Katharina Wagner Explained

Katharina Wagner (born 21 May 1978 in Bayreuth) is a German opera stage director and is the director of the Bayreuth Festival. She is the daughter of Wolfgang Wagner and Gudrun Wagner (née Armann), great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner, and great-great granddaughter of Hungarian composer Franz Liszt.

Career

Wagner has staged Der fliegende Holländer in Würzburg and Lohengrin in Budapest. Her directorial début at the Bayreuth Festival, staging a production of Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in July 2007, was booed at its premiere,[1] but established a following which returned to watch the production evolve as Wagner made changes in each of the five years it was on view. Wagner also took a bow after every performance, with audiences split between bravas and boos.

On 1 September 2008, Katharina Wagner was named together with her half-sister Eva Wagner-Pasquier as the new director of the Bayreuth Festival by the Richard Wagner Foundation, succeeding their father Wolfgang.[2] This followed an extended family dispute.[3] They were chosen in preference to their cousin Nike Wagner and the Belgian opera director and administrator Gerard Mortier, who had placed a late joint bid for the directorship on 24 August.[4] [5]

In October 2010, Wagner planned to visit Israel in order to invite the Israel Chamber Orchestra to play a concert in July 2011 at the Bayreuth town hall, to end a post-1945 boycott of Wagner's music in Israel. Her visit was canceled after hostility from Holocaust survivors.[6]

In 2014 it was announced that Eva would be stepping down from the co-directorship leaving, in accord with her father's will,[7] Katharina in sole charge.[8]

In April 2020 it was announced that Katharina would have to step down from her position as director of the festival until further notice because of an unspecified long-term illness. The 81-year-old, former commercial managing director, Heinz-Dieter Sense, acted as a temporary representative for Wagner in the following months.[9] This was the first time since Heinz Tietjen in the 1930s that a non-family member had been in charge of the festival.[10] Katharina returned to work in September 2020.[11]

Productions

Further reading

See also

Notes and References

  1. News: Ms Wagner jeered as great-grandad's opera flops at Bayreuth . The Guardian . London . Kate . Connolly . 27 July 2007 . 7 May 2010.
  2. BBC News (1 September 2008). Daughters chosen to run Bayreuth. BBC News. Retrieved on 1 September 2008 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7592659.stm.
  3. Web site: Kate Connolly . Wagner's heir vows to lay bare her family's Nazi history . The Observer . 21 June 2009 . 16 December 2014.
  4. News: Hickley . Catherine . Wagner Sisters Katharina, Eva Named to Lead Bayreuth (Update2) . Bloomberg.com . 1 September 2008 . 1 September 2008 .
  5. News: McGroarty . Patrick . Ron Blum . Bayreuth names Wagner half-sisters as co-directors . International Herald Tribune . 1 September 2008 . 1 September 2008 .
  6. Web site: Noam Ben-Zeev . Bad people can still write really good music . Haaretz . 7 October 2010 . 7 October 2010.
  7. News: Service . Tom . Eva Wagner to leave Bayreuth - what does this mean for the festival? . 29 April 2020 . The Guardian . Guardian News & Media Limited . 26 February 2014.
  8. News: Gereben . Janos . Bayreuth: And Then There Was One . 29 April 2020 . San Francisco Classical Voice . San Francisco Classical Voice . 25 February 2014.
  9. News: Auermann . Marcel . Vorbröker . Henrik . Schultejans . Britta . Bayreuth Festival director Katharina Wagner "sick long-term" . 28 April 2020 . Kurier . 27 April 2020 . Bayreuth . de.
  10. News: Service . Tom . Eva Wagner to leave Bayreuth - what does this mean for the festival? . 29 April 2020 . The Guardian . Guardian News & Media Limited . 26 February 2014.
  11. News: Anastassia . Boutsko . Wagner festival director reveals plans for 2021 . 5 July 2021 . Deutsche Welle. 2 August 2021.
  12. Web site: Opera Barcelona . Liceu . Lohengrin . Gran Teatre del Liceu . 7 April 2020.

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