Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Bayreuth Festival Chorus

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.

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

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.

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.

Precedida por una gran atención mediática, el templo wagneriano estrena producción de su obra más propia. Un propuesta en la que destacan las voces y que resulta superficial a pesar de sus ambiciones.