Overview
- The Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival gave a program of selections from Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung at the Palau de la Música Catalana, closing Festival Peralada on Saturday, August 29, with a bis of the Ride of the Valkyries and a standing ovation.
- Pablo Heras‑Casado conducted the concert with soloists Catherine Foster, Klaus Florian Vogt and Nicholas Brownlee, and multiple reviews praised the orchestra’s strings and overall Bayreuth sonority while noting punctual problems of tempo and brass intonation.
- Organizers said 95 musicians flew in from Grafenegg the same day and the ensemble is continuing a short Spanish tour that will stop in Santander, Seville, Madrid and Valencia, underscoring the logistical strain of a rapid multi‑city run.
- From the podium Heras‑Casado indicated he is expected to conduct the full Ring tetralogy at Bayreuth in coming summers, a development described in coverage as emerging and not yet a fully documented contractual announcement.
- The visit matters because Bayreuth rarely tours and the event was framed as a statement about European festival identity, using Barcelona’s historic Palau to compensate for Peralada’s lack of a fitted mainstage and to deepen artistic ties between festivals.