Bayreuth names new Wotan

Bayreuth names new Wotan

News

norman lebrecht

August 09, 2021

The last-minute withdrawal of the Austrian bass Günther Groissböck from this summer’s productions and next year’s Ring cycle has not cost the festival too much sleep.

His replacement was announced overnight.

The festival management is happy to announce the cast of John Lundgren as Wotan in “Die Walküre” and Wanderer in “Siegfried” in the new “Ring des Nibelungen” 2022. Katharina Wagner would like to thank John Lundgren very much for his willingness to take over both roles at short notice and to join the rehearsal process immediately. The cast of Wotan in “Das Rheingold” will be announced at a later date.

Lundgren, 52, has sung for three sucessive summers at Bayreuth. The Swede is a fixture on the international circuit.

Comments

  • SUGGERITORE says:

    Rong Cycle is excellent!

  • Mock Mahler says:

    Lundgren has been on view on the 2016 Bayreuth Ring that DG Stage is streaming for free this month. Siegfried still to go.

    For me, in Rheingold he and everyone else was swamped by the Texas-gas-station-motel production. But he gave a compelling monologue in Walkure (once Wotan stopped reading his Pravda).

  • Anonymous Bosch says:

    Jesus, Norman: Do some research!

    Groißböck has NOT „withdrawn … from this summer’s productions“. With one click you can see that he is performing in „Tannhäuser“ (Hermann), „Die Meistersinger“ (Nachtwächter), and is set for tomorrow’s concert performance of „Parsifal“ (Titurel) as well as two concerts under Andris Nelsons in which he will sing Hunding in Act I of „Die Walküre“.

    As far as „Lundgren, 52, has sung for three sucessive [sic] summers at Bayreuth” – he made his Bayreuth debut in 2016 as Wotan/Wanderer in „Die Walküre“/„Siegfried“, returned in 2017 and 2018 for „Die Walküre“, and also sang the Holländer in 2018, a role he is reprising this season in the new production; he was scheduled for Albrecht in the postponed 2020 „Ring“. So is he still a „new Wotan“?

    • Alberich says:

      Jesus “Anonymous” (I wonder why?) Do some research…

      Albrecht? ALBRECHT??
      Really???

      Jesus, “Anonymous” you keyboard warriors must have a sense of humour…

      Idiot…

  • Tom Phillips says:

    He is mediocre. Sorry they couldn’t get Volle or Konieczny but this was of course very short notice.

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