Siemens Festival Night 2011: Lohengrin for everyone and the first Ring for children

During the Bayreuth Festival 2011, Siemens AG – the eponymous main sponsor of the Siemens Festival Night – is promoting the full-day program as a means of generating enthusiasm for the world of opera among new target groups. "With the public viewing attraction for children we are addressing tomorrow's music lovers and with the telegenic performance of Lohengrin also fostering the wide acceptance of Richard Wagner's work," said Michael Roßnagl, head of the Siemens Arts Program. Since the Festival program started offering Richard Wagner's operas adapted for children, the tickets for these age-appropriate performances have unfortunately been selling out very quickly. However, to give even more children and young people access to Richard Wagner's work, Siemens Festival Night will also take over this part of the program and expand the public viewing event with the child-oriented short version of "The Ring of the Nibelung." The premiere of this children's opera will be performed separately at the opening of the Bayreuth Festival 2011 and lasts only around one-and-a-half hours.

This year the Siemens Festival Night is again expanding the offerings of the initiative established by Festival Director Katharina Wagner and in the children's program from 11 a.m. on the morning of August 14 will show a film of this new premiere free of charge on the Bayreuther Festplatz. The shared open-air experience, which drew thousands of children and their parents last year, will probably prove even more popular this time, especially with young families with school-age children: the young opera enthusiasts will be able to participate in the new version of the Wagner-oriented series of hands-on stations which will open right after the film next to the public viewing area. Here the future Wagner fans will find out what it is like to be involved in the theater and take a look behind the scenes of a theater production. Makeup, painting, handicraft and composing activities will give them ample opportunity to be creative. "With the public viewing event for children and the additional program of artistic activities, we hope that young people will discover the work of Richard Wagner through play, develop an interest in classical music and realize just how exciting the world of opera is," said Roßnagl.

From 4 p.m. on the evening of August 14, tens of thousands of spectators will experience the live transmission, following an introduction, of one of the high points of last year's Bayreuth Festival, Hans Neuenfels' production of Lohengrin – in the typical relaxed atmosphere of the Siemens Festival Night in Bayreuth. On the new, around 90-square-meter LED screen, this opera production with its particularly telegenic characteristics will impress even inexperienced opera fans. Many critics praise Neuenfels' sensual, striking achievement with this Lohengrin premiere, which can be expected to be screened with correspondingly convincing camera direction.

Those who can't make it to Bayreuth in person can take advantage of the Siemens Festival Night online at www.siemens.com/festivalnight. Opera fans around the world can follow the festival performance of Wagner's Lohengrin with the live webstream of Siemens AG for a fee of just under €15 and subsequently watch it again one more time as a video.

Further information and press pictures are available at www.siemens.com/press/festivalnight.​