Wagner's double crescendo

For the first time, a production from Germany's legendary Bayreuth Festival was staged outside Europe, Zhang Kun reports in Shanghai.

As the house lights dimmed at the Shanghai Grand Theatre on July 4, the haunting prelude of German composer Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde began to unfold, marking not just the start of a nearly five-hour operatic journey, but a historic cultural moment.

For the first time, a production from Germany's legendary Bayreuth Festival was staged outside Europe, launching the ambitious Bayreuth in Shanghai project that will run through 2027. This new rendition of Tristan und Isolde, based on the acclaimed 2022 Bayreuth Festival edition, is more than a theatrical feat. Jointly produced by the Shanghai Opera House and the SGT, it signals the deepening of artistic collaboration between China and Germany and Shanghai's rising stature as a global center for world-class opera.

Conducted by Xu Zhong, president of SOH, the production featured singers and musicians from SOH and an international cast led by Erin Caves and Corby Welch playing Tristan, Lise Lindstrom and Nina Warren as Isolde.