The Bregenz Festival will change directors for Richard Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman" in 2028 and 2029. The organizers announced on Thursday that they had ended their collaboration with American director Lydia Steier "by mutual agreement." Her compatriot Yuval Sharon will take over the production. British designer Es Devlin will continue to create the set design.

Bregenz Festival

Born in Naperville near Chicago in 1979, Sharon is already familiar with the Bregenz lake stage. He worked as an assistant to British director Graham Vick on the 2009/10 production of Giuseppe Verdi's "Aida." This summer, he will direct Leoš Janáček's opera "The Excursions of Mr. Broušek" at the Bregenz Festival Hall. Es Devlin designed the sets for the 2017 and 2018 Bregenz productions of "Carmen.".

In March 2026, Devlin and Sharon collaborated on a production of Richard Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. From the 2028/29 season onward, they will direct the new "Ring" cycle there.

The opera "The Flying Dutchman," which premiered in Dresden in 1843, will be performed for the third time in 2028. The piece was first staged on the floating stage in 1973, directed by the Austrian artist Martin Eisler. The productions shown in 1989 and 1990 were directed by the British director David Pountney, who later served as artistic director of the Bregenz Festival (2004-2014).

The new production, scheduled for 2028 and 2029, promises "an impressive interplay of unique natural scenery and gripping musical drama," according to the organizers. The premiere is planned for July 19, 2028.

This year, the Bregenz Festival place from July 22nd to August 23rd. The centerpiece of the 80th edition is Giuseppe Verdi's opera "La traviata," which has never before been performed on the lake in the festival's history. The production is directed by the Italian Damiano Michieletto.

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