Bayreuth Festival chief Wolfgang Wagner dies at 90

Wolfgang Wagner passed away on March 21, 2010 in his house in Bayreuth in southern Germany at the age of ninety. The long-time director of the famous Bayreuth Festival stood down from his duties in 2008.

Wolfgang Wagner's grandfather was composer Richard Wagner and his great-grandfather was Franz Liszt.

The news of Wagner's death was made by Bayreuth Festival spokesman Peter Emmerich late on Sunday. Wagner's daughter, Katharina Wagner, said that her father died peacefully in his sleep, according to Emmerich.

Wolfgang Wagner headed the legendary opera festival in southern Germany for 57 years until his retirement two years ago, when his two daughters, Eva Wagner-Pasquier and her half-sister Katharina Wagner took over festival duties after amicably resolving a family spat over who should lead the festival.

Wagner legacy

Wagner was the grandson of composer Richard Wagner

Wagner was born on 30th August 1919 in Bayreuth. Wounded during the Second World War Wagner later worked as an assistant to the director of the Prussian State Opera in Berlin where he also studied music.

After the war he and his brother Wieland championed efforts to revive the Bayreuth Festival, which was founded in 1876. Wolfgang became sole festival chief after Wieland's death in 1966.

The Festspielhaus theater was built by Richard Wagner in the 1870s as the ideal setting for his epic operas, and opera lovers flock to the Bavarian town of Bayreuth each year to see Wagner productions, like the Ring Cycle by Patrice Chereau in 1976.

On November 9, 2009, on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Wagner was honored for his lifetime achievement with the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany with star and ribbon.

nrt/dpa/apn

Editor: Andreas Illmer