Bibliography

W. Panofsky: Wieland Wagner (Bremen, 1964)

G. Skelton: Wagner at Bayreuth: Experiment and Tradition (London,1965, enlarged 2/1976)

V. Gollancz: The Ring at Bayreuth (London, 1966)

A. Goléa: Gespräche mit Wieland Wagner (Salzburg, 1968)

C. Lust: Wieland Wagner et la survie du théâtre lyrique (Lausanne,1969)

W.E. Schäfer: Wieland Wagner: Persönlichkeit und Leistung (Tübingen, 1970)

G. Skelton: Wieland Wagner: the Positive Sceptic (London, 1971)

D. Mack: Der Bayreuther Inszenierungsstil 1876–1976 (Munich, 1976)

W.S. Wagner: The Wagner Family Albums (London, 1976)

Musique en jeu, nos.22–3 (1976)

O. Bauer: Richard Wagner: die Bühnenwerke von der Uraufführung bis heute (Fribourg,1982; Eng. trans., 1982)

Wagner

(5) Wolfgang (Manfred Martin) Wagner

(b Bayreuth, 30 Aug 1919). Administrator and director, grandson of (1) Richard Wagner and son of (3) Siegfried Wagner. He studied music privately in Bayreuth and received practical theatre training in Berlin with Emil Preetorius. In 1951, with his brother (4) Wieland Wagner, he revived the Bayreuth Festival after World War II. Until Wieland’s death in 1966 they were co-directors of the festival, Wolfgang assuming responsibility for administration; after that date he took over as sole director.

He began by assisting his brother with his modern, controversial productions, and later staged his own productions, beginning with Lohengrin in 1953; he has devoted himself almost exclusively to directing his grandfather’s works. Though clearly influenced by his brother’s reforms, his own productions, up to and including Meistersinger (1981), Tannhäuser (1985) and Parsifal (1989), have been more conservative, occasionally incorporating romantic and semi-naturalistic elements. He shares his brother’s love of lighting effects, though some of his productions have been criticized as too dark. His 1973 version of Meistersinger won praise for its new floor projections and lush variety of colour. He is sceptical of following his grandfather’s written stage directions, but his introduction of a curtain (or more exactly a shutter) closing from both the top and the bottom during the scene changes in the Ring was not a popular innovation. His control over production concepts has been questioned, but the basic concept of his 1970 Ring ranks as one of his most successful achievements. This was set on a tilted disc, like Wieland’s, but in the early stages of the narrative the disc broke into fragments, to be restored whole only at the end of the epic.

Wolfgang’s greatest contribution has been in maintaining the Bayreuth Festival’s unique role as both a shrine to Richard Wagner and a workshop for modern opera production; in his choice of other directors, designers and musicians, he has taken chances and encouraged radical experimentation.

See also Bayreuth.

Bibliography

G. Skelton: Wagner at Bayreuth: Experiment and Tradition (London, 1965, enlarged 2/1976)

D. Mack: Der Bayreuther Inszenierungsstil 1876–1976 (Munich, 1976)

W.S. Wagner: The Wagner Family Albums (London, 1976)

O. Bauer: Richard Wagner: die Bühnenwerke von der Uraufführung bis heute (Fribourg, 1982; Eng. trans., 1982)