In an interview, Katharina Wagner, 33, granddaughter of the composer and co-director of the Richard Wagner Bayreuth Festival, spoke of the declining state of the legendary Festival House on the “Green Hill” at Bayreuth.
The building is showing its age, having been completed originally in 1872, and problems include a leaky roof and the crumbling red brick facade.
The festival sponsors will fund a master renovation plan which should be available in March. A figure of 20 million Euros was an earlier estimate of needed repairs. The original wooden interior of the stage and auditorium area has been replaced by concrete and steel in the 1960s.
Frank Cadenhead