The stage director and manager Katharina Wagner, great-granddaughter of the composer Richard Wagner, will remain at the helm of the Bayreuth Festival until 2030, it was announced at noon today. Katharina Wagner became co-director of the event in 2008 together with her half-sister Eva Wagner-Pasquier, until she took over the directorship exclusively in 2015; due to a prolonged illness she had to temporarily step down as director of the Germanic event in April 2020, but soon resumed her position with an approved contract until 2025.
Now, after several criticisms of her management and the German government’s interest in participating more directly in the organisation of the Wagner Festival, it has been announced that she has had her contract renewed for five years, until 2030, but only as artistic director and not as general director, as it has been decided to include a new figure in the festival’s organisational chart, that of a manager, who will be in charge of economic management. The agreement has been reached between the German and Bavarian governments and the Society of Friends of Bayreuth, each of which has a 29 percent share in the organisation of the event, with the city of Bayreuth holding the remaining 13 percent.
The Festival’s press release announces that the new position of managing director is to be filled as soon as possible by means of a selection procedure. Katharina Wagner will be responsible for the artistic area within the company and will have complete freedom in this area within the allocated budget. The artistic director said she was “pleased with the trust” that had been placed in her and said she was “looking forward to another five years of cooperation. I am very happy that together we have found a way to strengthen the Festival’s artistic autonomy. Now I can concentrate exclusively on the creative work.
Katharina Wagner signs the stage direction of Wagner’s Lohengrin which in March 2025 will be offered at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, a production of the Barcelona theatre that had to be suspended in 2020 in the middle of rehearsals due to Covid-19.