Wagnerian drama
July 25, 2009
The winds have changed in Bayreuth - and this new wind is conspicuously tall, blond and good-looking. Thirty-one-year-old Katharina Wagner, great-granddaughter of the composer Richard Wagner, has taken over from her father Wolfgang after his more than half-century reign as festival director.
Once again, the Green Hill will stage a great show - even before the curtain opens. Every year, the arrival of the rich, famous and powerful is the true highlight of opening night.
But Bayreuth's celebrity opera-goers don't just add to the luster of it all - they are also representative of the dilemma that the festival finds itself in. After all, prior to the Second World War, Bayreuth's most prominent guest was Adolf Hitler. He was a passionate Wagnerian and good friend of the Wagner family.
Hitler connection casts long shadow
Many books have been written about whether Richard Wagner, who died in 1883, was a kind of forerunner to the Nazis and their inhuman ideology. A decisive conclusion has not been reached.
That Wagner was an anti-Semite is undisputed, however. He made that clear in his infamous article "Judaism in Music," written in 1850.
The direction of the Bayreuth Festival has been in the hands of Wagner's descendents since it was founded in 1876. In 1930, the composer's daughter-in-law Winifred Wagner - an adamant national socialist - took over the management of the festival.
She had been a member of the Nazi party since 1926 and had a particularly close relationship with Hitler. A decade before he became chancellor of Germany, Winifred introduced him to the Wagner family. Hitler became a regular guest both at their private home and at the festival concert hall on the Green Hill.
Long after the dissolution of the Third Reich and Hitler's death, Winifred Wagner still held the Fuehrer in high regard. Thirty years after the end of the war, she said in an interview with film director Juergen Syberberg that she saw Hitler as a friend and would be pleased if he were to walk through the door.
Covering up the embarrassment
Naturally, her comments caused a stir and her sons Wieland and Wolfgang strove to limit the damage to the Wagner family's reputation by playing down the embarrassing remarks as those of a senile old woman.
Wieland said publically that his mother "still believed in the Endsieg" - the ultimate victory of Nazi Germany - and couldn't be taken seriously.
Nevertheless, even to this day the Bayreuth Festival is haunted by its one-time connection to Hitler and the Nazi party, particularly because Wieland and Wolfgang relied on other people to clear the air and work through the family's "brown" history.
The jury is still out on the family's willingness to approach the matter critically: while some Wagner researchers complain they weren't supported by the family, others say they were given a free hand to research as they liked.
Clock is ticking for glamorous Katharina
In 1951, Wieland and Wolfgang took over joint leadership of the festival, which they managed to resuscitate both artistically and financially after the war. After Wieland's death in 1966, Wolfgang continued the work alone.
Now Wolfgang's two daughters are following in his footsteps. It's Katharina Wagner who has taken the spotlight on the Green Hill - because she's not only young, but also good-looking. The glamour she brings to the festival isn't overlooked by journalists, and even serious publications discuss her appearance at great length.
Even in their first year at the helm, Katharina and Eva have already made some changes, including a live-stream Internet broadcast of the performance of "Tristan und Isolde" and a children's version of "Der fliegende Hollaender."
It remains to be seen whether the changing winds have put Bayreuth permanently on a new course. But Katharina and Eva don't have that much time to rig the sails: all of their predecessors, from their father and uncle to their great-grand-father and his widow, had the job for life. The first big change on the Green Hill: the half-sisters' contract expires after seven years.
Author: Dirk Kaufmann (kjb)
Editor: Susan Houlton