Bayreuth chairman frets over Thielemann-Wagner breakdown

The chair of the Bayreuth Festival’s board of governors, Georg von Waldenfels, has spoken of his unhappiness at the rift between his favourite conductor Christian Thielemann and the festival’s director Katharina Wagner.

Asked about Thielemann’s absence next year, he says: ‘It’s a decision by Katharina Wagner’.

Katharina’s contract ends in 2025. Asked about the future, Waldenfels says: ‘everything is open.’

UPDATE: We have received the following clarification request from the Bayreuth press office:
With reference to your article with the quotation from Dr. von Waldenfels as to why Christian Thielemann will not be conducting in Bayreuth next year, I would like to inform you that this does not correspond to the facts. Mrs. Wagner had offered him the conducting, however, there were Corona-conditioned date shifts in Dresden, according to which Mr. Thielemann has no time to be in Bayreuth in 2023, because the Staatskapelle Dresden celebrates a big jubilee, at which he will still conduct as chief in Dresden and therefore was not released for Bayreuth. In addition to Ms. Wagner, Mr. Thielemann has already confirmed this several times in interviews. Mr. von Waldenfels knew about this scheduling conflict, and the issue was also discussed several times in the Board of Directors. I would therefore ask you to correct the announcement. Ms. Wagner is in discussion with Mr. Thielemann about the Parsifal Dirigat 2025.
Hubertus Herrmann

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