Wagner Society of New York

Bayreuth Artist Talk: Christa Mayer
2026-08-13 10:30 - 11:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Arvena Kongress Hotel, Eduard-Bayerlin Str. 5a, Bayreuth, 95445, Germany
Christa Mayer performs Waltraute and Erda in the Ring Cycle this season, as well as the alto solo in Beethoven’s Ninth. Previous Bayreuth engagements have included Schwertleite, Fricka, Magdalene, Mary and Brangäne. Join us in 2026 for the Bayreuth Artists Talks Series, an engaging opportunity to connect with the exceptional performers of the Bayreuth Festival. These intimate sessions offer audiences a rare glimpse behind the scenes as artists reflect on their careers, share insights into their roles and creative processes, and discuss the unique experience of performing at Bayreuth. With a relaxed and informal setting, these conversations provide a deeper understanding of the works the artists bring to life on stage, making each event a memorable encounter with the people behind the music.
Christa Mayer received her vocal training at the Bavarian Singers’ Academy and the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts, where she graduated in 2001 with a master class diploma. While still a student, she received several awards, including prizes at the International ARD Music Competition and from the Richard Strauss Society Munich. The Bayreuth Festival holds a special place in her career. In 2008, under the direction of Christian Thielemann, she made her debut on the “Green Hill” singing Erda and Waltraute. Since then, the Bayreuth Festival has been a permanent fixture in her calendar, where she has also performed roles such as Brangäne, Fricka, Waltraute, and Magdalene.
This in-person-only event will take place at the Arvena Kongress Hotel in Bayreuth, Germany.
Tickets are $15 in advance online, €15 cash or credit card at the door.
Get the Series: all six artists talks for $60 (a $30 savings). Pre-purchase is recommended to expedite entry and seating.

Bayreuth Artist Talk: Camilla Nylund
2026-08-14 10:30 - 11:30
Camilla Nylund performs Brünnhilde this year in the entire Ring Cycle; previously in Bayreuth she has sung Isolde, Elsa von Brabant, Eva Pogner, and Elisabeth. Join us in 2026 for the Bayreuth Artists Talks Series, an engaging opportunity to connect with the exceptional performers of the Bayreuth Festival. These intimate sessions offer audiences a rare glimpse behind the scenes as artists reflect on their careers, share insights into their roles and creative processes, and discuss the unique experience of performing at Bayreuth. With a relaxed and informal setting, these conversations provide a deeper understanding of the works the artists bring to life on stage, making each event a memorable encounter with the people behind the music.
After being a troupe member in Hanover and at the Semperoper Dresden, Camilla Nylund is now one of the internationally most sought-after singers in her field and is a regular guest at all major opera houses – at the Vienna State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Metropolitan Opera New York, La Scala di Milano, the Paris Bastille, the Berlin and Hamburg State Operas, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, at the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals, in Barcelona, Valencia, Zurich, Helsinki, Cologne, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Tokyo, San Francisco.
This in-person-only event will take place at the Arvena Kongress Hotel in Bayreuth, Germany.
Tickets are $15 in advance online, €15 cash or credit card at the door.
Get the Series: all six artists talks for $60 (a $30 savings). Pre-purchase is recommended to expedite entry and seating.

Bayreuth Artist Talk: Marcus Lobbes
2026-08-15 10:30 - 11:30
Join us in 2026 for the Bayreuth Artists Talks Series, an engaging opportunity to connect with the exceptional performers of the Bayreuth Festival. This talk with Marcus Lobbes, Curator and director of the Artistic and Technical Concept of ‘Ring 10010110’ – the 150th Anniversary Ring: “Using new imaging techniques and a mixture of live coding, artificial intelligence, and holography, a monumental tetralogy, a world of power, love, betrayal, and downfall, and at the same time a place of constant transformation, is curated with new imaging techniques. With a mixture of live coding, artificial intelligence, and holography, Marcus Lobbes and his team are creating an experiment of visionary power. Under the title “RING 10010110,” Richard Wagner’s music drama and its reception history take center stage—through a visual level that is constantly changing, expanding, recomposing, and contradicting itself. For the first time in the history of the festival, artificial intelligence will play live on stage – not as a character, but as an imaging force.” These intimate sessions offer audiences a rare glimpse behind the scenes as artists reflect on their careers, share insights into their roles and creative processes, and discuss the unique experience of performing at Bayreuth. With a relaxed and informal setting, these conversations provide a deeper understanding of the works the artists bring to life on stage, making each event a memorable encounter with the people behind the music.
As Director of the Dortmund Academy, Marcus Lobbes is in high demand locally, nationally, and internationally for lectures and panel discussions; he is particularly committed to fostering and promoting a wide variety of networks in the performing arts, as well as communicating artistic research — in dialogue with the latest technologies — to theater and educational institutions, policymakers, and the general public.
He is also active on numerous committees, boards of trustees, and juries; for example, since 2024 he has served as vice president of the German Academy of Performing Arts and as a member of the board of trustees of the Performing Arts Fund.
Since 1995, he has worked as a director, set designer, and writer in musical and spoken theater. His focus is on uncompromisingly contemporary adaptations of classics as well as numerous world premieres and first performances at many renowned theaters across Germany in over 80 productions to date, including at the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus, the Frankfurt Opera, the Hamburg Opera, the National Theater Mannheim, the State Theaters in Kassel, Mainz, Saarbrücken, Darmstadt, and Braunschweig, the Schauspiel Dortmund, the Theater Freiburg, and the Wuppertaler Bühnen.
His artistic signature is characterized by innovative forms of collective work with ensembles and his close collaboration with contemporary writers and composers. In addition to numerous invitations and awards, his approach is also finding its way into the training of young artists:
Since 2014, he has been invited as a guest lecturer and speaker to the Academy of Performing Arts in Ludwigsburg, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the University of Rostock, the University of Applied Sciences Mainz, the Zurich University of the Arts, the Berlin University of the Arts (UDK), the Robert Schumann University of Music in Düsseldorf, and, since 2016, annually to the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.
This in-person-only event will take place at the Arvena Kongress Hotel in Bayreuth, Germany.
Tickets are $15 in advance online, €15 cash or credit card at the door.
Get the Series: all six artists talks for $60 (a $30 savings). Pre-purchase is recommended to expedite entry and seating.

Bayreuth Artist Talk: Mika Kares
2026-08-17 10:30 - 11:30
Join us in 2026 for the Bayreuth Artists Talks Series, an engaging opportunity to connect with the exceptional performers of the Bayreuth Festival. This event presents Mika Kares, singing Fasolt in Das Rheingold, Hunding in Die Walküre, and Hagen in Götterdämmerung, as well as Daland in Der fliegende Holländer. In 2025 Mr. Kares also sang Heinrich der Vogler in Lohengrin. These intimate sessions offer audiences a rare glimpse behind the scenes as artists reflect on their careers, share insights into their roles and creative processes, and discuss the unique experience of performing at Bayreuth. With a relaxed and informal setting, these conversations provide a deeper understanding of the works the artists bring to life on stage, making each event a memorable encounter with the people behind the music.
Mika Kares has established himself as one of today’s internationally most sought-after basses. His vast repertoire covers all the great Italian and German composers such as Verdi, Wagner and Mozart, in addition to the most important roles of the slavic and Finnish tradition.
Distinguished by his colourful bass voice, Kares regularly guests at the most renowned houses and festivals worldwide and has worked with conductors including Christian Thielemann, Simone Young, Teodor Currentzis, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Fabio Luisi, Marc Minkowski, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Franz Welser-Möst, Sebastian Weigle, François-Xavier Roth, Klaus Mäkelä, Kent Nagano, Kirill Petrenko, Marco Armiliato, Thomas Guggeis and Tarmo Peltokoski.
Recent seasons’ opera highlights include i.a. Hagen/Götterdämmerung at the Bayreuth Festival, the Vienna State Opera and Berlin State Opera (where he also sang Fasolt and Hunding, as well as Vodník/Rusalka, Ivan/Khovanshchina and Zaccaria/Nabucco in new productions), Bluebeard/Bluebeard’s Castle at the Salzburg Festival, Sarastro/Die Zauberflöte at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, Il Commendatore/Don Giovanni at The Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Salzburg and Savonlinna Festivals, Daland/The Flying Dutchman at the Lyric Opera, Fafner/Das Rheingold and Jacopo Fiesco/Simon Boccanegra at the Opéra National de Paris, King Heinrich/Lohengrin, King Marke/Tristan und Isolde, Padre Guardiano/La forza del destino and Balthazar/La Favorite at the Bavarian State Opera, Gremin/Eugene Onegin at the Vienna State Opera, Landgraf Hermann/Tannhäuser at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Zurich Opera, Zaccaria/Nabucco at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Inquisitor/The Fiery Angel at Teatro Real de Madrid, Great Inquisitor/Don Carlo at Teatro alla Scala, and Ramfis/Aida at Théâtre Royale de La Monnaie in Brussels, as well as the monumental Finnish roles of Antti/The Horseman (A. Sallinen) at the Finnish National Opera and Paavo/The Last Temptations (J. Kokkonen) at Opera Tampere and the Savonlinna Opera Festival, where he recently also made his debut as Boris Godunow.
In addition, Mika Kares is very sought after as a concert singer, his broad repertoire including key works such as Mozart’s Requiem, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 and Missa Solemnis, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Mahler’s Symphony No 8, as well as Shostakovich’s Symphonies No 13 and 14.
In the upcoming 2026-27 season Kares will be back in Paris for the fourth and final instalment of Bieito’s RING, Götterdämmerung, performing his signature role Hagen, followed by two complete cycles. Subsequently, he will return to the Royal Opera House as Hagen for the final part of Barrie Kosky’s RING. In addition, he will be going on a RING concert tour with Opernhaus Zürich as Fasolt/Hunding/Hagen with performances at the Paris Philharmonie and the New York Carnegie Hall.
This in-person-only event will take place at the Arvena Kongress Hotel in Bayreuth, Germany.
Tickets are $15 in advance online, €15 cash or credit card at the door.
Get the Series: all six artists talks for $60 (a $30 savings). Pre-purchase is recommended to expedite entry and seating.
