Was Piotr Beczala forced out of a Bayreuth production after a signed contract?
The festival is irritated by this portrayal in his autobiography.
A star tenor to whom Bayreuth offers a spectacular role, only to be kicked out of production suddenly and well before rehearsals begin after signing the contract: this is the story Piotr Beczala tells in his recently published autobiography.
The 54-year-old spreads out the details on ten pages.
The presentation has now caused considerable irritation at the Bayreuth Festival - not only for Katharina Wagner, but also for the conductor of the "Lohengrin" production concerned, for music director Christian Thielemann.
And after everything that can now be learned about it, one has to state that the story apparently did not happen that way.
It has been a few years since Thielemann asked Beczala to come to Bayreuth to sing Lohengrin for him, a quite common occurrence.
Immediately afterwards, Eva Wagner-Pasquier, who at that time still shared the management of the festival with Katharina Wagner, offered him a contract for the new production of the play in summer 2018.
“I was thrilled and sent it back signed,” writes Beczala in the book “Into the World Out”, published by Amalthea Verlag.
A page later you can see a photo in which he and his agent Judith Neuhoff present an alleged Bayreuth contract.
"Misunderstandings" should now be cleared up
As is well known, Beczala was brought to the Wagner Mecca as the savior for this “Lohengrin” after his colleague Roberto Alagna had thrown in the towel.
In the description of these events you can feel the great satisfaction of Beczala à la “If only you had committed me straight away”.
But nothing is known of such a fixed agreement on the Green Hill.
When asked, Beczala's agent was cautious.
Neuhoff announced that there was an "offer" with a negotiated fee.
In addition, the festival "is now in direct contact with the publisher in order to quickly clear up possible misunderstandings".
Which means: In another edition of the autobiography nothing more will be found about this representation of history.
Anyone who speaks to those responsible learns: The decision to remove Beczala from the original Bayreuth “Lohengrin” line-up has nothing to do with doubts about his ability or anything like that.
His Bayreuth audition was originally intended for a Dresden “Lohengrin” two years before the Bayreuth premiere.
Thielemann conducted this too, it was Beczala's globally celebrated role debut.
Bayreuth and the conductor wanted to avoid too identical lists of soloists: Georg Zeppenfeld (King Heinrich) and Tomasz Konieczny (Telramund) were also on both cast slips, originally even Anna Netrebko as Elsa, who refrained from doing so in the run-up to the Bayreuth premiere.
The Dresden performance was also marketed via TV broadcast and DVD, so Bayreuth did not want to play the role of an afterthought.