Bavarian State Opera

Every year the Munich Opera Festival, the oldest of its kind in Europe, attracts visitors from all over the world and features a diverse repertoire of operas, all performed over a short, intense period. The festival exemplifies artistic continuity, tradition and zeitgeist, and will be sponsored by Audi until 2007.

In the 2002/03 season, Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" was staged in a new production by the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. David Alden was the director, with the scenery designed by Gideon Davey. Under the musical directorship of Zubin Mehta, the "Ring" tetralogy will once more be staged as a complete cycle at Munich's National Theatre in the spring of 2006. Leading lights of the opera world, such as Waltraud Meier as Sieglinde, John Tomlinson in his most famous role as Wotan, Gabriele Schnaut as Brünnhilde, Stig Andersen as Siegfried and Matti Salminen as Hagen are an irresistible prospect for opera-goers.

• Das Rheingold: 01/03 and 04/03/2006
• Die Walküre: 07/03 and 10/03/2006
• Siegfried: 14/03 and 18/03/2006
• Götterdämmerung: 22/03 and 26/03/2006

The new production of Verdi's most melodious opera is being staged at the National Theatre on 28 June as the opening performance of the Munich Opera Festival 2005, with Fabio Luisi as the conductor and David Alden as the director. In "La Forza del Destino", an adaptation of the popular Spanish cloak-and-dagger drama ""La Fuerza del Sino", Violeta Urmana sings the role of Leonora, Franco Farina her lover Don Alvaro and Mark Delavan the revengeful Don Carlo.

• Première on: 28 June 2005
• Performances:

12, 15, 20, 23 October 2005
12, 17, 20 May 2006
2 July 2006

• Munich Opera Festival: 1, 7, 11 July 2005