Festival: Huge cheers for Bayreuth's "Lohengrin" - and Thielemann

The Bayreuth "Ring" has not yet received so much applause: The four-year-old "Lohengrin" production by director Yuval Sharon with a striking stage design by painter Neo Rauch and his wife Rosa Loy was enthusiastically celebrated when it was resumed on Thursday evening.

Festival: Huge cheers for Bayreuth's "Lohengrin" - and Thielemann

The Bayreuth "Ring" has not yet received so much applause: The four-year-old "Lohengrin" production by director Yuval Sharon with a striking stage design by painter Neo Rauch and his wife Rosa Loy was enthusiastically celebrated when it was resumed on Thursday evening.

Minutes of cheers and applause erupted after the end of the performance, some spectators couldn't stay in their seats.

Christian Thielemann on the podium

The jubilation was especially for Klaus Florian Vogt in the title role (even if he certainly had better days at the Bayreuth Festival) and Camilla Nylund as Elsa - but above all for the former music director Christian Thielemann, who once again proved that hardly anyone knows how to deal with the special acoustics of the Festspielhaus like he does. He led the orchestra through the story of the swan knight with equal skill and power - and visibly enjoyed the enthusiasm of the audience.

Before the start of this year's festival, allegations were made against Thielemann that he had made misogynist statements because two bass players in the orchestra were too much for him. Thielemann rejected these allegations as well as the one that he made a mistake here and there.

The head of the administrative board of the festival, Georg von Waldenfels, said before the festival began that he had confronted Thielemann with the allegations. He didn't complain that there were two women on bass, but that there were two new faces and he didn't like the composition of the orchestra with many new musicians. It had nothing to do with the gender of the bass players. The two women also stated to Waldenfels that Thielemann had treated them very courteously.

For the last time on the schedule

Thielemann, who has shaped the festival as a conductor for decades, has not been music director since the beginning of 2021. How things will continue with him on the Green Hill is unclear. In any case, the "Lohengrin" will be on the Bayreuth schedule for the last time this year.

Traditionally, productions win over audiences on the Green Hill over time. The previous production by the director Hans Neuenfels, who has since become known as "Rat Lohengrin", was also almost frenetically celebrated in its last year in 2015, after it had had a very difficult time with the audience at the premiere in 2010.

The main focus this year is on the new production of Richard Wagner's four-part mammoth work "Der Ring des Nibelungen", which, after its previous three parts, was rather mixed with the public. The last "Ring" part was supposed to celebrate its premiere on Friday: "Götterdämmerung".