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Bayreuth (dpa) - The Bayreuth Festival wants to retain its previous music director Christian Thielemann (61).
How, however, is still unclear.
Whether he will remain music director in the new year is open.
“The Bayreuth Festival intends to sign a new contract with Christian Thielemann,” announced the festival on Wednesday upon request.
"The tasks and the resulting title are still being clarified."
Thielemann has been music director of the Richard Wagner Festival since 2015, but his contract will expire in a few days at the end of the year.
Thielemann, chief conductor of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, is very closely connected to the Green Hill as a conductor.
The long-time festival director Wolfgang Wagner, who died in 2010, was more of a foster father than boss for him.
Thielemann made his Bayreuth debut 20 years ago, in the summer of 2000, with the “Meistersingern von Nürnberg”.
Since then, he has «shaped the festival every year through decisive interpretations», as it says on the festival website.
He is considered one of the best Wagner interpreters in the world.
When he stood in for Valeri Gergiev, who was canceled due to the death of his mother, at the “Tannhauser” last year, worlds opened up between the two star conductors.
There were real cheers for Thielemann.
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With one exception in 2011, there has not been a festival year in the last two decades without Thielemann at the podium.
He is only the second conductor after Felix Mottl (1856-1911) who conducted all ten Wagner operas performed in Bayreuth on the Green Hill.
In 2010 he became musical advisor to the festival and five years later music director.
However, there have always been reports that Thielemann tends to appear undiplomatically towards fellow conductors and was criticized for interfering unduly in their work.
Whether Thielemann will conduct the “Lohengrin” in 2022, where he has been at the podium in recent years, the festival left open on request.
Contracts for performances in two years' time have not yet been made, said festival spokesman Hubertus Herrmann.
In 2019, Thielemann was extremely optimistic about his future on the Green Hill in an interview with the German press agency: "I don't know anything yet, nobody has spoken to me yet, but they will come," he said at the time the question of whether his contract as music director in Bayreuth will be extended.
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“I will continue to conduct here in any case and I do believe that it will more or less continue like this.
We already have a few dates that I want to keep - if we all stay healthy.
If I have my way, it should go on like this.
I also like the area so much - and you eat so well here. "
Thielemann is not the only person who will be important for the festival in 2021.
It is also not yet known who will succeed CEO Holger von Berg in office.
Because his contract was not renewed, he has to say goodbye to Green Hill in April.
Bayreuth Festival
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Staatskapelle Dresden about Christian Thielemann
Information on Christian Thielemann's book "Mein Leben mit Wagner"