Cleaning up after Lars von Trier

Back in June, filmmaker Lars von Trier backed out of his commitment to stage the 2006 production of the Ring cycle at Bayreuth (see my post on June 7). Well, the news coming from Germany is that Wolfgang Wagner has selected German playwright Tankred Dorst to take over for von Trier. I first read about this in the German newspapers a couple days ago, but now that news has been picked up by the English-language press:

• Tankred Dorst Sees His Upcoming Bayreuth Ring as a 'World Fairy Tale' (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, November 12)
  
• Bayreuth Festival Chooses Playwright Tankred Dorst to Direct New Ring Cycle (Associated Press, November 11)

Sets will be designed by Frank Philipp Schlössman, and costumes by Bernd Skodzig. Christian Thielemann is still engaged to conduct the orchestra.