The festival director, whose contract has just been extended, loves risk and new things – just like her great-grandfather.
A third of the Bayreuth Richard Wagner Festival is female, at least when it comes to festival management. When the 150th anniversary of the festival comes up in 2026, four women will have served as bosses for 56 years, all of them, like their male colleagues, were and are called Wagner with their last names: Cosima, Winifred, Eva and Katharina. All of this is still a long way from equality, but it is above average for such a traditional house. In the jubilee year of 2026, Katharina Wagner, whose contract has just been extended until 2030, will exceptionally include all of her great-grandfather’s ten plays, which are common in Bavaria, on the program, plus the premature baby “The Feen”, which, like “Liebesban” and “Rienzi”, have never been shown in the Festspielhaus became. There is also the Ninth by Ludwig van Beethoven, which provided the initial spark for Richard Wagner’s idiosyncratic opera aesthetic.