Bayreuth 2026: Rienzi

Opening the 2026 Bayreuth Festival in its 150th anniversary year, this live stream presents a historic event: Wagner’s Rienzi, his early grand opera and once his greatest success, presented in the iconic Festspielhaus for the first time. The staging is entrusted to award-winning directors Alexandra Szemerédy and Magdolna Parditka, while Nathalie Stutzmann conducts a superb cast led by Heldentenor Andreas Schager in the title role, with Gabriela Scherer as Irene and Jennifer Holloway as Adriano. With its massed choruses, public spectacle and private tragedy, Rienzi promises to open this landmark Bayreuth Festival in truly unmissable style.