Confirmed: Bayreuth chorusmaster quits

We are hearing from several sources that Eberhard Friedrich resigned last night as director of the festival chorus. His resignation came in the interval of Parsifal and the chorus demonstratively applauded him from the stage instead of taking their own applause.

We have asked for a statement from the Bayreuth Festival.

Friedrich, 66, has led the Bayreuth chorus since the summer of the year 2000. For the past three decadxes he has been in charge of the opera chorus at the state opera houses of Berlin and Hamburg.

Katharina Wagner has shrunk the chorus this summer to a pool of just 113 singers.

UPDATE: It’s been confirmed by festival spokesperson Hubertus Herrmann that Eberhard Friedrich, the long-time Chorus Master at Bayreuth Festival, has decided to step down. See here. 

Bayreuth, as usual, turns a real-life drama into an admin process.