Nathalie Stutzmann become second woman to conduct at Bayreuth, 2 years after gender barrier broken

By RONALD BLUM
Associated Press

BAYREUTH, Germany (AP) — Nathalie Stutzmann has become the second woman to lead a Richard Wagner opera at the Bayreuth Festival. The 58-year-old former contralto, fresh off her first season as Atlanta Symphony Orchestra music director, drew a luminous performance of “Tannhäuser” at the Festpielhaus on Friday night in a revival of the Tobias Kratzer 2019 production. Launched by Richard Wagner in 1876 and currently run by great-granddaughter Katharina Wagner, the festival used only men as conductors until Oksana Lyniv led a new staging of “Der Fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman)” in 2021. The audience gave the production a boisterous 14-minute standing ovation, and Stutzmann has been invited back for the 2024 festival.