BAYREUTH, Germany - The dramatic struggle played out backstage, pitting the great-grandchildren of composer Richard Wagner for control of the legendary festival dedicated to his music.
When the curtain rose Monday, half-sisters Katharina Wagner and Eva Wagner-Pasquier had been chosen to succeed their father, Wolfgang, at the helm of the Bayreuth Festival, bringing the verve of youth and steady hand of experience to an event legendary among opera connoisseurs.
The festival's board said Katharina Wagner and Eva Wagner-Pasquier would be co-directors of the annual extravaganza in Bavaria, after last week's end to their father's 57-year run as overseer of an event that began in 1876.
The 24-member board sided with the half-sisters over their cousin Nike Wagner, who mounted a surprise bid just a week ago with renowned Belgian director Gerard Mortier, after a power struggle that stretched on like a Wagnerian opera but more closely resembled Shakespeare's "King Lear."
"It was an extremely stressful time," Katharina said Monday.
Their 89-year-old father, Wolfgang Wagner, has led the festival since 1951, when he revived it after a World War II hiatus with his brother Wieland--Nike's father.
Both Wolfgang and Wieland staged important productions of their grandfather's works, but it is Wieland who is remembered as a genius and is credited with helping to found the Regietheater movement. When he died of cancer in 1966, Wolfgang was left as the festival's sole director.
Wolfgang steered Bayreuth across the next four decades as the festival remained a cornerstone of opera culture. Today some fans wait seven years or more to purchase tickets to popular stagings.
In 2001, the festival's board--which includes officials of the German federal, Bavarian state and Bayreuth city governments--tried to force Wagner to step down by naming Eva, his daughter from his first marriage, to take over.
Wolfgang refused, arguing he held a lifelong contract. Then last November came the death of his second wife, Gudrun, whom many considered the festival's guiding light. In April, Wolfgang agreed to step down at the conclusion of Bayreuth's 2008 edition.
