57 years, Wolfgang Wagner directed the fortunes of the Bayreuth festival. The grandson of the composer Richard Wagner turned the Festival and opened it up for controversial Directors. This year, he would have been 100.
A day after his 89. Birthday, on 31. August 2008, resigned Wolfgang Wagner, as Director of the Bayreuth Festival. Of the previous 99 seasons since the inception of the festival in 1876 he had stood for 57 years at the helm. For 42 years he was solely responsible, after the early death of his brother Wieland in 1966. Under the direction of Wolfgang Wagner impressive 1600 performances listed to play at the Bayreuth festival.
Born for Bayreuth
Wolfgang Wagner was born on may 30. August, 1919 as the third child of Winifred and Siegfried Wagner and grandson of composer Richard Wagner, who grew up in the ambience of the Bayreuth festival. As he joined in 1939 during the Second world war in the Wehrmacht, he was wounded in Poland is difficult, and in the following year discharged from military service. He devoted himself to the private study of music, and assisted stage Director until he submitted in 1944, his first stage production, “Andreas night”, an Opera of his father.
In 1951, only six years after the end of the Second world war, managed to Wieland, Wolfgang and his older brother, the Festival of rebuilding, which was marked by its connection to the German Nazi past – an ideological proximity, which was funded by the Wagner family themselves. In the case of “Neubayreuth”, as they called it, was to get rid of Richard Wagner and his works of ideological or cultic associations and Bayreuth to the first address for high – quality productions. Wolfgang and Wieland Wagner coined the term “workshop Bayreuth”, in the artistic ideas are not considered sacred, but with them experimenting, and they could be improved.
Wolfgang (on the right) and Wieland Wagner, the lively, the festival at the beginning of the 1950s as “Neubayreuth”.
Director, Business Man, Visionary
As the Bayreuth were transferred to games in 1973 by the Wagner family in a Foundation, under Wolfgang Wagner wrote a life-long contract as festival Director. Later, he became the sole owner of the Bayreuth festival company for the business needs. After his death the company passed into the possession of the local, regional and national governments, as well as a sponsors ‘ society.
Wolfgang Wagner presented twelve of his own productions in the Festspielhaus and at other stages. As his greatest merit, it is valid until today, he opened the Bayreuth festival for other Directors: Götz Friedrich, Patrice Chéreau (in 1976 the legendary “Ring” headed), Harry Kupfer, Heiner Müller (“Tristan and Isolde”, 1993) and Christoph Schlingensief (“Parsifal”, 2004). All of these productions were initially controversial, and were later celebrated as a new Standard of staging. The careers of many singers and conductors received during Wagner’s tenure in Bayreuth a special boost. “He wanted to not only discover talent, but also nurture,” said Tenor Stephen Gould of the DW.
Everything in view: bust of Richard Wagner
Authoritarian, stubborn, successful
The Bayreuth festival Wolfgang Wagner’s life’s work. As a stingy Manager, he flipped the coin twice, and paid the artists a small fees, at the same time, he promoted the Image of Bayreuth as a place where everyone would like to work. Wagner, motivated the people to sacrifice themselves for the privilege, in Bayreuth, to appear. He was regarded as a skilful tactician, Diplomat, and theatre Visionary, stubborn, Franke and master craftsmen, who knew all the Tricks. He was also the Patriarch of the reputation of the authoritarian, whose tenacity has often been crowned by success.
“The theatre,” said Wolfgang Wagner once, “can’t be democratic.” His sense of Humor was biting, and he could be quarrelsome, if it was to suspect a conspiracy that could undermine his authority. The quality which he may have shared the most with his grandfather, however, was his flair for public Relations.
A space remains free
In 2002, Wolfgang Wagner began with the search for his successor. It took years, until a solution was found: His two daughters, Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Katharina Wagner took over the 2009 season, the line. Eva Wagner-Pasquier subsequently withdrew from the management.
Wolfgang Wagnermit his successor, the daughter of Catherine
At the festive event in honor of Wolfgang Wagner on the eve of this year’s Bayreuth festival, the conductor Christian Thielemann has told, how he had to learn with Wagner’s help, advice, and sometimes not-too-subtle instructions on Conducting fundamentally new, to adapt it to the requirements of the Bayreuth festival.
On the “Green hill”, as the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth is called, the presence of Wolfgang Wagner noticeable. “There are certain places, from which he watched the performances every night, and the people you hold still,” said his daughter, Catherine, in an Interview with the “North Bavarian courier”.
In the framework of a festive event on the eve of this year’s Bayreuth festival, conductor Thielemann and the singers Günter Groissböck, Stephen Gould, and Waltraud Meier recorded games in the orchestra – the latter with a moving Interpretation of the “love death” from Richard Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde”. Under the title Of “principal” was at 19. July in the Wagner Museum in Bayreuth house Wanfried opened an exhibition on the life’s work of Wolfgang Wagner, the up to 3. November runs.