Katharina Wagner grittily welcomes ‘restructuring’

The Bayreuth Festival chief says she’s ‘pleased that the structural problems that have been known for years are being discussed.’ She was responding from an unseasonal intervention by the federal culture minister Monika Grütters that the festival needs a structural overhaul.

Her statement, issued through gritted teeth, reads: ‘I am pleased to read that at this point in time, Minister of State Prof. Monika Grütters, despite other major challenges and problems to be solved in the cultural field, would like to renew the outdated structures that I have questioned for years in order to enable the Bayreuther Festspiel-GmbH, its employees and, last but not least, the management to continue working effectively and at the highest artistic level.’