Wagner X Freyer

A film music project by Achim Freyer based on Wagner's Ring cycle

Film

Music

Fr 17.04.2026

To mark the opening of O-Ton-Wagner, Achim Freyer will premiere an extraordinary artistic project on April 17, 2026, in HELLERAU. In a specially developed visual dramaturgy, he will present “Zwischenwelten – Malerei in Bewegung” in the Grand Hall of the Festspielhaus: large-format digital projections of his own paintings and visual worlds that create fascinating stage spaces on a screen and combine film and theater languages in a unique way.

Composer Jeffrey Ching contrasts these visual worlds with an equally idiosyncratic musical dramaturgy and sound language in the world premiere of his “Ringsymphony,” an adaptation of Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle recorded in March 2026 in Manila by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Grzegorz Nowak. In addition to Jeffrey Ching’s musical-dramaturgical concept, Freyer’s consistent visual and spatial dramaturgy is further expanded by a spatial sound design by Till Seigfried and Helge Petzold, in which the multi-channel studio recording serves as the basis for a multidimensional presentation of the orchestral sound. “Wagner X Freyer” thus becomes a project that consistently takes up Richard Wagner’s vision of the “invisible orchestra,” establishes it through innovative technological means, and thereby conveys entirely new insights into Richard Wagner’s fascinating yet abysmal aesthetics.

Born in Berlin in 1934, Achim Freyer—a director, painter, and set designer—has shaped the international theater world since the 1960s and has influenced generations of artists. After his early work with Bertolt Brecht at the Berliner Ensemble, he soon became a sought-after stage artist and was brought to the Volksbühne by Benno Besson in 1970. He has staged numerous classics and world premieres in musical theater worldwide. In 1988, he created an acclaimed production of “Einstein on the Beach” for the Stuttgart State Opera; among his productions of Richard Wagner’s works were “Tristan und Isolde” (Brussels, 1994), “Der Ring des Nibelungen” (Los Angeles, 2009), and “Parsifal” (Hamburg, 2017). With “Wagner X Freyer,” Freyer opens up his painterly universe for a rare, immersive encounter—a Gesamtkunstwerk in the original sense, which does not merely illustrate Wagner’s music but transforms it into an independent, critical, and artistic dialogue.

Audience discussion with

Esther Lee, Studio Achim Freyer
Dr. Olaf Mückain, Academic Director of the Museums of the City of Worms
Moritz Lobeck, Program Director for Music and Media at HELLERAU

Achim Freyer is ill and therefore unfortunately unable to attend.

Achim Freyer in conversation with Detlef Brandenburg

To the interview

Biography

Achim Freyer initially studied painting before becoming a master student of Bertolt Brecht at the Berliner Ensemble and beginning to work as a set and costume designer. In 1972, he emigrated to West Berlin, where he soon began developing his own work as a director. His artistic career took him to the world’s most renowned theaters and festivals. He received numerous prestigious awards and, among other achievements, participated in documenta twice.

1934

Born in Berlin.

1961 – 1972

Painting Prize from the Great Berlin Art Exhibition. Participated in the “Young Artists” exhibitions at the Berlin Academy of Arts (1961/1962).
First solo exhibition, “Achim Freyer: Paintings,” at the Central Institute for Nuclear Research in Rossendorf (1971).
Fled to the West during a tour with the Volksbühne production “The Good Person of Szechwan.”
Painting exhibition in Florence (1972).

1973 – 1981

Full professorship at the Berlin University of the Arts, later the Berlin University of the Arts.
Participation in documenta 6 with “Deutschland ein Lebensraum” (1977).
Participation in the Prague Quadrennial, an international exhibition of stage design (1979).
Balla Balla, performance in Bochum in front of the theater at a height of 7 meters at -7°C at 7 p.m.
“Der Freischütz,” production, still in the repertoire of the Stuttgart State Opera today. (1980).
Participation in the exhibition “German Art Today” at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris, alongside Beuys, Polke, Rinke, Richter, Penck, and others, curated by René Block (1981).

1982 – 1988

Staging of Philip Glass’s opera trilogy: *Satyāgraha*, *Akhenaten*, *Einstein on the Beach*, at the Staatstheater Stuttgart.
“Achim Freyer, Painting Retrospective 1966–1983,” Berliner Festspiele, Kampnagel Factory Hamburg, Württemberg State Theater Stuttgart, Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum Duisburg, Van der Heydt Museum Wuppertal (1983).
Participation in documenta 8 with “The Stretched Gaze or the Curvature of the Surface into Space” (1987).
Exhibition participation: “The Nibelungs: Images of Love, Betrayal, and Downfall.” Haus der Kunst, Munich (1987).

1989 – 1999

Exhibition participation: “Ausgebürgert.” Artists from the GDR and the Soviet Sector of Berlin, Albertinum, Dresden State Art Collection. Deichtorhallen, Hamburg.
Theater trilogy: “Metamorphoses” – God and Man, Ovid / “Woyzeck” – Man without God, Georg Büchner / “Phaeton” – Man as God, Euripides, Burgtheater Vienna.
Achim Freyer “On the Disruption of Fixed Orders,” 45 min, WDR, directed by Michael Kluth (film portrait, 1989).
Federal Cross of Merit, 1st Class
Member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin (West) (1989)
Premio Abbiati from the “Associazione Nazionale Critici Musicali” for Turandot (Busoni) and Perséphone (Stravinsky), Gran Teatro La Fenice, Venice, Production of the Year.
Member of the Saxon Academy of Arts, Dresden (1995).
Member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. Gold Medal of the Prague Quadrennial for the retrospective of theater works, awarded as best contribution (1999).

2000 – 2014

“In the Silence, Time Passes,” painting, Goethe-Institut, Tel Aviv (exhibition).
Bavarian Theater Prize (2001)
Costume Designer of the Year, Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2007).
The Ring of the Nibelung, Los Angeles Opera (2009–2010)
The New Mannheim Ring, R. Wagner, National Theater Mannheim (2011). Best Opera Production of the Year
The New Mannheim Ring, TV production by arte (2013).

2015 – 2025

“Nestroy Theater Prize Vienna” for Lifetime Achievement (2015)
“Faust,” German Theater Prize for Set Design (2016)
“Œdipe,” George Enescu, Felsenreitschule, Salzburg Festival (2019)
Exhibition participation: “Beuys at 100 – Works by Joseph Beuys | Achim Freyer | Klaus Staeck | Hildegard Weber” (2021)
“Faust,” German Theater Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2021)
“Konrad-Wolf-Preis,” Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2022)

Cast

Concept & Artistic Direction	Achim Freyer
Video & Editing	Studio Achim Freyer, Esther Lee
Music/Composition	Jeffrey Ching, Richard Wagner
Music/Recording	Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra unter der Leitung von Grzegorz Nowak
Sound Design	Till Seigfried, Helge Petzold
Video/Lighting	Johannes Petzold, Moritz Arndt

Funding

A project by Achim Freyer in cooperation with HELLERAU and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. Funded as part of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Funded by the Art and Music Foundation for Dresden.