April 2001 - Nr. 4
Eva Wagner-Pasquier Chosen to Direct Bayreuth Festival
TWIG - A long debate over who should succeed Wolfgang Wagner as director of the Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth concluded Thursday (March 29) as the director’s daughter - and composer’s great-granddaughter - Eva Wagner-Pasquier, was formally selected for the role. The festival’s board of trustees announced that Wagner-Pasquier would be replacing her father by the end of September 2002. Wolfgang Wagner, who is 81 and whose contract extends to the end of his lifetime, has so far given no indication when he will step down.
In supporting the board’s decision, State Minister for Cultural Affairs Julian Nida-Ruemelin (SPD) and Bavarian Culture Minister Hans Zehetmair (CSU) emphasized that its goal is to work out a smooth transition and to ensure that the festival’s international prominence is maintained. "We hope an agreement will be reached between Wolfgang Wagner and his daughter," they said of the shift. Neither the director nor Wagner-Pasquier was present when the decision was made.
Wagner-Pasquier (55) got her start in opera as her father’s
assistant in the late 1960s. The father-daughter collaboration came to an
end in 1976 when the father divorced his wife and the daughter sided with
her mother. Since then, Wagner-Pasquier has been involved in staging operas
throughout the world and has served as director of London’s Royal Opera
and the Bastille Opera in Paris.
