Lifestyle FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2015 Bayreuth curtain to rise on Katharina Wagner’s ‘Tristan and Isolde’ uch is at stake when the curtain rises on a to attend the opening night. At times, the new production of Richard Wagner’s internecine battles of the different branches of the Mopera “Tristan and Isolde” Saturday, the Wagner family have threatened to overshadow glittering opening night of the legendary Bayreuth the on-stage theatrics. And this year has been no Festival. The stakes are particularly high for the fes- different. Media reports-vigorously dismissed- tival chief, Wagner’s great-granddaughter have claimed that Katharina colluded with con- Katharina Wagner, who is directing this year’s stag- ductor Christian Thielemann to have Eva barred ing. The 37-year-old has been at the helm of the from the Green Hill once rehearsals for “Tristan” month-long summer music festival dedicated had started. exclusively to Wagner’s works alongside her much More oil was poured on the fire when the cur- older half-sister Eva Wagner-Pasquier since 2009. rent “Ring” conductor, the intensely media-shy But Eva, 70, is stepping down at the end of the Russian Kirill Petrenko, publicly lambasted the way summer, leaving Katharina in sole charge, at least one of his singers, Canadian tenor Lance Ryan, until her current contract expires in 2020. In direc- who sang the role of Siegfried in the past two torial terms, the list of works Katharina has staged years was replaced at short notice. is still comparatively short. And she has only once before directed in Bayreuth’s Festspielhaus-the Bitter rivalry opera house built to her great-grandfather’s own Speculation of bitter rivalry between Petrenko Entertainer and former classmate Bill Cosby speaks as Patrick O’Connor, chair- designs-with “The Mastersingers of Nuremberg”, a and Thielemann reached fever pitch when production that was almost universally loathed by Petrenko was named chief conductor of the Berlin man of Temple University’s Board of Trustees, right, listens during a public audiences and critics alike. Philharmonic, a position Thielemann was per- memorial service. —AP Classical music aficionados suggest Bayreuth, ceived to have coveted for years. Those rumors more generally, could be losing some of its veneer. were given added piquancy when it was And Katharina’s critics lay the blame squarely at announced that German soprano Anja Kampe, a Cosby loses latest legal bid her door. Under her leadership, the festival’s aes- close friend of Petrenko, pulled out of the role of thetic preferences have veered towards confronta- Isolde with just four weeks to go before the pre- tional directors, such as the self-styled “enfant ter- miere. Thielemann is conducting the new produc- to block sexual abuse lawsuit rible” of German theatre, Frank Castorf, whose cur- tion. rent production of the sprawling four-opera “Ring” Indeed, the festival was unusually late in con- ill Cosby lost his latest bid to fend off a principal causes of action allege the enter- cycle has met with deafening waves of boos and firming this year’s official cast list in June, instead lawsuit accusing him of sexually abus- tainer falsely branded his accusers as liars by whistles since it premiered in 2013. Dyed-in-the- of the normal publication date at the start of the Bing a 15-year-old girl at the Playboy denying that he ever sexually assaulted wool Wagnerians tend to be deeply conservative year. Even taking into account the deaths of two Mansion in Los Angeles in 1974, as the them. In addition, Los Angeles police are in their operatic tastes, and seasoned Bayreuthers cast members in the Germanwings plane crash in California Supreme Court on Wednesday conducting a criminal investigation into a say they are feeling increasingly alienated by the France in March, the delay was still extremely denied the comedian’s petition to review the complaint brought against Cosby, an LAPD provocative, in-your-face productions. unusual. To cap it all for Katharina, this year marks case. The accuser’s attorney, Gloria Allred, spokesman confirmed on Wednesday. He the 150th anniversary since “Tristan and Isolde” said the decision cleared the way for litiga- declined to give details. Internecine battles had its world premiere. Hers will be only the 11th Music lovers also complain that to hear the production of the work at the Bayreuth Festival. tion brought by Judy Huth, now in her 50s, Cosby has never been charged. Los best Wagner singers, they no longer need to head But she insisted in a recent interview that she to proceed, and that she intended to take Angeles County prosecutors declined last to Bayreuth, but can opt for the world’s other lead- does not let such pressures daunt her. “I’ll never be Cosby’s sworn deposition within the next 30 year to bring a criminal case against him over ing opera houses. The waiting list for tickets-which able to fulfill people’s expectations of me if those days. Huth’s allegations, saying the matter dated used to stretch to 10 years and longer-has short- expectations are super-human,” she told the “We are looking forward to Mr Cosby back too far under California’s statute of limi- ened noticeably, not least because the Internet newspaper Welt am Sonntag. “You can’t expect a answering questions under oath at his depo- tations. Allred said the statute is more forgiv- age has dawned over Bayreuth’s mythical Green production to be liked by all 2,000 people in the sition,” Allred said. “It’s a very big victory.” ing of civil complaints of childhood sexual Hill, with a sizeable contingent of tickets now audience. That just isn’t possible.” There was no immediate response from abuse, allowing for a claim of repressed psy- made available online. Ever since the festival’s She was nevertheless optimistic, telling the Cosby or his lawyers, who have consistently chological injury that is discovered by the beginnings in 1876, the composer’s descendants newspaper that already, in putting together the denied allegations of sexual misconduct accuser in the last three years. have torn each other apart in bitter feuds for con- production, “we’ve achieved what we wanted to lodged against the 78-year-old performer. trol of Bayreuth, whose guests traditionally include achieve”. The Bayreuth Festival runs until August But the legal setback for Cosby came as his Mental health royalty and the political and social elite of the day. 28 with 30 performances of seven different defense team mounted a new public rela- Cosby’s attorneys had sought dismissal of Adolf Hitler was a fervent Wagnerian and regu- operas-”Tristan and Isolde”, “Lohengrin”, “The tions blitz on his behalf. Huth’s lawsuit on procedural grounds, argu- larly attended the festival. In peace-time Germany, Flying Dutchman” and the “Ring” comprising In a round of interviews with various news ing among other things that she lacked many heads of government and state have come, “Rhinegold”, “The Valkyrie”, “Siegfried” and outlets, including ABC’s “Good Morning required certification from a mental health and Chancellor Angela Merkel is this year again set “Twilight of the Gods”. —AFP America” and the New York Times, Cosby professional to support her claims. They also lawyer Monique Pressley said the media said in court papers that Huth sued Cosby have distorted deposition testimony made only after she failed to extort money from public this month from a separate sexual him to buy her silence. A Los Angeles assault lawsuit Cosby settled in 2006. Superior Court judge ruled against Cosby, Pressley, a newly hired Cosby attorney and a state appeals court refused to hear the based in Washington, said that while the case in May. On Wednesday, the state deposition may have proved embarrassing Supreme Court did likewise, a decision that to Cosby, nothing in his sworn statements Allred said leaves Cosby no further legal marked an admission of criminal wrongdo- recourse for blocking the lawsuit. ing or of sexual encounters that were any- She said she expects to take Cosby’s dep- thing but consensual. Huth is one of more osition in Massachusetts, where the per- than 40 women who have come forward in former resides. the past year to say that they were raped or The decision comes weeks after a federal molested by Cosby after he plied them with judge in Philadelphia unsealed excerpts of a drugs or alcohol in incidents dating back deposition Cosby gave in a separate sexual decades. assault case he settled with a former Temple University employee, Andrea Constand, for Civil complaints an undisclosed sum in 2006. The excerpts The complaint filed by Huth against included Cosby’s admission under oath that Cosby is one of at least four pending civil he had obtained Quaaludes, the brand name lawsuits stemming from such accusations, for a sedative widely used as a recreational but Allred said Huth’s is the only one seeking drug in the 1970s, with the intent of giving Katharina Wagner, great-granddaughter of German composer Richard Wagner damages for the alleged sexual misconduct the pills to young women in order to have and co-director of the Bayreuth music festival, and her half-sister and co-direc- itself. The others are defamation suits whose sex with them. —Reuters tor Eva Wagner-Pasquier. —AFP