The Bayreuth Festival is celebrating 150 years. This summer the festival will begin on July 26, 2026 with a new production of Richard Wagner's third opera RIENZI. This early work has never been performed at the Bayreuth Festival. The new production will be directed by Alexandra Szemeredy and Magdolna Parditka. They will also design the sets and costumes. The musical direction will be under the baton of The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra musical director Nathalie Stutzmann.

There will be an Open Air Festival on July 4th, and a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony on July 25th.

The July 26th performance of Rienzi on Opening Night will be shown in movie theaters all over Germany.

There will also be a live telecast on the STAGE+ streaming service from Deutsche Grammophon.

Bavarian Radio (Radio des Bayerischen Rundfunks -- BR Klassik will also broadcast Opening Night live. You will be able to watch the telecast if you are in Germany.

What is Ring 10010110? Here is an explanation right from the Bayreuth Festival website:

THE “RING” IN MOTION —
AN EXPERIMENT. AN INVITATION.

For 150 years, the “Ring” has been reimagined, re-seen, re-heard in Bayreuth. But what happens when the stage itself begins to think?
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Bayreuth Festival, the audience can expect an experiment of visionary power: a “staging” that not only presents Richard Wagner’s music drama, but places its reception history at the center—through a visual dimension that constantly changes, expands, and recomposes itself. For the first time in the history of the Festival, Artificial Intelligence will take part on stage—not as a character, but as an image-generating force.

BETWEEN PRESENCE AND PROJECTION

The singers are at the heart of the performance, in a calm, almost sculptural presence. Their bodies become the fixed point within a visually seething cosmos of light, texture, history, and association, amidst projections that erupt, constantly shift, and merge into one another. The projections are more than stage design—they are a reflective surface of a 150-year discourse. The AI that generates them has learned from countless images, voices, documents, and productions. It does not present a single “Ring,” but many: the national myth, the socio-political upheaval, the artistic explosive force, the romantic utopia, the deconstructed shadow. Every performance will be unique—because the images and associations never stand still.

The Bayreuth Festival 2026 Schedule