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The Paris Review Daily ·Smart escape

Kiss the Ring: Richard Wagner’s Opera Festival in the Age of AI

by Krithika Varagur

Published 2026-09-11 15:40:40+00:00

What happens when a 150-year-old opera festival hands its stage over to artificial intelligence?

0:00 / 20:00 · Narrator Vindemiatrix

Context

Writing on 11 September 2026, Krithika Varagur travels to a crumbling German castle with a dozen friends to attend the Bayreuth Festival. Richard Wagner’s legendary opera marathon requires sitting on hard wooden seats in a sweltering theater while confronting a deeply ugly political legacy. This year, it also features a bizarre artificial intelligence production. Varagur captures the strange, obsessive pull of the event. The story pauses on a very human question: why do listeners still put themselves through this grueling spectacle, and what exactly happens to them in the dark?

Show notes

A report from the 150th anniversary of the Bayreuth Festival, the annual German opera event dedicated to Richard Wagner. The author joins a group of friends for a week of performances, documenting the physical demands of the historic theater, the intense culture of Wagner fans, and the festival's recent attempts to modernize. These updates include a staging of The Ring of the Nibelung that replaces traditional sets with artificial intelligence.

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