Bayreuth Festival
Fateful year on the Green Hill
The Bayreuth Festival Hall. photo
© Daniel Vogl/dpa
2024 will be a crucial year for the Bayreuth Festival. Are the federal government and Bavaria taking on more responsibility – including financially? And will a descendant of Richard Wagner remain the mistress of the Green Hill?
2026 will be a big year for them Bayreuth Festival: 150 years of festival history will then be celebrated lavishly. But 2024 may be even more important than the anniversary year. Because it is likely to be something of a fateful year on the Green Hill.
Because festival director Katharina Wagner’s contract expires in 2025, a new one would be needed. And it will be decided whether the federal government and Bavaria want and can pay more for the opera spectacle in the future. Or whether the festival, which had to decide on very controversial cost-cutting measures in 2023 such as reducing the size of the famous choir, may have to make even more radical cuts.
The background is that the association of the Society of Friends of Bayreuth, as the fourth festival shareholder alongside the federal government, the Free State of Bavaria and the city of Bayreuth, can no longer pay as much as before due to declining donations. This will probably change the shareholder shares in the Festspiel-GmbH.
To date, 29 percent of the festival has been funded by the federal government, the state and the private Society of Friends of Bayreuth. The city of Bayreuth holds 13 percent. Due to the decline in donations, the friends’ association has announced that it will pay 2.4 million euros next year, around one million less than before. The federal subsidy was most recently around 3.4 million euros.
Will the federal and state governments soon have more influence?
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth is pushing for greater federal commitment to reforms at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth. “We now have the composition of the new Bavarian state government. We will now hold talks with them,” said the Green politician to the German Press Agency in Berlin.
“But it is clear that to the extent that the friends of Bayreuth can no longer provide certain services, we can take on more responsibility, together with Bavaria.” Roth’s assessment: “So far the talks with Bavaria are going very well.”
Her counterpart on the free state side, Bavaria’s Art Minister Markus Blume (CSU), emphasizes: “Our commitment stands: We want to make an even greater financial contribution in the future and increase our shares.” Blume told the dpa: “I assume that the federal government will also go along with this and take on more responsibility in parallel with the Free State of Bavaria. We are pursuing the acquisition of more shareholder shares with great pressure, discussions are ongoing.”
Festival director Wagner had also called for structural changes – and a professional sponsorship and marketing department. So far it has mainly been the Friends of Bayreuth who have taken care of donations. But their influence is likely to become significantly less with fewer shareholder shares.
“But this can also have advantages for the festival,” says the CSU mayor of Bayreuth, Thomas Ebersberger, about the changes. “If the Society of Friends of Bayreuth no longer necessarily has to make the money it receives available for normal operations, it can of course also be used to support special projects and other measures, so that it may even mean an opportunity for the festival “If the Society of Friends can use the money more flexibly.”
It is important that the structural reform is actually pushed forward, emphasizes Claudia Roth. “With this structural reform, Bayreuth can and must renew itself.”
Roth: Bayreuth audiences should become more diverse
The Minister of State for Culture also expects this to provide support for the management of the festival. “Katharina Wagner would also need more support in a new structure. She wants, and she has already done that, to ensure an opening, for new formats in order to appeal to an even broader audience,” says Roth.
The politician also wants more diversity on the stage of the world-famous opera festival. “The reality of our society should also be reflected more clearly among visitors to Bayreuth,” she demands. “There is a lot of catching up to do.”
Free State expects “excellence” on the Green Hill
Bavaria’s Art Minister Blume (CSU) expects Wagner to come up with a convincing concept for the future. “I expect excellence, a courageous concept and a clear vision for the Green Hill. Because the high expectations of the Bayreuth Festival must always be artistically fulfilled,” he says. “The concept should show how Bayreuth can continue to set global standards in contemporary engagement with the work of Richard Wagner. And of course it must also be about further expanding the international reputation.”
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) said at the 2023 festival opening that he couldn’t actually imagine “Wagner without Wagner”.