May 9, 2025
Athens, GR 14 C
Expand search form
Blog

Why Germany cannot survive without Wagner

Why Germany cannot survive without Wagner

Last night’s late-breaking news that Katharina Wagner had been renewed for five more years as artistic director of  the Bayreuth allowed millions of Germans to sleep soundly in their beds.

Katharina, 45, is the great-grandchild of the composer. She has no other qualifications for the job, having failed in her few attempts to direct opera elsewhere in the country. However, she is a Wagner by DNA and destiny. In the family tradition, she elbowed half-siblings and cousins aside to obtain the job and she clings to it as of right.

Like the monarchy in Britain, croissants in France and yellow cabs in the US, she is perceived in political circles as a symbol of national continuity. Bayreuth without a Wagner in command? Unthinkable. Germany might fall.

Angela Merkel might have more to say in her forthcoming memoirs.

pictured: Barbie at Bayreuth

The post Why Germany cannot survive without Wagner appeared first on Slippedisc.

Previous Article

Just in: Wales fails to listen

Next Article

Maestro shares memories of the Siege of Leningrad

You might be interested in …

Thomas Allen has sung his last performance

Thomas Allen has sung his last performance

An epoch has ended. Alastair Macaulay reports from Glyndebourne: Tonight, the British baritone Thomas Allen, aged seventy-nine, announced from the Glyndebourne stage that this had been his final performance; I wish I had been there. […]

Baltimore is mired in misery

Baltimore is mired in misery

The orchestra world has known for a while that the Baltimore Symphony is seething with unresolved conflict. The matter started when the concertmaster Jonathan Carney allegedly made a sexual advance to the principal oboist Katharine […]