BAYREUTH, Germany (dpa) ó The Richard-Wagner-Festspiele said Tuesday it still is aiming for a complete new production of the Ring tetralogy in 2006, though admitting the schedule is now tight after director Lars von Trier suddenly stepped down.
"It's an impossibility," festival spokesman Peter Emmerich said about any prospect for postponing the production, noting that many opera artists had already been signed up for the 2006 Ring. "But time is running out," Emmerich added. The search for a new director is now under way.
The new director will have to come up with an entirely new staging concept. "It is illusory to think one could proceed from Lars von Trier's ideas," Emmerich said. But the new director would have to accept the cast of performers who have already been signed on.
Lars von Trier stepped down in early June. The festival office said that the 48-year-old Danish film director felt that "the dimensions and demands of this Ring staging would clearly exceed his powers".
This year's Richard Wagner Festival begins on July 25 with a new production of Parsifal [directed] by Christoph Schlingensief. For the last time, the Ring production of the year 2000 by J¸rgen Flimm will be staged during the six-week festival.
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