In the Spotlight: Barry Millington reports on a new ‘Tristan’ and a revived ‘Ring’ at Bayreuth

Reviews of Tristan und Isolde, directed Katharina Wagner, conducted Thielemann, Bayreuth, 2015; Der Ring des Nibelungen, directed Castorf, conducted Kirill Petrenko, Bayreuth, 2015.

November 2015, Volume 9, Number 3, 57–64.

For the Bayreuth Festival and its intendant Katharina Wagner – not to mention its new Musikdirektor Christian Thielemann – much was riding on her new production of Tristan und Isolde this year. A debacle, such as was gleefully predicted in some quarters, would have done serious damage to the legitimacy of her tenure, while a blazing success would surely secure her survival to 2020 and beyond. The production is, in the event, neither a disaster nor quite enough of a triumph to claim legendary status in the annals. It is, however, an intelligent, thought-provoking and skilfully executed piece of work; less iconoclastic than the director’s own Die Meistersinger of 2007, it delivers just enough shock to the system to jolt us out of complacency, without alienating too many of the orthodox faithful.