Fight of the Valkyries: The Wagner’s bitter struggle for control of their own opera festival

The Bayreuth Festival opened last Friday with the premiere of the Norwegian director Stefan Herheim’s production of Parsifal that also closes proceedings on 28 August. This new staging of Richard Wagner’s final opera – written specially for the Festspielhaus (Festival Theatre) he founded in the small Bavarian town – is the major artistic event in [...]