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AI-assisted Staging Draws Boos at the Richard Wagner Festival in Germany

Richard Wagner Festival Hall on the day of the opening of the Bayreuth Festival, in Bayreuth, Germany July 25, 2026. (Reuters)
Richard Wagner Festival Hall on the day of the opening of the Bayreuth Festival, in Bayreuth, Germany July 25, 2026. (Reuters)
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AI-assisted Staging Draws Boos at the Richard Wagner Festival in Germany

Richard Wagner Festival Hall on the day of the opening of the Bayreuth Festival, in Bayreuth, Germany July 25, 2026. (Reuters)
Richard Wagner Festival Hall on the day of the opening of the Bayreuth Festival, in Bayreuth, Germany July 25, 2026. (Reuters)

An experiment with artificial intelligence at the annual Richard Wagner festival in the southeastern German town of Bayreuth drew boos from the audience after producing a staging that appeared to leave some spectators confused.

Curator Marcus Lobbes and his team were greeted with boos and whistles as they took to the stage at the end of Saturday evening's performance of “Götterdämmerung,” German news agency dpa reported. However, there was warm applause for the singers and musicians, and particularly for conductor Christian Thielemann.

Festival organizers said ahead of the performance that it would be the first time AI took part on stage at the event, “not as a character, but as an image-generating force.”

They said that singers would be “the fixed point within a visually seething cosmos of light, texture, history, and association, amidst projections that erupt, constantly shift, and merge into one another.”

The AI-assisted projections included scenes from previous performances of Wagner's “Ring” cycle and historical themes, and drew from images pre-selected by Lobbes, the director of the Academy for Theater and Digitality in Dortmund, and his team.

The collage that the technology projected on stage puzzled the audience, dpa reported, with images including former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the towers of the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and a special postage stamp marking German reunification in 1990.

The festival website said that “every performance will be unique — because the images and associations never stand still.” Two more performances are scheduled.

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Varieties

Cooking Was Already an Artform in Bronze Age Syria

What they once ate now tells the story of how they lived (SPA)
What they once ate now tells the story of how they lived (SPA)
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Cooking Was Already an Artform in Bronze Age Syria

What they once ate now tells the story of how they lived (SPA)
What they once ate now tells the story of how they lived (SPA)

While the folk of Bronze Age Europe were mostly making do with simple stews and bread, people in Syria were already importing ingredients and using pots of differing temperatures to support “sophisticated” cuisine, researchers said on Friday.

The evidence from Danish experts suggests people living in what is now the city of Hama 4,500 years ago were already enjoying dishes of simmered goat, gazelle and cereals, AFP reported.

The city’s cooks used pots with different heating properties depending on the type of meal they were about to prepare, much as we choose between cast-iron or non-stick frying pans today.

Mette Marie Hald, from the National Museum of Copenhagen, and her team reached the conclusion after examining animal bones, plant remains and fats from inside cooking pots found in the city.

“It feels a bit modern, actually, the way that you have different pots and you have different sort of serving wares,” the archaeobotanist told AFP.

Locally produced pots were made from clay and calcite, while others were made from clay mixed with basalt and were imported from as far away as China.

Meals could be prepared with imported ingredients such as gazelle, which itself came from much further east.

Hald said the evidence of “sophisticated cooking” they had uncovered in Hama was supported by recipes written down in much later periods.

Danish archaeologists started digging in Hama in the first half of the 20th century, she said, so there has been quite a lot of research on everyday life there.

But she added that they had not really focused on food culture before.

“This is a period of kingdoms, well-organised cities and stratified societies,” she said.

“In that way, it’s not surprising that they also knew sophisticated cooking. I think the surprising element is we can actually prove it.”

Varieties

Lady Gaga Welcomes First Child

(FILES) US actress and singer Lady Gaga attends the US premiere of Warner's "Joker: Folie a Deux" at the TCL Chinese theater in Hollywood, California, September 30, 2024. (Photo by Chris DELMAS / AFP)
(FILES) US actress and singer Lady Gaga attends the US premiere of Warner's "Joker: Folie a Deux" at the TCL Chinese theater in Hollywood, California, September 30, 2024. (Photo by Chris DELMAS / AFP)
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Lady Gaga Welcomes First Child

(FILES) US actress and singer Lady Gaga attends the US premiere of Warner's "Joker: Folie a Deux" at the TCL Chinese theater in Hollywood, California, September 30, 2024. (Photo by Chris DELMAS / AFP)
(FILES) US actress and singer Lady Gaga attends the US premiere of Warner's "Joker: Folie a Deux" at the TCL Chinese theater in Hollywood, California, September 30, 2024. (Photo by Chris DELMAS / AFP)

Pop superstar Lady Gaga welcomed her first child with fiance Michael Polansky, US media reported Friday.

The 40-year-old "Bad Romance" singer, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, began dating Polansky in 2020, and became engaged to the entrepreneur in 2024.

A source confirmed news of the child's birth to Page Six and People, but no additional details about the baby, including its name, sex or date of birth, were immediately available.

The musician affectionately referred to as "Mother Monster" by her fans has spoken in recent years about her desire to have a child.

She wrapped up her most recent world tour, the Mayhem Ball, in April, and her latest album "Mayhem" garnered multiple Grammy nominations, winning the award for "Best Pop Vocal Album" earlier this year.

Varieties

Coastal Erosion Forces Cancellation of California Music Festival

MALIBU, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 10: People gather near erosion damage along a beach access road to Point Dume, which remains closed due to the erosion from powerful surf and high tides earlier this summer, on September 10, 2026 in Malibu, California. Mario Tama/Getty Images/AFP
MALIBU, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 10: People gather near erosion damage along a beach access road to Point Dume, which remains closed due to the erosion from powerful surf and high tides earlier this summer, on September 10, 2026 in Malibu, California. Mario Tama/Getty Images/AFP
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Coastal Erosion Forces Cancellation of California Music Festival

MALIBU, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 10: People gather near erosion damage along a beach access road to Point Dume, which remains closed due to the erosion from powerful surf and high tides earlier this summer, on September 10, 2026 in Malibu, California. Mario Tama/Getty Images/AFP
MALIBU, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 10: People gather near erosion damage along a beach access road to Point Dume, which remains closed due to the erosion from powerful surf and high tides earlier this summer, on September 10, 2026 in Malibu, California. Mario Tama/Getty Images/AFP

A music festival set to feature The Killers, Olivia Dean and Jack White was cancelled Friday because the California beach where it was to be held has been eaten away by coastal erosion.

The two-day Ocean Way Festival had been planned for later this month in Santa Monica, but waves up to 15 feet (4.5 meters) and storm runoff has left the beach in the city near Los Angeles badly degraded, forcing local officials to pull the plug.

"Storm surf generated by Hurricane Marie and runoff from a storm drain outfall eroded a large portion of the festival site," AFP quoted a statement from the city of Santa Monica as saying.

The storm, which churned the waters of the Pacific over the last week, stripped sand off the beach, making it no longer safe to hold the festival there, the city said.

"The surf took the beach we planned this on, and we cannot put tens of thousands of festival-goers on that sand until it's safe," said Mayor Caroline Torosis.

The coastal city of Santa Monica -- the official end point of Route 66 -- has a wide stretch of golden sand and a large wooden pier that features frequently in American television shows and movies.

News of the festival cancellation came days after the pounding surf opened a huge sinkhole on the driveway of a beachfront home belonging to Oscar-winning US actor Nicolas Cage.

Officials in Malibu, which sits just north of Santa Monica, have ordered the evacuation of 31 homes because of the danger posed by the hole.

Further south, at least seven homes in Dana Point were declared uninhabitable after the coast on which they sit rapidly eroded, with one house collapsing into the sea.

A similar problem has occurred in nearby Laguna Beach.

The waters of the Pacific Ocean have been unsettled in recent weeks by a series of tropical storms, with some of them developing into hurricanes.

Scientists say a near-record strength El Nino climate episode is warming the ocean's waters and creating extra volatility.

While the phenomenon is part of a natural cycle, human-caused climate change is thought to be super-charging the heating and exacerbating its effects.