Some Wagner devotees are outraged by the Bayreuth Festival's decision to place two major productions in the hands of directors known for using explicit sex and left-wing political themes in their stagings, the Telegraph of London reports.
Wolfgang Wagner, the composer's 83-year-old grandson, recently announced that Lars von Trier, a Danish cinematographer known for brutal sex scenes, will direct the festival's next Ring cycle and that radical German theater director Christoph Schlingensief will develop its new Parsifal. Schlingensief is best known for casting Hamlet with neo-Nazi skinheads who had never acted before, the Telegraph says.
But Wagner fans, many of whom consider Bayreuth to be the guardian of a conservative performance tradition, have been complaining about the decisions.
"This is idiocy. Bayreuth no longer believes in the works of Richard Wagner," a regular Bayreuth visitor told Germany's Die Welt newspaper.
Klaus Zehelein, president of the German Stage Association, told the Telegraph that hiring the two directors is "crazy."
"There is a danger that the artistic product will turn out to be something which is thoughtless and devoid of both concept and vision," he said.
Wolfgang Wagner stood by his decision. "Lars von Trier has qualified himself as director of the Ring through his masterful use of the characters in his films," he told the newspaper. He added that Schlingensief "is an extraordinarily well brought-up young man, unlike many of the louts who sometimes show up here."
— Michael Markowitz
"Storm over sex and
violence hits Wagner festival"
Tony Paterson - The
Telegraph [London] - 14 July 2003
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