Simone Young will become the first woman to conduct Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle in the Bayreuth opera festival’s 147-year history, and the first Australian conductor to perform at Germany’s annual celebration of the composer.
Young, 62, is one of three female conductors who will be taking part in this year’s festival, which has been held in Bavaria since 1876. The Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv became the first woman ever to open the festival in 2021, after 145 years. She will return this year, along with the French conductor Nathalie Stutzmann, who was the second female conductor in Bayreuth’s history in 2023.
