The Nibelungen Festival is one of the best-known open-air theater festivals in Germany. Under the direction of Nico Hofmann, a renowned ensemble performs on the impressive open-air stage in front of Worms' imperial cathedral every year.
The play for the 2024 Nibelungen Festival is being written by the author duo Feridun Zaimoglu and Günter Senkel. The pair already enjoyed great success in Worms a few years ago with "Siegfried's Heirs".
For 2024, they are once again looking at the well-known story of the Nibelung saga from a contemporary socio-political perspective, focusing on a very special character from the Nibelung cosmos: Dietrich von Bern, who loses his crown and his country because he refuses to fight for them in a bloody battle. Instead, he becomes Etzel's ambassador and mediator between his Huns and the Burgundian Empire - and not least Etzel's wooer for Kriemhild. DER DIPLOMAT" is not only about the intrigues and intrigue surrounding Siegfried, Hagen, Kriemhild, the Burgundians and the Hun king Etzel, but also about the question of how to prevent a war that nobody actually wants and yet seems unavoidable, and what personal sacrifices someone who mediates between all the political parties has to make. Swiss director Roger Vontobel, who previously directed "Siegfried's Heirs" in 2018 and whose spectacular Worms production of Ferdinand Schmalz's "hildensaga" in 2022 not only drew rapturous applause from the audience, is once again directing the play.
Roger Vontobel, Photo: Beat Mathys
Cultural program with proven and new program items
The cultural program is one of the highlights of the Worms Nibelungen Festival. In addition to the concert reading of "The Tin Drum" with Devid Striesow and Stefan Weinzierl, the concertante melodrama "False Gods" by Albert Ostermaier, the silent film piano concert "The Nibelungs" by Fritz Lang and the musical reading "Uncanny!", there are proven crowd pullers such as the theater encounters as well as lectures and exhibitions. Families can once again look forward to the Children's Day.
July 12 to 28, 2024
Art exhibitions 2024
There are also two exciting art exhibitions. In the summer of 2024, Norbert Bisky, one of the most important contemporary German painters, will be showing his painting cycle "Norbert Bisky - Valkyries" in the Nibelungen city of Worms at the Andreasstift Museum from July 11 to September 29. In Balance" by the painter Marita Damkröger and the sculptor Matthias Will will be shown at the Kunstverein Worms from June 21 to July 28; admission to the Kunstverein is free.
www.nibelungenfestspiele.de
