The first virtual Bayreuth Festival launches on DG Stage on July 25 with Barrie Kosky’s production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, conducted by Philippe Jordan, and will run until August 29. Tickets, which are valid for 48 hours, cost €4.90.

All the productions will be introduced by a stage director, conductor or principal singer involved with the original production, specially filmed for the festival’s DG Stage season and will include Christian Thielemann, Marek Janowski, Barrie Kosky, Michael Volle, Philippe Jordan, Elena Zhidkova and Lise Davidsen and Georg Zeppenfeld.

As well as five single operas – Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (2017), Tannhaüser (from 2019, directed by Tobias Kratzer and conducted by Valery Gergiev), Lohengrin (2018; Yuval Sharon; Christian Thielemann), Tristan und Isolde (2015; Katherina Wagner; Thielemann), Parsifal (2016; Uwe Eric Laufenberg; Hartmut Haenchen) – there will be two different Ring cycles. The first is the highly controversial Frank Castorf production from 2013 (and filmed in 2016) with Marek Janowski conducting (Catherine Foster, John Lundgren, Nadine Weissmann and Georg Zeppenfeld among the singers), and the second is the classic ‘French Ring’ directed by Patrice Chéreau and conducted by Pierre Boulez for the centenary in 1976 (though filmed in 1980) with a cast that included Donald McIntyre, Gwyneth Jones, Manfred Jung, Peter Hofmann and Jeannine Altmeyer.

The Bayreuth Festival 2020 programme is:

July 25 – Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Kosky/Jordan)
July 26 – Tannhäuser (Kratzer/Gergiev)
August 2 – Lohengrin (Sharon/Thielemann)
August 4 – Tristan und Isolde (K. Wagner/Thielemann)
August 8 – Der Ring des Nibelungen: Das Rheingold (Castorf/Janowski)
August 9 – Der Ring des Nibelungen: Die Walküre (Castorf/Janowski)
August 12 – Der Ring des Nibelungen: Siegfried (Castorf/Janowski)
August 13 – Der Ring des Nibelungen: Götterdämmerung (Castorf/Janowski)
August 15 – Lohengrin (Sharon/Thielemann)
August 19 – Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Kosky/Jordan)
August 20 – Tannhäuser (Kratzer/Gergiev)
August 24 – Der Ring des Nibelungen: Das Rheingold (Chéreau/Boulez)
August 25 – Der Ring des Nibelungen: Die Walküre (Chéreau/Boulez)
August 27 – Der Ring des Nibelungen: Siegfried (Chéreau/Boulez)
August 28 – Parsifal (Laufenberg/Haenchen)
August 29 – Der Ring des Nibelungen: Götterdämmerung (Chéreau/Boulez)

For tickets and further information go to DG Stage