26.7.2007

Bayreuth (dpa) - Der "Meistersinger"-Skandal ist ausgeblieben - aber der große Wurf, das Meisterstück, ist Katharina Wagner nicht gelungen.

Für ihr mit Spannung erwartetes Regiedebüt bei den Bayreuther Festspielen musste die Tochter und mögliche Nachfolgerin von Festspielchef Wolfgang Wagner (87) am Mittwochabend lautstarke Buhrufe einstecken, doch das Publikum zeigte sich bei der Premiere der Oper "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" gespalten. Die 29-Jährige erhielt auch freundlichen und ermutigenden Applaus, als sie sich nach der Aufführung sichtlich nervös und fast etwas überstürzt vor dem Vorhang zeigte. Ob sie mit dieser keineswegs missglückten, jedoch auch nicht herausragenden Inszenierung den entscheidenden Schritt auf dem Weg zur Festspielleitung getan hat, bleibt fraglich.

Katharina Wagner interpretiert die "Meistersinger" als einen Diskurs über die Kunst und will das Aufeinanderprallen von Tradition und Fortschritt zeigen. Dem Werk ihres Urgroßvaters begegnet sie respektlos und mit Witz. Sie räumt mit manch lieb gewonnenem Klischee auf, verzichtet auf Fachwerk und Festwiese, gestaltet originelle Szenen und ironische Brechungen, spielt mit Bildern vom alten Nürnberg, mit Dirndl und deutschem Wald. Das alles zeugt von Interpretationswillen und einer eigenen Handschrift.

Jedoch lässt die Aufführung eine klare dramaturgische Linie nur selten erkennen. Nach einem erfrischenden ersten Akt driftet die Aufführung zeitweise ins Beliebige ab, statt der von Wagner selbst angekündigten Provokation herrscht eher Belanglosigkeit. Turnschuhe regnen vom Himmel, die Lehrbuben, exerzierende Duckmäuser, werfen mit Reclamheftchen. Im dritten Akt dann entfaltet Katharina Wagner ein bizarres Panoptikum, wo Uropa Richard mit anderen Geistesgrößen wie Goethe und Schiller in der Unterhose tanzt, ein Nackter mit Gummipuppe aus der Kiste steigt und am Ende ein - allerdings männliches - Regieteam kurzerhand verbrannt wird. In der von Wagner angekündigten Auseinandersetzung mit der schwierigen Bayreuther Rezeptionsgeschichte des Werks unter den Nazis bleibt es bei Andeutungen: Während der Schlussansprache des Hans Sachs wachsen zwei Statuen nach Art des Nazi-Bildhauers Arno Breker aus dem Boden.

Die zentralen Figuren in Katharina Wagners Interpretation sind Sixtus Beckmesser und Walther von Stolzing. Beide machen entgegengesetzte Wandlungen durch: Während Beckmesser vom regelbesessenen Merker zum coolen Außenseiter im bedruckten T-Shirt ("Beck in town") mutiert, der mit den Konventionen bricht, erliegt Stolzing dem Reiz von Geld und Ruhm. Als ungestümer Turnschuhträger, als frecher Maler und Musiker, fällt der Ritter - Vorbild für ihn soll Theaterprovokateur Christoph Schlingensief gewesen sein - in die starre Welt der Meistersinger ein.

Im abgeschlossenen, bedrückenden Ratssaal (Bühnenbild: Tilo Steffens) sitzen die Herren in schwarzen Roben (Kostüme: Michaela Barth) über ihn zu Gericht. Die Büsten deutscher Geistesgrößen verstauben hier an den Wänden, neue Impulse aber dringen nicht herein. Doch während Stolzing zunächst noch munter mit Farbe um sich spritzt und die prüden Meistersinger mit Bildern nackter Frauen verstört, sieht man ihn am Ende, die Zukunft vorwegnehmend, mit Gemahlin und Kindern brav im eigenen Häuschen.

Der "Mainstream" setzt sich durch, das ist die Botschaft von Katharina Wagner. Doch die Wandlungen der Protagonisten sind psychologisch nicht recht motiviert und schwer nachzuvollziehen. Auch Hans Sachs macht so eine Veränderung durch: Der Schusterpoet ist zunächst ein Zweifelnder, ein Fragender, der barfuß und Zigaretten rauchend auf dem schmalen Grat zwischen Anpassung und Rebellion wandelt. Doch als der Johannistag anbricht, bindet er die Krawatte und wandelt sich zum Erzreaktionär.

Katharina Wagner hat bei ihrer Neuinszenierung einem Ensemble mit vielen Bayreuth-Neulingen vertraut, die sich sehr spielfreudig zeigen. Die sängerische Entdeckung des Abends war Michael Volle als stets souveräner, witziger und präsenter Beckmesser. Klaus Florian Vogt stand ihm als Stolzing wenig nach, sein Tenor ist warm und lyrisch, lässt lediglich die Strahlkraft ein wenig vermissen. Franz Hawlata dagegen sang den Sachs sehr verhalten und schien gegen Ende stimmliche Probleme zu bekommen. Blass blieb auch Amanda Mace als Eva. Sie und Zofe Magdalene (Carola Guber) hüpfen zunächst als albern pubertäre Zwillinge in grauen Kostümen herum, ehe Eva allmählich ihre Weiblichkeit entdeckt und Stolzing mit verführerischer Spitze im Ausschnitt umgarnt. Die köstliche Karikatur eines spießigen Subalternen lieferte Norbert Ernst in der Rolle des David ab.

Dirigent Sebastian Weigle, ebenfalls Bayreuth-Debütant, vermied von Beginn an jedes Pathos, legte die musikalische Interpretation schlank und leicht an, eilte zügig und schnörkellos durch das Werk. Großen Glanz verbreitete er mit dem Festspielorchester aber nicht, auch wenn er die lyrischen Momente der Partitur schwelgerisch auskostete. Gewaltigen Eindruck auf die Besucher machte der umjubelte Festspielchor unter der Leitung von Eberhard Friedrich.

Zum Auftakt der Festspiele gaben sich wie alle Jahre zahlreiche Prominente aus Politik, Wirtschaft und Show-Geschäft ein Stelldichein. Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU) schritt im lilafarbenen Abendkleid über den roten Teppich zum Königsportal. Wenige Minuten vor Beginn der Vorstellung fand die bekennende Wagner- Anhängerin sogar noch Zeit zum Händeschütteln und Autogramme geben - zur Freude der Schaulustigen und zum Leidwesen der zahlreichen Sicherheitskräfte.

Die lange Liste der politischen Prominenz reichte von EU- Kommissionspräsident José Manuel Barroso über die Altbundespräsidenten Walter Scheel und Roman Herzog sowie die Bundesminister Brigitte Zypries (SPD) und Michael Glos (CSU) bis hin zu Edmund Stoiber. Der CSU-Chef genoss seinen letzten Auftritt als Ministerpräsident bei den Festspielen sichtlich.

Die traditionelle Auffahrt der Gäste begann schon eine Stunde vor Beginn der Vorstellung. Als einer der ersten Promis zeigten sich Roberto Blanco sowie die beiden Schauspieler Robert Atzorn und Christian Wolff den begeisterten Bayreuthern. Freudig begrüßt vor der "Meistersinger"-Premiere wurden auch Thomas Gottschalk - modisch gewagt mit goldener Krawatte und goldenen Schuhen - und Bayreuth- Stammgast Margot Werner im eng anliegenden schwarzbraunen Kleid mit goldenen Streifen.

Glück hatten Premieren- wie Zaungäste in diesem Jahr mit dem Wetter. Sechs Tage nach einem schweren Unwetter rund um Bayreuth und das Festspielhaus zeigte sich die Sonne zwischen einzelnen Wolken. Im Gegensatz zu den knackig heißen 37 Grad im vergangenen Jahr musste die Wagner-Gemeinde weder vor noch im Festspielhaus schwitzen.

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Dokument erstellt am 25.07.2007 um 16:14:04 Uhr
Letzte Änderung am 26.07.2007 um 14:47:40 Uhr
Erscheinungsdatum 26.07.2007

26.7.2007

'Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg' (Foto: dpa)

Lob und Tadel für Katharina Wagners "Meistersinger"

Bayreuth (dpa) - Das Regiedebüt von Katharina Wagner (29) bei den Bayreuther Festspielen hat ein geteiltes Echo gefunden. Der erwartete Skandal blieb aus. Die Regisseurin selbst ist zufrieden mit den Reaktionen auf ihre "Meistersinger"-Neuinszenierung.

"Sie sind positiver ausgefallen, als ich es erwartet hätte", sagte sie am Donnerstag im Gespräch mit der Deutschen-Presse-Agentur dpa. "Nach meiner Einschätzung war das Verhältnis von Ablehnung und Zustimmung etwa fifty-fifty. Ich hätte eher mit zwei Dritteln Ablehnung gerechnet." Die Urenkelin des Komponisten Richard Wagner gehört zu den Kandidaten für die Nachfolge von Festspielchef Wolfgang Wagner (87), der ihr Vater ist.

Das Festspielpublikum reagierte auf die moderne Interpretation mit kräftigen Buhrufen, aber auch mit viel Beifall. Wagner kritisierte, dass einige Sänger und Sängerinnen ausgebuht wurden. "Das finde ich unmöglich. Wenn es jemandem nicht gefallen hat, soll er einfach nicht klatschen." Dies sei auch der Grund gewesen, warum sie selbst früher als geplant auf die Bühne gekommen sei. "Die Leute sollen ihre Wut an mir auslassen, aber nicht an den Sängern." Das Regieteam war beim Schlussapplaus unvermittelt nach der ausgebuhten Darstellerin der Eva, Amanda Mace, vor dem Vorhang aufgetaucht.

EU-Kommissionspräsident José Manuel Barroso sprach von einer kreativen Inszenierung, die er sehr genossen habe. "Es ist eine moderne Inszenierung, die durchaus Kontroversen ausgelöst hat, aber Opern lassen viele Spielräume." Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU), treuer Bayreuth-Gast seit vielen Jahren, wollte sich nicht äußern. Auf dem Staatsempfang nach der Premiere sah man sie im Gespräch mit Katharina Wagner.

Der bayerische Kunstminister Thomas Goppel (CSU) sagte, die Inszenierung werde viel Gesprächsstoff liefern. Vor allem der dritte Akt sei sehr provozierend gewesen. "Das war eine neue Vorstellung der klassischen "Meistersinger"." Bayerns scheidender Ministerpräsident Edmund Stoiber (CSU) sprach von einer eindrucksvollen Aufführung.

Die Diva Margot Werner war vom ersten Akt begeistert. "Über den zweiten und dritten Akt sollten lieber die Kritiker urteilen", sagte sie. Katharinas Cousine Nike Wagner, sagte, es tue ihr Leid, dass Katharina vom Publikum ausgebuht worden sei. Nike Wagner (62) gilt als Rivalin von Katharina um die künftige Leitung der Festspiele.

Das Fehlen von Festspielchef Wolfgang Wagner auf dem Staatsempfang löste neue Spekulationen um den Gesundheitszustand des 87-Jährigen aus. Seine Tochter Katharina erklärte dazu: "Meinem Vater war es einfach zu spät." Sogar sie selbst habe kurz überlegt, ob sie noch auf den Empfang gehe.

Der kultur- und medienpolitische Sprecher der CDU/CSU- Bundestagsfraktion, Wolfgang Börnsen, brachte unterdessen die Streichung von öffentlichen Subventionen für die Festspiele ins Gespräch. "Es gilt, Exklusivität weiter zu gewährleisten und trotzdem die Opernsaison so zu erweitern, dass mehr Interessierte zu vertretbaren Preisen das Wagnis Wagner eingehen können. Auch der Abbau von Subventionen gehört dazu", erklärte Börnsen in Berlin.

In der Nachfolgefrage werde der Stiftungsrat, wo der Bund und der Freistaat Bayern das größte Gewicht haben, nun Entscheidungen treffen müssen. "Leitlinie muss dabei sein, dieses weltweit einzigartige Festival in qualitativ so gute Hände zu legen, dass sein Renommee nicht nur bleibt, sondern sich noch steigern kann."

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Dokument erstellt am 26.07.2007 um 17:34:02 Uhr
Erscheinungsdatum 26.07.2007

28.7.2007

Bayreuth. Den Bayreuther Festspielen drohen finanzielle Probleme. Der Wirtschaftsplan für die kommenden drei Jahre weise ein Loch von insgesamt 1,6 Millionen Euro auf, sagte Georg von Waldenfels, Vorsitzender der Mäzenatengesellschaft "Freunde von Bayreuth", am Freitag in Bayreuth. Die Mäzene wollten dieses Defizit zwar ausgleichen. Dies könne aber nicht zur Regel werden, sagte Waldenfels. Er forderte Bund und Land auf, ihre Zuschusspolitik zu überdenken. Die beiden größten Geldgeber haben ihre Zuschüsse bis 2010 eingefroren. "Wir können nicht zulassen, dass man die großen Opernhäuser fördert und sich in Bayreuth zurückhält", sagte Waldenfels.

Er bezifferte das Defizit auf jeweils 400 000 Euro in den nächsten beiden Jahren und 800 000 Euro im Jahr 2010. Der Jahresetat der Festspiele liegt bei etwa 18 Millionen Euro. Waldenfels übte zugleich ungewohnt deutliche Kritik an der Festspielleitung, die es anTransparenz fehlen lasse. dpa

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Dokument erstellt am 27.07.2007 um 16:44:01 Uhr
Letzte Änderung am 28.07.2007 um 12:04:01 Uhr
Erscheinungsdatum 28.07.2007

27. Juli 2007

Bayreuth - Selbstkritisch zeigt sich Regisseurin Katharina Wagner nach ihrer Bayreuther "Meistersinger"-Inszenierung: "Es gibt musikalisch und szenisch einiges zu verbessern", sagte sie am Freitag auf der Versammlung der Mäzenatengesellschaft "Freunde von Bayreuth". "Mit manchen Sachen bin ich noch unzufrieden. Sicher wird einiges verändert werden."

Die 29-jährige Tochter und mögliche Nachfolgerin von Festspielchef Wolfgang Wagner hatte am Mittwoch mit "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" ihr Regiedebüt im Bayreuther Festspielhaus gegeben. "Es lag ein extremer Druck auf dieser Premiere", sagte sie. "Für die Nervosität, die wir alle hatten, haben wir es extrem gut durchgestanden."

Wagner verteidigte ihre moderne Interpretation gegen Kritiker aus den Reihen der Mäzene, die ihr mangelnde Werktreue vorwarfen. Für sie ende ein Stück nicht mit dem Schlussstrich des Komponisten, sagte sie. Man müsse bei einer Inszenierung auch politische und gesellschaftliche Entwicklungen sowie die Rezeptionsgeschichte einbeziehen. "Ich nehme Richard Wagner extrem ernst", sagte sie über ihren Urgroßvater. (APA/dpa)

Amid a family feud over the running of the famous opera festival, Katharina Wagner's directorial debut at Bayreuth split the audience. Not everybody, it seems, enjoyed seeing Richard Wagner dancing in his underwear. Germany's annual Bayreuth Festival of Wagner operas began on Wednesday with a highly anticipated, make-or-break production by the 29-year-old great-granddaughter of the composer Richard Wagner.

Angela Merkel greeting some of the onlookers outside the Bayreuth festival theaterBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: An opera buff who also happens to be close to the people: Angela MerkelAnd while the applause after the first two acts of Wagner's only "comic" opera was friendly, the audience -- which included a smorgasbord of German political and social elite -- was less amused by the third and final act, which featured a few minutes of full frontal nudity, a bizarre sight of Richard Wagner dancing in his underwear and a bunch of master singers horsing around the stage with oversized penises.

When, at the end of the marathon seven-hour performance, which included 2 one-hour breaks, visibly nervous Katharina Wagner took to the stage, she was greeted with boos, hisses, jeers and whistles as well as bravos and cries of approval. The Bayreuth audience proved itself to be worthy of the music genre: dramatic, passionate and self-involved to the point of absurdity.

Katharina Wagner standing between her mother Gudrun and father WoflgangBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: It's a family business: Katharina Wagner with father Wolfgang and mother GudrunCamera teams and hundreds of onlookers were outside the 19th century festival theater to see Katharina in a backless frock arrive to the opening with her father Wolfgang Wagner, the famous composer's 87-year-old grandson.

Other prominent guests included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and a host of German and European glitterati such as Bavarian aristocrat Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, Germany's most famous TV showmaster Thomas Gottschalk and old-time crooner Roberto Blanco, who has demonstrated a remarkable talent at being frequently resurrected from oblivion.

Katharina Wagner, who hopes to be appointed festival director in succession to her father Wolfgang, who's been in charge of the festival since 1951, told reporters that last-minute rehearsals were needed because of "technical problems."

Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis with her daughtersBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis with her daughtersIn an interview published on Wednesday, Wagner said new ideas were vital to keep the festival young at heart. She told the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung that the festival had to claw back from the opera houses its avant-garde role in Wagner interpretation. "My concern is not to just preserve but to develop something new as well," she said.

"Bayreuth can dare to experiment," she said, pointing to past engagements of two of the shock directors of German theater, the late Heiner Müller in 1993 for "Tristan and Isolde" and Christoph Schlingensief in 2004 for "Parsifal."

Katharina Wagner -- the youngest-ever director and the first woman ever to have been entrusted with staging an opera at the festival established by her great-grandfather 131 years ago -- is, whether she likes to admit it or not, in the midst of an ongoing family feud. In what seems like a cross-over between a soap-opera and a royal-family intrigue, the Wagners have been fighting over who will take over the festival management business for years. The Bayreuth board can hire anyone to run the public-funded festival, but the job is unique among German public appointments in always having been held by the Wagner family.

After failing to establish his second wife Gudrun as his successor, Wolfgang Wagner has put all his weight behind daughter Katharina. But Katharina's rival cousins Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Nike Wagner, both 62, also lay claim to the Bayreuth throne. Eva is Wolfgang's daughter by his first marriage, while Nike is the daughter of Wolfgang's brother Wieland, who died in 1966. In the absence of a real royal family, the Wagners are a God-given gift to those Germans who like to combine their interests in high culture with society gossip.

In a production that -- perhaps to the shock of the hard-core, ultra-conservative Wagnerites -- did not feature a medieval town square and a cast that could be easily convinced to perform a dark, Dogma-style, version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs -- Katharina Wagner decided to put her foot down in Bayreuth as a modernizer par excellence.

Thomas Gottschalk with his wife TheaBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Bayreuth is the place to be seen: TV showman Thomas Gottschalk with his wife Thea So she had sneakers raining from the sky. Even more importantly, however, while treating the opera as a kind of discourse on tradition and progress in art, she showed no particular respect for the actual plot.

In Wagner's original, Walther von Stolzing, a young knight, falls in love with the daughter of a rich Nuremberg burgher and tries to win her heart by entering a singing contest -- a medieval precursor to American Idol and German Superstar. At first he is rejected by the master singers -- the Simon Cowels and Paula Abduls of his time -- for breaking all of their traditional rules. Eventually, however, his natural talent wins them over. In essence, it's a boy-gets-girl-by-showing-he-can-sing kind of story.

In Katharina Wagner's staging, the hero is actually a wimp: a rebel who -- in order to win the contest -- becomes a conformist and emulator of his masters. In modern speak: a hard-rocker, who in the American Idol final, decides to sing a Whitney Houston ballad.

Two opera singers during the performanceBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The reviews are yet to come inAudience reactions to the unconventional production and critical response it receives could be decisive for Wagner, either spoiling or boosting her ambitions. Achim Barth, from Frankfurt, dismissed the production as unnecessarily gimmicky. "It's runs completely contrary to the text," Barth said. "It's just nonsense. Modern for the sake of being modern."

Leading German daily newspapers were not due to publ ish reviews till Friday but other media were quicker. A reviewer for the Web site of the weekly magazine Der Spiegel, for instance, compared the "overly intellectual" staging to a pizza: too many ingredients on a very thin base.

Wagner said she did not feel under any time pressure, since the post of festival director replacing her father, 87, had not yet been advertised.

This year, the festival, which runs until Aug. 28, will also feature "The Ring of the Nibelung," "Tannhäuser" and re-runs of Schlingensief's "Parsifal." All 54,000 available tickets to the 30 performances have been sold out. Organizers received 460,500 applications and preferred applicants, who had been applying for eight years or more.

© Deutsche Welle
Article based on news reports (tt)

BBC NEWS
26/07/2007

Katharina Wagner's interpretation of The Mastersingers of Nuremberg opened Germany's Bayreuth festival, which is dedicated to staging Wagner's operas. But some fans were incensed by the seven-hour staging, which featured full frontal nudity and rewrote the plot. "It was all so gratuitous," said one audience member. "It wasn't true to the text at all."

Roger Alier, a Spanish opera critic, said the production was "just horrible". "I hear what they're singing and it has nothing to do with what's going on on stage," he said. "I don't see where she's going with this."

Appearing in front of the audience after the final curtain, Wagner was jeered and booed by sections of the crowd - although just as many fans were impressed with her production. The reaction may come as a blow to the young director, who is competing for control of her great-grandfather's legacy. She is one of many family members vying to succeed her father, 87-year-old Wolfgang Wagner, who has been running the Bayreuth festival since 1951. His early, experimental stagings also divided opinions.

The red-carpet production of Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg dispensed with period costumes and settings and turned the plot on its head. In the original, a young knight falls for a young noblewoman and decides to enter a singing contest to win her hand. He is rejected by the "Master Singers" because he breaks all of their rules, but his natural talent ultimately overwhelms the stuffy inner circle. Wednesday's production saw the hero dispense with his rebellious nature and gradually conform to the wishes of the singing group while the villain of the piece delivered a surreal musical outburst aimed at conformity in the arts world.

Some Wagner enthusiasts were won over by the bold staging, which saw the singing troupe running around the stage adorned with outsized genitalia. "Surprisingly good," was the verdict of Carl Julius Brabant, who has been attending the Bayreuth festival since 1951. "It's really got oomph."

© BBC MMVII

July 31, 2007

By ALAN RIDING

PARIS, July 30 — Devotees of Richard Wagner’s operas have no trouble sitting through long hours of intense music and convoluted plots, but even they may be tiring of the extended family power struggle over control of the Wagner Festival held in Bayreuth, Germany, every summer.

This year’s festival, which began on July 25, has brought new twists to the plot, suggesting that a final curtain may be nigh — or at least coming closer.

Founded in 1876 by Wagner himself, the Bayreuth Festival has had a colorful and at times unsavory history, not least when it was embraced by Hitler. But despite this, Bayreuth remains a kind of shrine for Wagner lovers, and they care passionately about its future.

At the heart of the current drama is who will succeed the composer’s 87-year-old grandson, Wolfgang Wagner. He took over the festival with his brother, Wieland, in 1951 and has run it as a personal fief since Wieland’s death, in 1966. But his management has come under growing criticism in recent years.

Tradition has it that the festival is always run by a Wagner, and this time round, the main candidates are again all in the family: Eva Wagner-Pasquier, 62, Wolfgang Wagner’s daughter from his first marriage; Katharina Wagner, 29, Wolfgang’s daughter from his second marriage; and Nike Wagner, 62, Wolfgang’s niece and Wieland’s daughter.

At first glance, the choice appears to be between youth and experience. Katharina Wagner has only recently begun directing opera, while Ms. Wagner-Pasquier is artistic adviser to the Aix-en-Provence opera festival in southern France, and Nike Wagner, a musicologist by training, is director of the Weimar Festival in Germany.

But there is a bitter twist: Wolfgang Wagner is so determined to impose Katharina as his successor that he now refuses to speak to Ms. Wagner-Pasquier or to Nike Wagner.

The outcome is in the hands of the Richard Wagner Foundation, which owns the festival’s theater, the Festspielhaus, and subsidizes the event. But while Wolfgang has only one vote on a 24-member board dominated by German, Bavarian and Upper Franconian officials, he has so far had his way with the foundation.

Now, with his health failing and demands for a clear succession mounting in the German press, the question is whether the foundation will take up the issue this fall, and, more specifically, whether it will dare to flout the will of the festival’s ruling patriarch.

The last time it tried to do so, it was simply ignored.

In 2001, after Wolfgang indicated a willingness to step down, the foundation chose Ms. Wagner-Pasquier over Nike Wagner and Wolfgang’s second wife, Gudrun, as the festival’s new director. When his wife was rejected for the job, Mr. Wagner responded by announcing that the position was his for life. He further indicated that if necessary, Gudrun would succeed him until Katharina, then just 23, was ready to take over.

Now, to prove she is ready, Wolfgang has allowed Katharina to direct her first opera at Bayreuth. Her new production of "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" opened the monthlong festival last week before an audience packed with Wagner experts and German V.I.P.’s, including Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Although Katharina has previously directed Wagner and Puccini operas in other cities, her maiden show at Bayreuth was widely viewed as a kind of public audition for her father’s job. The intense booing that met her when she appeared onstage at the final curtain suggested that it had become more of a trial by fire.

Certainly, "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" was a daring assignment for the youngest director in the festival’s history. Not only is it Wagner’s only comedy, but it is also a paean to what it calls "Holy German Art" and, as such, became Hitler’s favorite opera and the only work performed in Bayreuth in 1943 and 1944.

Ms. Wagner tackled the opera’s dark association with German nationalism by satirizing luminaries of German culture like Bach, Beethoven, Goethe, Schiller and even Wagner himself. But European critics said much of the audience turned against her in the last act, when she resorted to topless dancers, full male nudity, plastic phalluses and a bizarre auto-da-fé.

Some critics noted that cheers could be heard among the boos, but their reviews were generally negative. Andrew Clark in The Financial Times of London called it "an intermittently titillating but ultimately depressing show," and Der Spiegel’s critic was reminded of "a flat Wagner pizza — a thick topping on a thin base."

Still, it is unclear how the public and critical response will affect Ms. Wagner’s bid to run the festival. In the past, some new productions at Bayreuth have been booed before later being acclaimed. At the same time, Katharina, a statuesque blonde nicknamed Bayreuth Barbie by her traditionalist foes, can probably still count on the support of those who believe that Bayreuth needs a youthful shake-up.

Certainly, during rehearsals, she displayed no insecurity, inviting reporters to watch her work, releasing glamorous studio photographs of herself and telling a news briefing, "I don’t think I’m too young anymore." After last Wednesday’s opening night, she added, "Being booed belongs to the job description of a director."

Meanwhile, her two competitors are again preparing to make their cases to the Wagner Foundation. Ms. Wagner-Pasquier has always avoided public mud-slinging, but her cousin Nike has spoken dismissively of Katharina, saying she has a "ready-made nest" and describing her opera productions as "old wine in a new wineskin."

For the moment, the Wagner Foundation has given no hint that it is ready to name a new festival director, although there is widespread speculation in the German press that its board will meet for this purpose after the current festival ends on Aug. 28.

One fresh sign that change is in the air came last week at the annual meeting of the Friends of the Bayreuth Festival, which has two seats on the Wagner Foundation’s board. For the first time Wolfgang Wagner did not attend the meeting, and for the first time the Friends openly criticized his management style.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Bold production of Meistersinger by Wagner's great grand-daughter

BAYREUTH, Germany: Art imitated art at Bayreuth on Wednesday, with Germany's greatest opera genius interpreted by his great-grand-daughter in a bold new production of one of his key works. The venue: The Bayreuth "Festspielhaus," the operatic shrine dedicated exclusively to works of Richard Wagner. The event: A new production of his "Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg," by Katharina Wagner_ in a debut that could help decide whether the 29-year-old becomes the next family member to run the Bayreuth Festival.

Expectations were high — and for the hundreds who booed the performance, obviously not met. But at least as many among the audience loved the production, reflecting the annual Bayreuth split of traditional Wagnerites and those hungry for experimentation. And experimentation ruled Wednesday. No quaint gabled houses or medieval town squares, and no period costumes either. Instead, the audience was given a plot turned topsy turvy, a villain turned hero, a hero turned wimp — and a few minutes of full frontal nudity.

The opera is an ode to art — and Wednesday's interpretation kept that focus intact. Beyond that, though, Richard and Katharina — in her first production at Bayreuth — parted ways 180 degrees. In the original version, a young knight falls for the daughter of a rich Nuernberg burgher and decides to enter a singing contest to win her hand. He is rejected by the "Master Singers" because he breaks all of their formalistic rules, but his natural talent and melodic ardor ultimately overwhelms the stuffy inner circle.

Boy gets girl. Art conflicts with art and emerges elevated. And the villain — the lecherous city clerk who had also cast an eye on the heroine — gets his comeuppance. Not so Wednesday.

Walther von Stolzing, the young nobleman, turns from sloppily clothed, paint-slinging rebel to buttoned-down conformist, ultimately mirroring the master singers he initially scorned. So does Hans Sachs, the shoemaker and master singer — and true-life German medieval poet — who first supports Stolzing, only to turn from mild iconoclasm to narrow-viewed supporter of the status quo. And Sixtus Beckmesser, the city clerk? Originally the hairsplitting pedant who looks jealously at Stolzing as his rival for the charms of Eva — and who does everything he can to trip him up — he undergoes epiphany at the boisterous riot at the end of Act II. Where Stolzing and Sachs grow increasingly straight, the originally slicked-back Beckmesser is now the nonconformist, in dress, mimicry and action. His final song — an embarrassing effort to sing a song stolen from Stolzing in the original version — turns into a Dadaist outcry against stultified status quo art in the Katharina Wagner production.

At nearly seven hours, including two 60-minute breaks, there were slow moments. But clever devices helped move the action. One of them was the decision to link visual art to music — for almost every formal song there was a picture, subtly demonstrating the composer's later claim to creating "Gesamtkunst," or total art. The principals were a mixed blessing. Michael Volle was wonderful as Beckmesser, powerful and evocative vocally — and even more so in his acting skills. His transformation from ranting pedant to cool rebel was impressive. As Stolzing, Klaus Florian Vogt delivered a clear but burnished tenor, effortless intonation and steady pitch — and nearly matched Volle in metamorphic skills as he mutated from iconoclast to conformist. Franz Hawlata was booed as Sachs by audience members who apparently mistook his weakness for a bad night on stage. But in this production, Hawlata looked to be playing indecision and lack of direction — as called for by Katharina Wagner. If he was acting, he succeeded admirably. Norbert Ernst was solid as David, Sach's apprentice. Vocally, Amanda Mace disappointed as Eva, with little of the carrying power needed for this part, although her pitch and intonation were flawless. She showed little of the steel the role originally called for. But perhaps simpering and a bit vacuous was the way Katharina Wagner wanted the woman who falls for the less-than-hero Stolzing. Ditto for Carola Gruber as Magdalena, her maid. The rest of the cast — master singers, apprentices and other supporting roles — was good to excellent. And the Festival Orchestra under Sebastian Weigle was a dream — sonorous, rhapsodic, finely nuanced and at one with the singers on stage.

As for the fate of Katharina Wagner, some of the buzz was pro and some con as the audience left the Festspielhaus. Her father, Wolfgang, who now runs things, is 87, and pressure is growing on him to step down and make way for a younger member of the Wagner clan. But at least some of those gathered outside for most of the evening were focused on less weighty things — like catching a glimpse of the political movers and shakers and glitterati that make the festival an annual place to be seen. "We just like to star gaze," said Hildegard Kunze, 72. Her husband, Adolf Mayer, 82, nodded, adding: "Wagner will remain Wagner, no matter who runs the show."

30/07/2007

The long-running Wagner saga - who will inherit the family crown? - took a new twist last week when the first production by the composer's great-granddaughter, Katharina, the girl dubbed 'Bayreuth Hilton', was booed

The storm - no, thunderstorm - of boos that broke out at Wednesday's opening night performance of Die Meistersinger at the Bayreuth Festival was entirely to be expected. Booing at the end of a performance, and specifically booing the director, is part of the ritual of opera-going in Germany, where the art form is close to becoming a blood sport. But this was more acrimonious than usual.

Things are tense at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, opened in 1876 by Richard Wagner and still in the hands of the composer's family, or, rather, one faction of it. The war of succession, more twisted than anything Wagner dreamt up in his music dramas, is soon to reach a climax. Even Bayreuth's normally discreet mayor, Michael Hohl, an ex-officio member of the Richard Wagner Foundation, which controls the succession, has admitted that "discussions have become loud" and that the succession issue is on the agenda for this autumn. Hence last week's boo-fest: the most likely, though by no means certain, winner of the festival director's crown is Katharina Wagner, the composer's 29-year-old great-granddaughter, who has staked her claim to the job by directing the controversial new production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg to inaugurate this summer's festival.

Speculation has long been rife as to who will succeed Wolfgang Wagner, the 87-year-old patriarch - a grandson of the composer - who maintains a desperate grip on the festival. Now in frail health, he has held the Bayreuth reins for the past 56 years, first with his brother Wieland, and then alone since Wieland's early death in 1966. Less talented as a stage director than Wieland, Wolfgang is likely to be remembered not so much for his static productions as for his canny stewardship of the festival. Undeniable managerial skills, allied to acute political awareness, enabled him to consolidate a position of absolute supremacy. But, as Die Zeit recently reported, Wolfgang has become "an old man leaning on a cane for support, who hears poorly, occasionally seems mentally absent and whose appearances from behind the wings are becoming increasingly rare".

Wolfgang's chosen successor is Katharina, his daughter and only child by his second wife, Gudrun. Not long ago he favoured Gudrun herself, his collaborator at Bayreuth over the last quarter of a century, with the option of Gudrun passing on the chalice (poisoned or otherwise) to Katharina. But with Katharina emerging as a stage director in her own right, and now having expressed her interest in the top job, the dynastic succession may pass straight to her.

Equally, it may not. Despite his position of power, Wolfgang holds only a single vote in the foundation's deliberations. Insiders say that Katharina hasn't got majority support (her poorly-received production of Meistersinger is unlikely to help) but Wolfgang won't resign until the foundation is behind her.

For its part, the Foundation could be waiting for Wolfgang to die, at which point it will do whatever it wants. That scenario might (or might not) include Katharina. The blonde and glamorous Katharina, who in her newly slimmed-down incarnation has been dubbed and even Bayreuth Hilton by the German tabloids, has assisted her father for several years while directing her own productions in opera houses from Berlin to Budapest. The difference with Meistersinger is that it marks her official Bayreuth debut, and makes her the first Wagner to direct a new staging at the Bavarian shrine for nearly two decades.

No one seems to have liked it. Although a single opera production cannot fairly be viewed as an audition for a lifetime's work of running the festival, this has been in effect just that. By going too far, too soon, with a staging that everyone appears to have found hyperactive and silly, Katharina may have damaged her chances. Die Meistersinger, with its third-act hymn to Holy German Art, is always a tough challenge. At Bayreuth, where during the Hitler years the work was hijacked with the acquiescence of Wagner's descendants, and Nazi banners were unfurled during some performances, it has to be an almost impossible one. Katharina, whose English-born grandmother, Winifred, made Hitler an honorary member of the household, and whose father played with "Uncle Wolf" as a boy, does not shy away from history. Had she concentrated instead on this wonderful opera's strongly humanistic themes, she would have been accused of a whitewash. But to turn the central character of the cobbler-poet Hans Sachs into a Nuremburg demagogue, to transform the finale into a 1960s "happening" in which the chorus throws paint from Campbell's soup tins, to have statues of Bach, Goethe, Schiller and others come to life and dance in their underwear, to throw in nudity and every attention-seeking device known to desperate directors… this is not so much a production of the opera as a circus about Meistersinger. Unsurprisingly, the music appears to have been very much a side-show in Katharina's mind.

Perhaps, for once, the booing was justified. The unseemly rumpus was witnessed by everyone from the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to the talkshow hosts able to jump Bayreuth's 10-year waiting-list for tickets, and few will have been unaware that they were witnessing the public explosion of a family row. When the Wagners (who exhibit what the critic and philosopher Michael Tanner has called "lavish dysfunctionality") have a family row, they do it in spades.

Most, but not all, of the other contenders for the Bayreuth throne have faced reality and given up hope long ago. One who has distanced herself, or been distanced, is Eva Wagner, Wolfgang's estranged daughter from his first marriage. Now in her sixties, she has enjoyed a successful career in opera management, including at Covent Garden, and is currently high up in the administration of the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

Eva's brother, Gottfried, is a non-person at Bayreuth. From his base in Italy, he travels the world lecturing on his family's anti-Semitic history. The composer himself died, of course, in 1883, half a century before Hitler's rise to power, something his less well-informed detractors tend to overlook. But Hitler passionately admired his work, and Gottfried's childhood memory of seeing his grandmother's copy of Mein Kampf, inscribed "Von Wolf für Wini", not to mention subsequent tussles over incriminating evidence in the family archives, led to his banishment. He has been busy elsewhere, with such initiatives as the inter-disciplinary Post-Holocaust Dialogue Group he co-founded in Seattle.

Two of Wieland's four children have steered well clear of their operatic - not to mention political - inheritance. Daphne became an actress, Iris a photographer and screenwriter. Their brother, Wolf Siegfried, started out as a freelance director working mostly in the United States and Germany, but when in 1984 he made a claim to the Bayreuth succession he was severely rebuffed by his uncle and the foundation. He retreated to Mallorca, reinventing himself as the proprietor of a firm that builds plush villas and gardens, and now lives there on an estate with his aristocratic second wife Eleonore, Countess Lehndorff, the daughter of a man executed by the Nazis for his involvement in the July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler.

That leaves Nike Wagner, Wieland's outspoken daughter and in many ways the most interesting, best qualified member of the family for the job. Wolfgang, though, has always dismissed his niece's aspirations on the grounds that until not long ago her career had been exclusively academic, without practical experience of the theatre. So he is unlikely to have been cheered by the praise and respect she has recently won for her wide-ranging festival in Weimar, a city connected with her other great forebear, Franz Liszt, whose daughter Cosima married Wagner. Nike's resemblance to Cosima is striking, an indication, if one were needed, of strong genes. At the end of her fascinating book The Wagners: the Dramas of a Musical Dynasty, Nike presents her own claim to Bayreuth with a strong and sane manifesto that would involve some radical breaks with tradition. Not least for that reason, she would be a surprising choice.

Some inside the family, and many outside, are questioning the ability of the fourth- and fifth-generation Wagners who lay claim to the Bayreuth Festival. It may be that only fresh blood can save the institution from the curse of family strife. Whether or not it remains a family business, there are issues of artistic broadening to be addressed. More bluntly, some are asking whether a shabby festival in an unremarkable town still matters, given that there are so many better productions of Wagner elsewhere.

Only two things are clear. One is that the Bayreuth Festival - with or without Katharina - cannot afford any further artistic drift. The other is that no other artistic family remains so obstinately in the news as Richard Wagner and his descendants, a state of affairs that has less to do with their ghastliness than the greatness of his work.

Friday July 27, 2007

It was the most eagerly anticipated event in this year's German cultural calendar, set to make or break a young woman's career. But following a cascade of boos and the comparison of her production of Die Meistersinger to a "top-heavy pizza with a thick topping on a thin base", things were not looking too rosy yesterday for Katharina Wagner. The 29-year old director, great-granddaughter of the German operatic genius Richard Wagner, had her debut - a baptism of fire - on Wednesday night at Bayreuth, the festival in southern Germany which is a living shrine to the 19th century composer's works. But her interpretation, which turned the original plot on its head - Richard Wagner danced in his underpants and topless dancers took to the stage - proved too much for the traditionalists, who made up the bulk of the audience, at the same time as irritating the iconoclasts.

While the critic from Stern magazine praised the "irreverence and humour" she displayed towards her forefather, he condemned the fact that she had failed to separate the work, a discourse on art, from its nationalist trappings as she had promised, calling her efforts "limited". It was hard to find "a clear dramatic thread" running through the performance, he said. "Instead Katharina Wagner lets a bizarre panopticon unfold, in which great-grandfather Richard dances in his underpants, someone jumps naked out of a box and the production team is set on fire." Spiegel called it "top-heavy and although impressive, a flat Wagner pizza - a thick topping on a thin base". While praising the fact that she had come "armed with many ideas", it said she had mistakenly "tried to realise all of them" at once.

The enfant terrible of German theatre, director Christoph Schlingensief, delivered a harsh verdict on Deutschland Radio, saying it felt like she had set the opera in a "fitness studio or a porn shop". Chancellor Angela Merkel, a Bayreuth regular, who was in the audience along with a line-up of presidents, politicians and business leaders, did not publicly express her views, but talked animatedly with the director at the end of the seven-hour extravaganza.

The jury was still out yesterday as to whether the production would, as Katharina Wagner hopes, propel her to the top of the Wagner dynasty when her 87-year old father Wolfgang dies, or cause her to be consigned to Bayreuth's history as a mere footnote.

If the large portion of the audience who booed her at length when she stepped onto the stage to collect a bouquet of flowers were anything to go by, her future looks bleak. But the young director was remaining stoical yesterday. "Being booed belongs to the job description of a director," she said. Support came from an unlikely source when Bild, the touchstone of popular German thought, offered Katharina its backing. "The blonde crown princess can only take over from her father if her premiere is deemed a success," it wrote, but "if Bayreuth wants to reinvent opera, Katharina Wagner is the one to do it."

Wagner has the firm backing of her father to take over the festival but is up against her cousin, Nike Wagner, 62, and Eva Wagner-Pasquier, also 62, her step-sister from her father's first marriage, both of whom have strong ambitions to lead it.

jueves 26/07/2007

CARMEN VALERO (EFE)

BAYREUTH.- El festival wagneriano de Bayreuth arrancó con aplausos y muchos abucheos a la producción de 'Los maestros cantores de Nuremberg' con la que Katharina Wagner, biznieta del compositor Richard Wagner, debutaba en su propia casa. El público no fue condescendiente con la pequeña de los Wagner y a la salida del teatro muchos mostraron incluso irritación por la supuesta ignorancia que Katharina, de 29 años, demostró tener de la historia alemana y de la obra de su antecesor. Y a ello se añadió la decepción de quienes confiaban en que el debut de Katharina como regista le facilitaría aún más el camino a la sucesión de su padre, Wolfgang Wagner, a punto de cumplir 88 años, en la dirección del festival. Por el puesto compiten también Eva Wagner-Pasquier, hija del primer matrimonio de Wolfgang Wagner y con quien ésta no cruza una palabra desde hace años, y su prima Nike Wagner, hija de Wieland. Nike Wagner, de 62 años y directora del prestigioso festival de Weimar, asistió el miércoles a la inauguración de la 96 edición del festival pero rehusó hacer comentarios a la producción de Katharina. Eva Wagner-Pasquier, también de 62 años, y probablemente la más capacitada para dirigir Bayreuth, no viajó hasta la "verde colina", de donde fue desterrada por su padre, quien según allegados a los Wagner ha tomado incluso medidas para que no consiga entradas.

"La puesta en escena que ha presentado Katharina no mejora su tarjeta de visita como eventual directora de Bayreuth", declaró Ingrid Budde, de la Comisión Internacional de Richard Wagner. Budde se mostró sorprendida por las lagunas de conocimiento que Katharina pone de manifiesto y la sinrazón de su concepto. "Lo que hemos visto no son 'Los maestros cantores de Nuremberg' sino 'Los maestros pintores de Nuremberg'", declaró Budde en referencia a la escenografía, que no transcurre en una escuela de canto, como especifica el libreto, sino de pintura. Katharina evitó referencias de lugar e históricas, pero el uso propagandístico que el nacionalsocialismo de Adolf Hitler hizo de 'Los maestros cantores de Nuremberg' planeó en esa escuela donde los alumnos, uniformados, caminan a paso militar, y los maestros actúan de acuerdo a una jerarquía y un ritual que ésta no ridiculiza. El segundo acto revocó el aburrimiento generado por el primero gracias a su final impactante por un cambio de ritmo escénico, con todos los aprendices y el coro -hombres en calzoncillos con latas tapándoles las cabezas- en escena librando una batalla con zapatos contra el escribiente Beckmesser, el "maestro" pretendiente de Eva. El bajo Michael Volle, encargado de dar vida al escribiente, fue junto con el joven tenor alemán Klaus Florian Vogt en el papel de Walter Stolzing, los únicos que recibieron el aplauso unánime. "La chica tiene talento", se oía durante la segunda pausa en los corrillos de señores y damas, entusiasmadas por la originalidad de Katharina al traducir en formas y colores la poesía que encierra el libreto y los sonidos de la partitura. En el tercer acto, la plasticidad pretendida por Katharina empezó a hacer aguas y se perdió en su reflexión sobre qué es el arte y qué función social tienen los artistas, por qué chocan improvisación y reglas, tradición y modernismo.

Katharina humaniza a los intocables clásicos alemanes, incluido a su bisabuelo, y les convierte en cabezudos con prominentes penes en forma de cuerno que menean con sus manos en busca de desasosiego, persiguen formas de mujer o se manosean entre ellos.

También sacó a escena a un hombre desnudo que es sorprendido en un carrito de globos con una muñeca hinchable, vistió y peinó a Eva y Magdalena para que parecieran gemelas, convirtió el concurso de canto final en una reunión de la alta sociedad y otorgó a Stolzing, como premio a su arte, un cheque del banco de Nuremberg. El personaje de Eva evolucionó hasta el de matrona, el innovador Stolzing acabó en traje de chaqueta y el zapatero Sachs, interpretado con poca inspiración por Franz Hawlata, cerró el cuadro lanzando su proclama final entre dos estatuas sobredimensionadas y la iluminación de abajo arriba, evocando a Hitler.

Para muchos wagnerianos la velada fue un desastre y la dirección de Sebastian Weigle en el foso no atenuó el fracaso, pues no logró imponerse a tanta agresión escénica. Tras un primer acto aburrido y un segundo musicalmente plano, en el tercero su orquesta se limitó a poner banda sonora. A diferencia de Katharina, que aguantó la reprimenda del público con una forzada sonrisa, Weigle mantuvo en todo momento una expresión muy seria. El director musical del Liceo de Barcelona había declarado que dirigir en Bayreuth era hacer un sueño realidad, uno de los momentos más importantes de su carrera.

27. Juli 2007

Mit der Neuinszenierung der Oper "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" ihres Urgroßvaters Richard Wagner waren am Mittwoch die 96. Bayreuther Festspiele eröffnet worden. Die Inszenierung der "Meistersinger" sei für sie "kein Wagnis" gewesen, sagte die 29-Jährige. Sie kenne das Werk "extrem gut" und denke, dass sie etwas dazu zu sagen habe.

Die Aufnahme ihrer Inszenierung habe aber nichts mit der Frage der künftigen Festspielleitung zu tun. "Eine gute Festspielleiterin muss nicht gut inszenieren können." Mit Blick auf die Nachfolgefrage betonte Wagner, "letztlich muss mein Vater das Okay geben und die Leitung abgeben" - und das tue er noch nicht. Sie räumte zudem ein, "wenn keine Wagner befähigt ist, muss es keine Wagner werden". Neben Katharina Wagner haben auch ihre Halbschwester Eva Wagner-Pasquier und ihre Cousine Nike Wagner Interesse an der künftigen Leitung der wichtigsten Opernfestspiele weltweit. (mit ddp)