Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Bayreuth Festival Orchestra

Marcus Lobbes’ AI Ring is drawing to a close. The tension between musical excellence and the underwhelming production is clearly palpable.

Once again, one looks in vain for visual coherence in this production of Siegfried, but the cast of this Ring cycle will remain unrivalled for a long time to come.

In Die Walküre, we once again delve into absurd AI-generated visual worlds and disjointed associations. Musically, however, this Ring cycle remains well worth listening to.

Fans of Regietheater and purists alike are in for a rough ride with this new AI-generated Ring at the Bayreuth Festival, although Christian Thielemann delivers a memorable performance to mark the 150th anniversary.

Jay Scheib spices up the visual experience with digital content in his production of Parsifal. Sounds good. But is it?

Despite many perceptive details, Bayreuth's new Ring culminates in a rather damp squib of an ending.

Will Siegfried get his girl? Will she turn out to be his sister? And has the ultimate prize already got into the wrong hands? More posers from Bayreuth's intriguing new Ring.

The plot thickens as "episode two" of Bayreuth's new Ring muddies the waters of Siegfried’s paternity and Wotan comes to regret his actions.

The Bayreuth Festival's new Ring gets off to a promising start with a tautly directed Rheingold, but will we find out what it all means?

Latvia's prodigal son returns to the golden hall of the Latvian National Opera House for two superb evenings with the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra.

Despite its enigmatic details, Bayreuth's Parsifal reaches a cathartic climax. 

Yuval Sharon's production returns to Bayreuth in a musically compelling performance. 

Kosky’s production manages to maintain all hallmarks of a 16th-century fairy tale, while juxtaposing them with questions of deep human, political and artistic problems. Regietheater at its best.

Yesterday, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, where devotees of Richard Wagner converge annually from all over the world, opened its doors again for this year’s festival. Traditionally presented on the first evening, the new production for this season was Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg (to use the opera’s full name), presented to a capacity audience.

The label “most opera directors” does *not* apply to Barrie Kosky, who makes his Bayreuth debut with a Meistersinger that pulls no punches.

Uwe Eric Laufenberg sets his new staging of Wagner's final opera among the persecuted Christians of the contemporary Middle East – but avoids preaching.

Despite a miscast Isolde, Wagner's operatic monument to love makes its mark in the production by the composer's great-grandaughter.

Frank Castorf's controversial but supremely well-cast Ring cycle is provocative to the last.

Visual references both incongruous and perceptive abound in the third instalment of Bayreuth's musically triumphant Ring cycle.

Singing, orchestral playing and scenic portrayal all combine to make a highly memorable second instalment of Wagner's Ring.

Bayreuth's controversial Ring returns with a new conductor and a refreshed cast.

At the end, there was a profusion of boos and applause for the creative team: Castorf and co had given us a Ring cycle that was by turns infuriatingly indulgent, interestingly provocative, visually beautiful, puzzling and rewarding.

An updated but otherwise traditional Flying Dutchman directed by Jan Philipp Gloger offers plenty of enjoyment at Bayreuth, although it might not linger in the memory as long as the more controversial fare at the Festival

Castorf's anarchic take on Siegfried pushes well beyond his treatment of the earlier parts of the Ring, and not all the heroics from Stefan Vinke, Wolfgang Koch and Catherine Foster can rescue the evening.

Frank Castorf's Soviet-era farm-setting does not obtrude on the emotional core of Wagner's Die Walküre, with excellent performances from Johan Botha, Anja Kampe and Claudia Mahnke, with superlative playing from the Festival Orchestra.

The first installment of Frank Castorf's controversial Ring is applauded on its 2015 revival at Bayreuth, but arguably the incessant visual action detracts from the appreciation of the music. 

Hans Neuenfels' setting of Lohengrin as scientific experiment with a chorus of rats affords thought-provoking pleasures, with star turns from Klaus Florian Vogt in the title role and Petra Lang as Ortrud.

A conceptually diffuse production of Tristan from Katharina Wagner is partially redeemed by stirring orchestral playing under the direction of Christian Thielemann and some fine singing at the opening of the Wagner Festival at Bayreuth.

Attila Jun's outstanding Hagen and Catherine Foster's sublime Brünnhilde light up the last episode of Frank Castorf's puzzling Ring.

Kirill Petrenko starts Die Walküre with a flourish as Frank Castorf’s staging takes us back to the Baku oilfields in late tsarist Russia.

In this second year of Bayreuth's bicentennial Der Ring, Oleg Bryjak shines as an outstanding Alberich. Frank Castorf's production is striking but as yet incomprehensible.

Art installation of a biogas factory is the setting for a mostly undistinguished musical performance.

Christian Thielemann and his orchestra were the stars of an excellent performance of Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer. 

Klaus Florian Vogt's astounding portrayal of the swan knight continues to evolve and deepen in the once infamous "Rat" Lohengrin in Bayreuth in a evening of sheer brilliance and near perfection.

When audiences first heard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, they were stunned by the sustained, passionate eroticism of the score, with the musicians amongst them amazed by the variety of novel compositional devices.

La Orquesta del Festival de Bayreuth concluyó su gira española en València: éxito absoluto pese a lo controvertido de la proposición. 

Le metteur en scène russe réécrit l'ouvrage de Wagner de manière convaincante pour peu qu'on se détache du texte ; au sommet d'une distribution de haut niveau, Asmik Grigorian est extraordinaire en Senta.

Klischees, Klamauk und Kitsch – Matthias Davids Meistersinger setzen auf bunte Bilder und reichlich Provinzposse statt Tiefgründigkeit und frischer Ideen. 

Viel dekorativer Tand, wenig Aktion und Bewegung: zu Wagners Tristan und Isolde spielt in Bayreuth derzeit die Musik die Hauptrolle.

Christian Thielemann und Piotr Beczała begeistern mit *Lohengrin* bei den Bayreuther Festspielen.

Auch im dritten Jahr der Bayreuther Parsifal-Produktion kreist die Diskussion um die zum Einsatz kommende «Augmented Reality». Sie verstellt aber den Blick auf die musikalischen Qualitäten der aktuellen Aufführungen.

Dernier opus de la Tétralogie, le Crépuscule des dieux s'avère plutôt convaincant scéniquement. Vocalement, les chanteurs rendent justice à la musique de Wagner, malgré des signes de fatigue.

La mise en scène du troisième volet de la Tétralogie déçoit cette fois-ci franchement, malgré de splendides décors. Musicalement cependant, il est difficile de rêver mieux !

Dans ce deuxième épisode de la Tétralogie, le plateau s'épanouit tandis que la mise en scène, toujours efficace, montre peu à peu ses limites.

Pour ce premier tableau du Ring, Valentin Schwarz avance une vision parfois comique mais toujours cohérente de L'Or du Rhin. Musicalement, Ólafur Sigurdarson se distingue dans le rôle d'Alberich.

La production est de retour à Bayreuth, avec les avantages et les inconvénients de son dispositif de réalité augmentée, et surtout une interprétation musicale de très haut vol.

Das reine Bebildern ist nicht Sache des Regisseurs Dmitri Tcherniakov. Bei seiner radikalen Lesart der Oper fahren das Gehörte und das Gesehene auf zwei Schienen. Musikalisch ist die Wiederaufnahme ein Hochgenuss.

Die Neuproduktion entstand zwar bereits vor fünf Jahren, aber die diesjährige Wiederaufnahme des Tannhäusers in Bayreuth bietet auf der musikalischen Ebene einige Überraschungen.

Tobias Kratzers Regieansatz voller Anspielungen sowie Klaus Florian Vogts wandlungsfähige tenorale Leuchtkraft bleiben 2023 wiederum Bayreuther Publikumsmagnete.

Die Wiederaufnahme von Tristan und Isolde an den diesjährigen Bayreuther Festspielen bekommt mit dem Einspringer Clay Hilley als Protagonist eine neue Dynamik.