Bayreuth, Festspielhaus
The drama around this year’s Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany, hasn’t received any concrete explanation. The festival management won’t comment why Andris Nelsons has withdrawn from the new production and neither does the conductor’s management. The statement of Nelson’s management is rather vague: « Owing to a differing approach in various matters, the atmosphere at this year’s Bayreuth Festival did not develop in a mutually comfortable way for all parties. »
In Bayreuth security measures have been very tough this year, too tough in the eyes of many artists. This might have been one element. Yet, there are also rumours that Andris Nelsons had problems with the stage director and, more important, with music director Christian Thielemann. If this is the case, two of Germany’s most renowned institutions, the Semperoper in Dresden with music director Thielemann and the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, roughly 100 kilometres from Dresden, with music director Nelsons, could suffer from such a hostile behaviour.
