Posted March 05, 2012

In an interview with Radio Bayern 1, director Wim Wenders still dreams of directing in Bayreuth.  In the end, he said, “At the time, it was not meant to be.”  Negotiations reportedly broke down over the details of filming the 2013 Ring which will be part of the bicentennial celebration of Richard Wagner’s birth.  Nordbayerischer Kurier 2-2-2012

Some additional news has surfaced regarding Christian Thielemann assuming the conducting duties for Tannhäuser for Festspiele 2012.   Thomas Hengelbrock was concerned that due to the frenetic Bayreuth performance schedule, he would not always have the same musicians in the pit from performance to performance.  The contract negotiations went to the 11th hour and beyond the deadline.  Suddenly it was decided Thielemann would conduct.  No bad feelings on Hengelbrock’s part and he had no difficulty with the highly controversial production.  Nordbayerischer Kurier 3-3-2012

Here are is the link to the two articles in Nordbayerischer-Kurier.  When you open individual link, if you use Google, wait about 30 seconds and at the top you will see an option to have the text translated.

http://www.nordbayerischer-kurier.de/bayreuther_festspiele_648.html