Family promotes Katharina Wagner as new Bayreuth chief

dpa German Press Agency Published: Wednesday May 30, 2007

Munich- With two months to go before a make-or-break opera
debut, the family of Katherina Wagner, 29, this week stepped up a
campaign for her to take over the Bayreuth opera festival.
Wagner affirmed last week in a news interview that she was ready
to take charge of the summer festival, an annual magnet for the
world's music lovers which was founded by her great-grandfather, the
operatic composer Richard Wagner.

When the curtain goes up July 25 on her production of the
Meistersinger, or Master Singers of Nuremberg, her own mastery - of
theatrical direction - faces the ultimate test: from the audience and
critics.

Her mother, Gudrun Wagner, 62, said in an interview published
Wednesday by the German weekly Bunte: "A Wagner always runs Bayreuth.
Not keeping it in the family would mean unnecessarily abandoning
something that exists nowhere else in the world."

Katherina's father, Wolfgang Wagner, 87, is current head of the
festival, and according to his wife can only walk with difficulty
because of arthritis. She said he had a lifetime contract with the
festival and only he could terminate it.

Several years ago the director failed in a bid to install his
wife, who is widely seen as the power behind the throne at the
festival, as his successor.

If the audience of Wagner lovers accept the daughter's first
Bayreuth production in July, her succession is seen as certain.

Gudrun Wagner said in the interview that her daughter was "a very
able artist and cultural manager who knows the ropes."

Another great-granddaughter, Nike Wagner, 61, has repeatedly
voiced a desire to take over the "family business." She is the
daughter of Wieland Wagner, the late brother of Wolfgang Wagner.

Katharina Wagner told the Munich newspaper Muenchner Merkur last
week: "If the shareholders agree and I am satisfied at the terms, I
would be ready to take over." She said she would not be happy to
share the leadership in a team arrangement.

"If there weren't any Wagners suitable for the job, Bayreuth just
would not work," she added.

© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency

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