Scion's 'Meistersinger' Eagerly Awaited

Richard Wagner descendant Wolfgang Wagner, center, with his daughter Katharina, left, and his wife Gudrun, right, prior the opening of the Wagner festival in Bayreuth, Germany, in this July 25, 2006 file picture. Katharina who directs the "Meistersinger" for the 2007 Bayreuth Festival is her father Wolfgang's choice to succeed him as festival director.(AP Photo/Eckehard Schulz) (Eckehard Schulz - AP)

The venue is also unspectacular _ though wonderful acoustically. The Festspielhaus perched on a softly contoured hill in the Bavarian city of Bayreuth is a simple brick and sandstone structure described even by founder Richard Wagner as an "old barn" needing replacement.

With no air conditioning, the heat can be stifling. And the average seat in the 1,900-person auditorium is deadly _ with legroom like a cheap coach flight and supports that dig ever more painfully into the small of the back.

While some European heads of state and glitterati are regulars, most Wagner fans have to wait nine years for a ticket. Many come carrying a pillow to cushion the pain.

The fact that Adolf Hitler was an avid Wagnerite _ and many family members fervent Fuehrer fans _ turns off some potential acolytes even before they hear the romantic mysticism of Wagner's earlier operas or assess his claim to achieving "Gesamtkunst" (total art) in his final works.

But for true believers, a trip to the festival is a pilgrimage, despite the wait, the discomfort _ and a repertoire restricted year after year to varying combinations of seven of Wagner's 10 mature works. Predictably, the most buzz is generated by new productions of his "Ring der Niebelungen" _ 15 hours of extraordinary giants, dwarfs, gods, dragons and mortals in an epic four-part tale of love, greed, betrayal and redemption.

"Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg," this year's new production, is a less ambitious undertaking. Still, interest is great because as Wagner's most "German" work, it has faced relatively little experimentation in Bayreuth productions. And stoking the curiosity is Wolfgang Wagner's choice of director _ daughter Katharina.

Katharina, who has received mixed reviews elsewhere but has never directed at Bayreuth, predictably denies any link between her work on the "Meistersinger" and the succession issue.

"A good director is not necessarily a good festival chief," she told Die Welt, only to express her interest in the job in a separate interview: "I would not only consider myself capable, I would do it, if the conditions are right and the trust in me is there."

She has said little on how she will stage the "Meistersinger" _ a work in which the simple themes of a medieval musical competition and German values evolve into a complex set of parables on the virtues of change vs. tradition. But she promises surprises, saying she plans to "break open" the mostly musty versions of the work seen on the Bayreuth stage.

Still, the real drama focuses on who will lead Bayreuth. Whether Wolfgang Wagner steps down this fall, is forced out by age or dies on the job, a shake-up is coming _ and for some observers, not a moment too soon.

"One feels it from all sides," wrote the weekly Die Zeit. "A time of change is just ahead on the Green Hill."