Wagner, Wolfgang (Manfred Martin)

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Wagner, Wolfgang (Manfred Martin)

German opera producer, son of Siegfried (Helferich Richard) Wagner and brother of (Adolf) Wieland (Gottfried) Wagner; b. Bayreuth, Aug. 30, 1919. He studied music privately in Bayreuth, then worked in various capacities at the Bayreuth Festivals and the Berlin State Opera. With his brother, Wieland Wagner, he was co-director of the Bayreuth Festivals from 1951 to 1966; after his brother’s death in 1966, he was its sole director. Like his brother, he departed radically from the traditional staging of the Wagner operas, and introduced a psychoanalytic and surrealist mise en scène, often with suggestive phallic and other sexual symbols in the decor. His autobiography was publ. in both Ger. and Eng. in 1994.

Bibliography

M. Linhart, Mit ihm, Musiktheatergeschichte: W. W. zum 75. Geburtstag: eine Ausstellung (Tutzing, 1994).

—Niolas Slonimky/Laura kuhn/Dennis McIntre