Devil's Spawn Make Bid For Bayreuth Festspiele
[Note: This post has been updated (3) as of 12:08 PM Eastern on 1 Sep. See below.]
Is the Bayreuther Festspiele doomed? Might be if the Richard Wagner Stiftung Bayreuth loses its collective mind, and lets these two get their feet through the door.
Nike Wagner, the great-granddaughter of the composer Richard Wagner, has joined forces with Paris Opera chief Gerard Mortier to challenge her cousins Katharina and Eva for the leadership of the Bayreuth opera festival.
RTWT here.
Update (1:31 PM Eastern on 25 Aug): We should make clear just for the record that we don't seriously think the Stiftung will go with the Nike/Mortier ticket or even consider it seriously. Our guess is that the unspoken intent of the Stiftung is to install the Eva/Katharina team to meet the backroom "handshake agreement" with Wolfgang for his stepping aside, but with the very real expectation that after a year or two or three, Eva (with the Stiftung's sanction) will force Katharina out altogether (a good thing), and leave Eva in sole charge. We're not entirely happy with that state of affairs, either, but we think it's something we can live with.
Update 2 (2:32 PM Eastern on 26 Aug): For more on this, see this post.
Update 3 (12:08 PM Eastern on 1 Sep): It's official! Details here.
