Shanghai to host Bayreuth Festival's residency program, stage masterpieces

With the Bayreuth Festival brand coming to Shanghai for the first time, the city is set to host the festival's only residency program in Asia and stage three masterpieces by the notable German composer Richard Wagner (1813-83) from 2025 to 2027, offering both domestic and international audiences a Wagnerian opera feast.

The Bayreuth Festival and Shanghai Grand Theatre unveiled a three-year opera plan Tuesday in Shanghai. Named "Bayreuth in Shanghai", it will present Wagner's three major works Tristan and Isolde, Die Walküre (The Valkyries) and Tannhauser, as well as a series of education activities and special editions of operas made for children in the next three years.

Launched by Richard Wagner in 1876, the Bayreuth Festival is one of the top summertime art festivals in Europe, focusing on presenting the composer's last 10 works including The Flying Dutchman and Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). Taking place in July and August at the Bayreuth Festival Theatre, in which the composer was involved in the design, the festival has been continuously drawing classical and Wagner's music fans from across the world over the past 112 editions.

"We are very happy and honored to cooperate with Shanghai Grand Theatre and Shanghai Opera House, both of which are the world's top institutions. China has a big market for operas, and Shanghai has impressed me a lot as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Our partners' and the city's professionalism and passion for art have convinced us to make Shanghai as the destination (to carry out the three-year plan)," said Katharina Wagner, the composer's great granddaughter and art director of the festival.

She pointed out that the three works to be staged in Shanghai represent Wagner in different styles and different periods. Among them, the Roland Schwab's production of Tristan and Isolde in 2022 will be the first to meet audiences at Shanghai Grand Theatre from July 4 to 6 next year, making the opera's debut in the city.\