Bayreuther Festspiele: Alleged House ban on Wagner-Pasquier – SPIEGEL ONLINE

The conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim, 72, has an alleged ban of the Bayreuth Wagner Festival for the discriminating Festival boss Eva Wagner-Pasquier, 70, strongly criticized. “With astonishment and surprise” he had read that Wagner-Pasquier access to their place of work during the time of the samples on the Green Hill pursue. A ban on Wagner-Pasquier was officially not immediately confirmed by the Festival tip.

“Is there in a free democratic country for such a procedure a legal basis?”, Wrote the music director of the Berlin State Opera in a personal statement. “I thought you can not take the people their freedom of movement -. Except if they were criminals This approach is inhumane,” said Barenboim, who conducted from 1981 to 1999 at the Bayreuth Festival.

background of squabbling is that the current conductor Christian Thielemann said to have made the house ban on Wagner-Pasquier as a condition for his work. The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reported, Thielemann’s alleged desire had supported all four shareholders. From two – the Society of Friends of Bayreuth and the Free State of Bavaria -. It said according to the newspaper, the Causa Wagner-Pasquier had nothing to do with any demands Thielemanns

Wagner-Pasquier lawyer Peter Raue now told however that he had received a letter, which Wagner-Pasquier should have no more say in contract issues and the casting. In addition, the 70-year-old should not be present on the Green Hill from 1 June to 20 July. There was, according to his research, however, no such decision by the shareholders’ meeting.

Georg von Waldenfels, head of the Society of Friends of Bayreuth, is chairman of the shareholders’ meeting. He commented only: “No one will stand on the hill and say to Mrs. Wagner-Pasquier, they have no business here.” He did not make more information.

The Festival begins on July 25 with “Tristan und Isolde” in a production by festival director Katharina Wagner. When her half-sister Wagner-Pasquier retires in September, the 37-year-old will be the sole hill boss.