Bayreuth (Germany) (AFP)

Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv on Sunday became the first woman in history to conduct an opera at the prestigious Bayreuth Festival, in the presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel who attended the performance.

Oksana Lyniv, 43, opened the festival founded in 1876 by German composer Richard Wagner by directing The Phantom Vessel, in a new staging by Dmitry Tcherniakov.

Angela Merkel, a longtime follower of Wagner's operas, attended the first performance with her husband Joachim Sauer.

She wore an orange jacket and a long black skirt for the occasion.

"A score by Richard Wagner is a major professional challenge for any conductor, regardless of genre," said Oksana Lyniv, interviewed last week by the Berliner Zeitung newspaper.

She also welcomed the layout of the room, where the orchestra pit is covered with a panel, concealing the musicians of the orchestra from the view of the public.

"It's not going to be about what I wear, how I run. But only if it works or not, it's just about the sound," she told the newspaper.

Born in Ukraine on January 6, 1978 in a family of musicians, Oksana Lyniv studied piano, flute, violin, singing, and conducted her first orchestra at the age of 16, the starting point of a career that will take her to the most prestigious venues.

First an assistant at the Lviv Theater in western Ukraine, in 2003 she became principal guest conductor of the Leopolis Chamber Symphony Orchestra.

Trained by the Dresden Academy of Music and the Odessa National Theater, founder of an orchestra of young musicians in Ukraine, she has been Kirill Petrenko's assistant at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich since the 2013-2014 season.

She made her debut in the Wagnerian repertoire, conducting in 2017 Le Vaisseau Fantôme at the Liceu theater, the Barcelona Opera.

Since the 2017-2018 season, she has been the musical director of the Opera and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Graz.

After its cancellation in 2020 due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the Bayreuth festival in southern Germany is taking place this year in front of a small audience, with only 911 spectators at the opening performance.

Spectators must have been fully vaccinated or produce a recent negative test.

All must wear an FFP2 mask.

The famous festival choirs will only be heard in the form of recordings played during the performance.

© 2021 AFP