culminating on August 28.
Details about the conductors and cast for each performance, as well as further history of the festival, can be found on the festival website, here
