Interview with Wolfgang Wagner

An interview with the former director of the Bayreuth Festival, Wolfgang Wagner.

Grandson of the composer Richar Wagner, Wolfgang Wagner was an opera director and the director of the Bayreuth Festival from 1966 to 2008. Taking over from his elder brother Wieland at the head of the Festival, Wolgang shared in his brother's ambition to open a new chapter of the Festival history. Modern in their approach, Wolgang Wagner's minimalist stagings exploiting fully the effects of light aimed at letting music come to the fore.

In 1976, Wolgang Wagner invited the conductor Pierre Boulez and the stage director Patrice Chéreau to produce the Ring des Nibelungen for the 100th anniversary of the Festspielhaus. An epoch-making production, this Ring was the crowning achievement of the artistic path followed by the festival director. Wolfgang Wagner accepted to face the camera of Horant H. Hohfeld and to relate his life at the head of one of the most prestigious operatic institution, the Bayreuth Festival.