Royal Opera House to release recordings of Wagner operas from Bayreuth Festival on DVD

Royal Opera, Bayreuth to release Wagner DVSs

BERLIN — Germany’s Bayreuth Festival has agreed to enter a deal with a production arm of Britain’s Royal Opera House to produce and sell DVD recordings of composer Richard Wagner’s operas recorded at the annual festival.

Bayreuth Festival co-director Katharina Wagner said Tuesday the first recording would be Christoph Marthaler’s production of “Tristan and Isolde” conducted by Peter Schneider at this summer’s festival. It is scheduled for release in November 2009.

The production company Opus Arte will also release an audio recording of the complete Ring Cycle, conducted by Christian Thielemann in 2008. Thielemann’s Die Walkuere will be released in 2010.