Der Skandal um den Bayreuther Jahrhundertring 1976 Documentary
Popular Singers in this Opera Recording
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Der Skandal um den Bayreuther Jahrhundertring 1976  
- Composer: Wagner Richard  
- Libretto: Richard Wagner  
- Venue & Opera Company: Festspielhaus Bayreuth, Germany  
- Recorded: 2021
- Type: Other
- Singers: Gwyneth Jones, Heinz Zednik, Donald McIntyre, Peter Hofmann, Jeannine Altmeyer
- Conductor: Pierre Boulez  
- Orchestra: Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele  
- Chorus: Chor der Bayreuther Festspiele  
- Stage Director: Patrice Chereau  
- Stage Designer: Richard Peduzzi  
- Costume Designer: Jacques Schmidt  
Information about the Recording
- Published by: ARTE  
- TV Director: Eric Schulz   
- Date Published: 2021  
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs, multisubs  
- This Recording is NOT AVAILABLE from a proper commercial or public source
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Protests, disturbances and riots – the 100th birthday of the Bayreuth Festival is to be celebrated in 1976 with Richard Wagner’s “The Ring of the Nibelung”. But the production by Patrice Chéreau shocked the fans. The documentary tells how one of the greatest opera scandals became one of the greatest moments in music.
1976: The centenary of the Bayreuth Festival was to be celebrated with a new production of Richard Wagner’s “The Ring of the Nibelung”. But even in the run-up to the premiere, Bayreuth’s regular customers spat poison and gall against the “brutal rape” of Wagner’s major works.
There were scuffles and fights, musicians left the orchestra pit because they did not agree with the advanced interpretation by the conductor Pierre Boulez. The conservative press resisted the political-capitalism-critical interpretation by the only 31-year-old television and film director Patrice Chéreau.
He took Wagner at his word and staged the “Ring” as an allegory of the industrial age in the second half of the 19th century. Despite all hostility: Festival director Wolfgang Wagner and the directing team stuck to the concept.
The film shows excerpts from this monumental opera event in the truest sense of the word. Contemporary witnesses look back and comment on what happened on and off the stage. The French director Vincent Huguet tells of his collaboration with Patrice Chéreau, whose assistant he was in later years; the young singer Anna Prohaska, the Wagner singer Günther Groissböck and director Barrie Kosky have dealt with the “Ring of the Century” and talk about their impressions.