German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is on vacation, attended the opening of the Bayreuth Music Festival, which began with a performance by Russian conductor Valery Gergiev.
The 108th Bayreuth Music Festival has opened on Green Hill in Bayreuth (Bavaria). After posing on the red carpet, the guests of honor went to listen to the premiere of the opera “Tannhäuser” directed by Tobias Kratzer. The orchestra was conducted by Valery Gergiev.
The performance caused a storm of applause and made the guests forget about the unbearable heat, because of which some refused to attend the festival.
Merkel attended the opening of the festival without a spouse, but in the company of the head of the government of Bavaria, Markus Zeder and his wife. Among the guests were also the former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his wife, Health Minister Jens Spahn, Austrian actor Harald Krassnitser and others.
