Just in: Bayreuth names Finn to conduct next Ring

The Bayreuth Festival has chosen the Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen to lead the 2020 new production of Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen, directed by Valentin Schwarz.

Inkinen has been chief conductor of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbruecken Kaiserslautern since 2017, as well as chief conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and the Prague Symphony. From 2008 to 2016 he was music director of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

In 2013 he conducted Opera Australia’s first full Ring Cycle, repeated three yyears later. In 2018 he led their production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, directed by Kasper Holten. He will conduct Tristan und Isolde for Opera Queensland next year, with Simon O’Neill, a regular partner, as Tristan.

It’s a bold choice on Bayreuth’s part.