Bayreuther Festspiele

Wolfgang Wagner
Wolfgang Wagner

Wolfgang Wagner

Wolfgang Wagner
* 30 August 1919
• Sole director of the Festival from 1967 to 31 August 2008
• In 1973 helps to draw up the foundation charter of the Richard Wagner
Foundation, of which he is a co-signatory
• The Bayreuth Festival is established as a limited liability company on 1
October 1986, Wolfgang Wagner was its managing directoror

 

Important biographical dates

1919
 Born in Bayreuth on 30 August, the grandson of Richard Wagner, the great-grandson of Franz Liszt and the third child of Siegfried Wagner (* 6 June 1869; † 4 August 1930) and Winifred Wagner née Williams (*23 June 1897; † 5 March 1980)
1938
 Completes secondary schooling and does national service
1939  Wounded in the war against Poland in mid-September
1940 Discharged from the German army, works for the Bayreuth Festival for the first time as an unpaid production assistant; from October works as production assistant and assistant stage manager at the Prussian State Opera in Berlin, while studying music privately and exploring the problems of music theatre from a theoretical and practical standpoint
1944
 7 June: first independent production at the State Opera in Berlin, his father's opera Bruder Lustig, now renamed Andreasnacht, staged to mark the 75th anniversary of Siegfried Wagner's birth; following the closure of all German theatre in August, he is called up and works on temporary accommodation and air raid shelters in Bayreuth
1945
 In May, following the end of the war, involved in cleaning-up operations in Bayreuth, including Wahnfried; preoccupied with the problems of preserving the Bayreuth legacy both materially and conceptually
1950
 Takes over the running of the Bayreuth Festival, enjoying equal rights with his brother Wieland
1951
 The Bayreuth Festival is reopened after being dark since 1944
1952  The Bayreuth Festival productions of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre are taken on tour to Naples
1953
 Wolfgang directs his first Bayreuth production, Lohengrin; the Naples Ring is completed with Siegfried and Götterdämmerung
1954
 Together with Wieland Wagner takes the Bayreuth Festival production of Siegfried to Brussels
1955
 New production of Der fliegende Holländer in Bayreuth; together with Wieland Wagner organizes a visit to Barcelona, where the Bayreuth Festival presents its productions of Die Walküre, Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal; in December directs Don Giovanni in Braunschweig
1956
 Directs Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Rome in March
1957  Directs Der Ring des Nibelungen in Venice in February and March, Tristan und Isolde in Bayreuth and Siegfried in Bologna in December
1958
 Revives Bayreuth production of Tristan und Isolde in Venice in February
1960
 Revives Bayreuth production of Tristan und Isolde in Palermo in February and directs new production of the Ring in Bayreuth
1962
 Directs Die Walküre in Palermo in February
1966
 Following Wieland's death on 17 October assumes overall control of the Bayreuth Festival
1967
 Organizes the Bayreuth Festival's visit to Osaka with his own production of Die Walküre and Wieland's production of Tristan und Isolde; new production of Lohengrin in Bayreuth
1968
 New production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Bayreuth
1970
 New production of the Ring in Bayreuth
1975
 New production of Parsifal in Bayreuth
1978
 Directs Tristan und Isolde in Milan in April
1981
 New production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Bayreuth
1985
 New production of Tannhäuser in Bayreuth; directs Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Dresden in December
1988
 Directs Der fliegende Holländer in Dresden in December
1989
 New production of Parsifal in Bayreuth; the Bayreuth Festival visits Tokyo, where it presents Wolfgang's production of Tannhäuser
1991
 Directs Lohengrin in Taormina in September
1994
 Publishes autobiography, Acts; awarded honorary doctorate by the University of Bayreuth
1996
 New production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Bayreuth
1997
 Directs Lohengrin in Tokyo in November




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