Tuesday 29 April 2008

It´s now official: Wolfgang Wagner retires from Bayreuth Festival leadership

It is now official, that Richard Wagner´s grandson Wolfgang Wagner retires as leader of the Bayreuth Festival "latest end of August" this year after more than 50 years.

Thus, Wolfgang Wagner wrote in a letter to Toni Schmid (president of the Board of the Bayreuth Festival) today. A representative of Wolfgang Wagner furthermore stated that "he does not want to block the road anymore". All involved parties (the Friends of Bayreuth, the official representatives of Bavaria etc.) seem satisfied with his decision to volunarily step down.

The Board of Directors of the Bayreuth Festival are meeting today to decide on the successor to Wolfgang Wagner. Favourites are Katharina Wagner and Eva Wagner-Pasquier (running as a team).

Wolfgang Wagner´s retirement is fixed and unconditional, but a representative states that "he is convinced that the solution with his two daughters succeeding him is the best one" and hopes it "will be confirmed by the Board of the Festival" later today.

Full story in Kurier.

This is episode 19 of the mostly opera docusoap "The Bayreuth Succession".

Previous episodes of this Wagnerian docu-soap may be read here, and for new readers the background of this unique Wagnerian docu-soap is written up here.

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