About Wolfgang Wagner
Wolfgang Wagner was a German opera director. He is best known as the director (Festspielleiter) of the Bayreuth Festival, a position he initially assumed alongside his brother Wieland in 1951 until the latter's death in 1966. From then on, he assumed total control until he retired in 2008, although many of the productions which he commissioned were severely criticized in their day. He had been plagued by family conflicts and criticism for many years. He was the son of Siegfried Wagner and he was the great-grandson of Franz Liszt. During the 1920s Winifred Wagner was an admirer, supporter and friend of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who became a regular visitor to Bayreuth a decade before he assumed power in Germany. When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, he showered favours on the Wagner family. On Wieland's death in 1966, Wolfgang became the sole director of the festival and, under his directorship, the famous Bayreuth Festspielhaus underwent extensive renovations.
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