Police stand in front of a checkpoint at the venue of Germany’s legendary Bayreuth opera festival on July 25, 2016 by Simon Morgan | AFP photo
BAYREUTH, GERMANY: Germany’s legendary Bayreuth opera festival, dedicated to the works of Richard Wagner, opened Monday with extremely tight security in the wake of a series of deadly attacks in the country.
“We have to send a message” that fear will not stop the festival, film actor Michaela May told the DPA news agency at the event.
Out of respect for those killed or wounded in attacks over the last week in Ansbach, Munich and Wuerzburg — all in the state of Bavaria — organisers cancelled the lavish banquet that traditionally follows the first performance of the festival.
Also cancelled was the usual red carpet procession.
The 140-year-old festival, one of the highlights of Germany’s social and cultural calendar, opened with a performance of Wagner’s final opera, “Parsifal” in a brand new production by German director Uwe Eric Laufenberg.
Inside the theatre, a message projected on the curtain said,”The Bayreuth festival dedicates today’s performance to all victims of the violent acts in recent days and to their loved ones.”
The month-long festival opened the day after a man set off a bomb near another music festival in the southern town of Ansbach — just an hour’s train ride from Bayreuth — killing himself and wounding 15 people.
Authorities said he was a 27-year-old Syrian refugee.
On Friday, an 18-year-old German-Iranian went on a shooting rampage in a Munich shopping centre killing nine people before shooting himself.
On July 18, five people were injured in an axe attack on train in Wuerzburg that was claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
– Bags, cushions banned –
Tighter security on Bayreuth’s mythic Green Hill — on which the world-famous Festspielhaus festival theatre stands — has been in place since the start of rehearsals in June.
Town authorities called for stepped-up measures following suggestions that this year’s production of “Parsifal” might be perceived as critical of Islam, a charge denied by director Laufenberg.
Unlike past editions of the festival, all bags and cushions have been banned from the auditorium and cloakrooms while patrons have to carry photo ID with them at all times.
Meanwhile, the approach road up the Green Hill to the Festspielhaus has been blocked to cars.
Star tenor Klaus Florian Vogt, who is singing the title role in “Parsifal”, was stopped and questioned by security personnel during a rehearsal break, because he was wearing army fatigues as part of his costume.
The festival runs from July 25 until August 28 with 30 performances of seven different operas. -AFP