Bayreuth 2007

Today is the start of the Bayreuther Festspiele, the high point of the year in every Wagnerian's calendar and just an hour up the road from Festung Europa. Unfortunately for poor souls like myself, the exhorbitantly-priced and even harder to acquire tickets are out of my reach. (Perhaps I should try for a GBCN Press pass...) When the curtain goes up on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg late this afternoon, many of Germany's Promis will be in attendance, such as Kanzlerin Merkel und Bayrischer Ministerpräsident Stoiber. This year's premiere work is even more important as it is the Bayreuth directorial début of Wagner's great-granddaughter, Katherina (left), a 29-year old Aryan hottie who could possibly take over the reins of the Festspiele this fall with the predicted retirement of her soon to be 88-year old father, Wolfgang Wagner. Her competition for the job seems to be her 62-year old cousins, Nike Wagner and Eva Wagner-Pasquier, both of whom are qualified festival managers, but in this case, I side with the hottie. More importantly, so does her father.

Gentle listener, you can hear Wagner's Die Meistersinger live through these streams provided by Bayern 4 Klassik radio for Real Player or Windows Media Player. The coverage begins today at 15:55 MESZ, which is 9:55 EDT, 8:55 CDT in the USA.