Eva Wagner, at 70, is ready to step down

The senior sister at Bayreuth, who turns 70 tomorrow, will be stepping down this summer with few signs of regret.

Although she has kept her own counsel about losing the joint directorship with her half-sister Katharina, sources close to Eva have been letting it be known that her departure is gentle and consensual. She will remain a consultant and a partner in the family enterprise.

Eva was evicted from Bayreuth after her father Wolfgang divorced her mother to marry PR chief Gudrun Mack, a woman one year older than his own daughter. But she was reconciled with Wolfgang before his death and those traumas are long past. In a rare press interview last year, Eva said: ‘With my half sister all is going well.’