Praise for Finnish stars in the shadow of the artificial intelligence scandal – “That’s what it’s like this summer,” says Camilla Nylund at the Bayreuth Wagner Festival

The Bayreuth Festival in Germany, founded by composer Richard Wagner, has this year cast a fine trio of Finnish soloists in important roles, even though the biggest topic of conversation has been something else.

Namely, artificial intelligence.

Critics and audiences have been mostly furious that Wagner’s four-night-long Ring tetralogy (Die Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and The Destruction of the Gods) has been performed solely based on artificial intelligence imagery.

And it came as a surprise to the singers, says star soprano Camilla Nylund in a telephone interview.

Camilla Nylund will switch from Bayreuth to the Savonlinna Opera Festival next summer. Before that, she will perform major roles at the Berlin State Opera and other top houses, for example. Photo: Anna S. / Camilla Nylund

Singers in the shadow of AI imagery in Götterdämmerung: from left Klaus-Florian Vogt, Magdalena Hinterdobler, Mika Kares, Camilla Nylund and Michael Kupfer. Photo: Enrico Nawrath / Bayreuther Festspiele

Nylund is the first Finn to have performed the difficult role of Brünnhilde in Bayreuth throughout the Ring. She agreed to the role in honor of the Ring’s 150th anniversary, when there was no talk of AI yet.

“First they said we would do a concert version on the old sets. Then came AI.”

Scandals are part of Bayreuth, she points out.

“Of course you can include Adolf Hitler and war imagery in the illustration [Hitler was an avid Bayreuth visitor], but there was a lot that was not related to the Ring or Bayreuth’s history.”

Instead of a director, the production was controlled by a “curator” whose only instruction was: stand still.

“We didn’t obey. We decided to act as best we could. Just standing in the long Ring would be hard.”

According to Nylund, the costumes are “really ugly.”

“What was the point of dressing everyone in roughly the same clothes and black wigs and sleeves? The costume designer thinks we’re like leaves on a tree. That’s what this summer is like.”

Artificial intelligence is said to save costs, but Nylund is not convinced.

“The reflective fiber in front of the singers is said to be really expensive and people spent two years digging up material for the artificial intelligence. Now there’s the Ring that people are talking about. But they could have also done a concert version on fancy sets.”

He thinks the Bayreuth summer will be his last, because he has already played all his dream roles at the festival.

“I would really like to come to the Savonlinna Opera Festival next summer to Giordano’s new direction of Andrea Chénier.”

Nylund continues to be at the top. Upcoming performances include Tristan und Isolde at the Berlin State Opera, as well as Wagner performances by the Zurich Opera in Paris and Carnegie Hall in New York.

And she was also at the top in the artificial intelligence Ring, the critics say. According to the German BR Klassik, her soprano glows in quiet tones and rises above the roar of the orchestra when necessary. The vibrato grows a little too much at times, but it doesn’t bother her when she throws herself unreservedly into hatred and love.

Die Presse and the British The Guardian estimate that the more lyrical Brünnhilde than usual will win the audience over and make the intimate moments particularly touching.

Mika Kares (third from the left) also works hard in the role of Daland’s father in The Flying Dutchman. Photo: Bayreuther Festspiele

Our principal bass Mika Kares is also in the minds of critics for his performance of the big bass roles in the Ring and also the role of Daland in The Flying Dutchman.

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Kares’s “disciplined legato” and phrasing bring vocal elegance to the Dutchman and the acting is excellent. BR Klassik and Die Presse consider the singing in the bass roles in the Ring to be exemplary, although they would like more bite and a sense of danger in the role of Hagen in The Destruction of the Gods. The Guardian praises Kares’ voice as “iron and velvet. “Evil has rarely sounded so good,” the critic praises.

Kares says that he has had a positive attitude towards the artificial intelligence experiment in the Ring.

“You have to start somewhere, and Wagner himself always strived for something new. Of course, we were now caught between two reflective surfaces and were unable to interact with the artificial intelligence imagery. But artificial intelligence is also developing and soon it will surely feed stage images in a way that we singers can react to.”

Kares also continues to be at the top: the same Ring roles will be coming to Paris, London and together with Nylund on tour with the Zurich Opera in the upcoming season.

Next summer, she will sing the grand role of Gurnemanz in the new Parsifal production in Bayreuth and will also have time for a small role in the Nuremberg Master Singers.

“The next summers will be spent in Bayreuth too, when a new Ring will be here in 2028 and a new Tristan und Isolde production in 2029,” Kares smiles.

Miina-Liisa Värelä is Kundry in this summer’s Parsifal production. She has reportedly been recruited as Brünnhilde in Bayreuth’s next Ring in 2028. Photo: Bayreuther Festspiele

And now comes the news: Miina-Liisa Värelä, who won the title of best female singer at the Oper! Awards earlier this year, is, according to HS information, the new Ring production in Bayreuth in 2028. Brünnhilde!