Bayreuth Festival marks 150th anniversary with AI Ring, first Rienzi and Friedman controversy

The Bayreuth Festival is marking its 150th anniversary this year with a varied program that includes a new AI-assisted staging of Richard Wagner’s "The Ring of the Nibelung" and the festival premiere of "Rienzi." The season also includes a memorial event, but the run-up to the opening has been overshadowed by controversy over the initial exclusion and later reinvitation of journalist Michel Friedman.

The festival opens in late July and regularly attracts international opera fans and prominent guests, including German politicians. This year’s attendees include Chancellor Friedrich Merz and former Chancellor Angela Merkel, who regularly attends.

The first Bayreuth Festival opened on August 13, 1876, after years of disputes over funding for Wagner’s ambitious project. Friedrich Nietzsche, a friend of Wagner and a guest at the festival, praised it as "the first circumnavigation of the world in the realm of art."

The anniversary program includes a new production of "The Ring of the Nibelung" using artificial intelligence and a new staging of "Rienzi," Wagner’s first major success, composed when he was 29. The festival management had originally planned to stage all 13 of Wagner’s finished operas during the anniversary year, but said that plan was financially unfeasible.

The opening ceremony on July 25 is expected to feature Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Wagner conducted the same work in 1872 at the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth during the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone for his Festival Theater.

Despite the compromises, the anniversary program is presented as innovative and aligned with Wagner’s credo: "Children, create new things" ("Kinder, schafft Neues!").

A shadow over the celebrations has been the so-called Friedman affair. Friedman was first invited to the memorial event "Silenced Voices," scheduled for the second day of the festival, which honors Jewish artists whose work at Bayreuth was ended by antisemitism, persecution and murder. He was to speak about antisemitism and the festival’s efforts to confront its Nazi past.

The Bayreuth Festival said in an official release that, especially in its 150th anniversary year, it is aware of its historical responsibility regarding Wagner’s antisemitic views and the festival’s later connections, as well as those of some members of the Wagner family, to National Socialism. Due to insufficient security measures, Friedman was initially told to postpone his speech, which created the impression that Bayreuth was trying to avoid confronting its history.

After an apology from festival management, Friedman will now attend after all. The event will include works by Gustav Mahler and Pavel Haas, who died in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, as well as Wagner’s "Siegfried Idyll."

On the festival website, Katharina Wagner, the festival director and the composer’s great-granddaughter, said she was pleased to welcome Friedman.

This year’s special premiere is Wagner’s "Rienzi," which will be performed at Bayreuth for the first time. Wagner composed it in the style of French Grand Opera and later felt it did not fit the repertoire of works he wanted at the festival theater.

The opera is based on the rise and fall of Cola di Rienzo, a 14th-century Roman leader who fought against the aristocracy. It was also one of Adolf Hitler’s favorite works. Sven Friedrich, director of the Richard Wagner Museum in Bayreuth, said Hitler appreciated "the figure of the self-made man who rises to become the sole ruler through his charisma."

The decision to premiere one of Hitler’s favorite operas in this anniversary year has sparked debate. The Hungarian directors Alexandra Szemeredy and Magdolna Parditka say they aim to update the work for contemporary audiences and explore how a state can gradually move from populism into an authoritarian regime.

The festival is also expecting attention for the new production of "The Ring of the Nibelung." The opera cycle explores power, greed and intrigue, and Wagner built his opera house in 1876 specifically for this 16-hour work.

Katharina Wagner wants the anniversary production to break new ground by incorporating AI. Curator Marcus Lobbes said image layers will be partly generated in real time to create holographic 3-D spaces.

The team used archival footage of Ring performances from 1876 to 2024 for the AI to analyze for the projections. Lobbes said the aim is to evoke "a sense of a vast, resonant image," and the creators promised a "visually effervescent cosmos of light, texture, history, and association."

The festival runs from July 25 to August 26.