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Bayreuth Festival Hall: money issues on the Green Hill
Photo: Daniel Karmann / picture alliance / dpa
On the Green Hill it's all about money: According to information from the German Press Agency, the Bayreuth Festival Friends' Association has surprisingly announced that it will probably pay less for the opera spectacle in the future.
It should be about one million euros, which could be less in the future.
What this means for the festival is still unclear.
"Bayreuth is a very important opera festival," said Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) at the request of the German Press Agency.
"If the Society of Friends of Bayreuth can contribute significantly less to the financing, then everyone who is part of this whole complex must now act together." You have already held talks on this, and more are planned.
The Society of Friends of Bayreuth has so far given just as much as the federal government and the Free State of Bavaria - usually around three million euros per year - and with 29 percent of the shares in Bayreuther Festspiel-GmbH is an equal partner.
According to dpa information, the association informed the other shareholders at a meeting of the board of directors that they would pay around one million euros less from 2024.
The chairman of the Friends of Bayreuth and the board of directors, Georg Freiherr von Waldenfels, said when asked that it was an internal meeting, the content of which he did not comment on.
When asked by the dpa, Bavaria's Minister of Art Markus Blume (CSU) was confident that "the shareholders will continue to work together to ensure a stable basis for the festival" and referred to upcoming talks.
Festival boss Katharina Wagner did not want to comment and referred to festival manager Ulrich Jagels, who left a corresponding request from the dpa unanswered.
Financial situation of friends “still stable”
Von Waldenfels emphasized that »the Society of Friends of Bayreuth continues to be a reliable partner of Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH and has fulfilled all financial obligations that have been increasing for years, as have the other shareholders of the festival«.
The financial situation of the friends is "still stable," said von Waldenfels.
"Any speculation about it is unfounded."
The friends would "continue to coordinate closely with the public shareholders about the financial situation of the festival and the financial possibilities of the shareholders".
In 2021, the festival had a budget of a good 32 million euros;
5.4 million of these came from the Society of Friends.
At that time, however, the shareholders had agreed to pay more because of the losses caused by the corona pandemic.
Most of the payments from the federal government, the Free State and friends each year were around three million euros.
For the year 2023 they are 3.4 million euros each, as von Waldenfels told the dpa.
So far, the circle of friends has had a great influence on the festival – and also has a say in the board of directors as to whether Katharina Wagner should remain festival director or not.
The contract of composer Richard Wagner's great-granddaughter runs until 2025, this year a decision should be made on how to proceed afterwards.
“It's not just a financial perspective.
It is also a perspective for Bayreuth's management," said Roth of the dpa.
"Everyone has to talk to each other here and get involved together."
Katharina Wagner wants structural changes
Katharina Wagner has never been undisputed since she took over the management of the festival in 2008 as the successor to her father Wolfgang Wagner - initially together with her half-sister Eva Wagner-Pasquier, since 2015 alone.
If she goes, it will mean the end of the family of composers at the head of the festival.
No other family member is publicly declaring an interest at this time.
The head of the Waldenfels circle of friends and board of directors makes no secret of the fact that he cannot understand some of Wagner's artistic decisions.
Last year he sharply criticized the new production of the "Ring des Nibelungen" by director Valentin Schwarz, raved about a "brilliant Christian Thielemann" and said after the end of the festival: "In my view, how the music is perceived is more important than what happens on stage.«
And Katharina Wagner, for her part, set conditions: »I make an extension dependent on certain structures having to change.
It's about the shareholder structure and especially about the finances," she told the dpa last year.
"We need a viable, long-term concept and, above all, a professional sponsorship and marketing department." At the moment, it's primarily the patrons of the Society of Friends of Bayreuth who take care of donations.
feb/dpa
