Skip to Content

The Arts Intel Report

Tannhäuser, by Richard Wagner

July 25 – Aug 25, 2019
Festspielhügel 1-2, 95445 Bayreuth, Germany

The new show this summer at the house that Wagner built is the wrenching redemption drama Tannhäuser. The opening-night ritual is pretty much etched in stone: boos for the production team, hosannahs for the cast. Valery Gergiev, a multitasking maestro with charisma to burn, will go on to pace a new production of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra at the Salzburg Festival (August 1529). Is such double exposure for a conductor in a single summer unprecedented? Maybe not, but it sure is rare. —M.G.