Bayreuth Anniversary Festival begins
Richard Wagner brought his vision to life 150 years ago. The 2026 programme will feature, amongst other works, Beethoven and Wagner’s controversial opera ‘Rienzi’.
Bayreuth (dpa) – The Bayreuth Festival is celebrating its anniversary with a ceremony and music by Beethoven: 150 years ago, the composer Richard Wagner (1813–1883) staged his now world-famous opera festival for the first time. There will be no opera production to kick off the festival on Saturday. The orchestra, conducted by Christian Thielemann, will perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. This piece was also performed at the laying of the foundation stone for the Bayreuth Festival Theatre on 22 May 1872 – conducted at the time by Wagner himself at the Margrave’s Opera House.
On Sunday, the first new production of the season will have its premiere. Wagner’s early work *Rienzi* will be performed at the Festspielhaus for the first time. The decision is not without controversy. *Rienzi* is Wagner’s third opera and tells the story of the rise and fall of the Roman tribune Cola di Rienzo, who seeks to break the power of the ruling class – and then meets his downfall through his own megalomania.
The opera is said to have inspired the young Adolf Hitler – who later became a regular visitor to Bayreuth as a Wagner enthusiast – when he first saw it as a teenager in Linz. The “Rienzi” overture always opened the NSDAP’s Reich Party Congresses.
“Especially now, as right-wing populist and fascist tendencies are becoming more noticeable once again, this play has taken on an eerie relevance,” said director Alexandra Szemerédy, who is now staging the work in Bayreuth together with her colleague Magdolna Parditka. The two see the work as a “monument”.
