Dear Members,

Today’s electronic mailing is more like a telegram and is therefore shorter than the last issues. We should like briefly to remind you of the anniversary year events taking place in May and June and in particular to draw your attention to the advance bookings for the opera for children, “Tristan und Isolde”. A more detailed preview of this year’s Festival season will be provided in our next electronic mailing and also in the “Post from Bayreuth” and our 2013 Almanac, which we shall be sending you at the end of June.

We hope you enjoy reading the news.

With best wishes from Bayreuth

Ina Besser-Eichler
Margarete Heider
Hannelore Haub
Pierre Soldatenko

ANNIVERSARY YEAR

In addition to the “Birthday concert” and “Birthday party” on 22nd May, there will be nume­rous celebrations in Bayreuth in the weeks ahead in honour of Richard Wagner. We have of course already drawn attention to various events, and the complete programme has been published at www.wagnerstadt.de.

From 19th to 22nd May, there is the Wagner Festival Week in Leipzig with a wide-ranging programme. More information is available at www.richard-wagner-leipzig.deor
www.wagner-festtage.de.

Bavarian Broadcasting is devoting a week to Richard Wagner on the occasion of his birthday – on the wireless, television and internet. Highlights are, for example, the live broadcast of “Der Fliegende Holländer” from Amsterdam (Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian Broadcast­ing Chorus, conductor: Andris Nelsons) at 1.30 p.m. on Sunday, 26th May, then the “Day with Richard Wagner” on BR-KLASSIK on Whit Sunday (19th May) and the documentary “Wagner & Me” on Bavarian Television at 10.45 p.m. on 21st May. The complete programme is available on the BR website.

mdr Figaro is also devoted to the composer for much of May: every day, one of Dieter David’s “31 audio pictures” on Wagner’s life and work will be broadcast. The programme also includes, among other things, “The Ring without Words”with the Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Ulf Schirmer (17th May) and the two “Birthday concerts” conducted by Christian Thielemann (19th & 24th May). The complete programme has been published on the mdr website.

ART ON THE GRÜNER HÜGEL AND ELSEWHERE

I. Opera for Children

In the context of the “Richard Wagner for Children” project during the anniversary season in the 2013 Wagner Year, the Bayreuth Festival is presenting a version of Richard Wagner’s music drama “Tristan und Isolde” produced especially forchildren. All those involved in the staging, the arranger, conductor and production team, and also the soloists and orchestra musicians are taking great delight in tackling this artistic challenge. The opera for children is being conducted for the first time by Boris Schäfer, conductor and director of studies at the Norske Opera in Oslo, who is also a musical assistant at the Bayreuth Festival and an assistant to Claudio Abbado. The producer is Michael Höppner, an M.A. student at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy in Berlin, and Judith Philipp is designing the sets.

The première of the “Tristan und Isolde” opera for children is on 27th July, 2013, on Rehearsal Stage IV at the Bayreuth Festival, followed by nine further performances up to 6th August, 2013. As in the previous years, the orchestra will be the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt/Oder.

Tickets for the 2013 opera for children can only be ordered online: the application site kinderoper.bfmedien.dewill go live at noon on 5th May, 2013, where you can apply for tickets for the performances you would like as of that date. The allocation will be on a first-come-first-served basis; it is unfortunately not possible to place more than one order. If your ticket order is successful, you will be informed by email no later than 15th June, 2013. The opera for children this year is intended for children aged between 8 and 12.

Cast:

Tristan Hans-Georg Priese

Isolde Iréne Theorin

Kurwenal Jukka Rasilainen

Brangäne Simone Schröder

König MarkeMartin Snell

Junger Seemann / MelotStefan Heibach

II. Wagner in the cinema

This year, the première performance opening the Bayreuth Festival will be transmitted live to cinemas. “Der Fliegende Holländer” can be seen in numerous cinemas on Thursday, 25th July, 2013, and also on television (Arte). A list of the participating cinemas will be published in the near future at www.wagnerimkino.de. We shall be sending you more details, also about television broadcasts, in our next electronic mailing.

If you no longer wish to receive our electronic mail, please send an e-mail to our Society’s office (kontakt@freunde-bayreuth.org) and we shall delete you from the mailing list.