Katharina Wagner is taking no risks

Katharina Wagner is taking no risks

Opera

norman lebrecht

March 09, 2023

From the Bayreuth chief’s appearance this week at the Richard-Wagner-Verband Frankfurt a.M.:

 

Is the air that much purer in Bayreuth?

 

All caption suggestions gratefully received in Comments.

Comments

  • Petros Linardos says:

    Commenting on masking choices reminds me of Trump.

    • GUEST says:

      Indeed, not to mention she had a “very serious illness” a couple of years ago, which would suggest being safe, and not sorry.

  • Alank says:

    Katrina preemptively protects herself from the stink of her next production

  • Meal says:

    I can totally relate to her decision to wear a mask, even though I no longer wear one myself. Although the official numbers on COVID-19 infections may be low there are many patients suffering from COVID-19 and even more patients with other airway infections. Since Ms. Wagner has had a serious lung disease (I do not know whether she is really _fully_ recovered from that) she is at high risk to acquire serious lung infection (from whatever virus). Thus, my caption would be: Ms. Wagner takes a responsible approach to her health.

  • Dr. Evan Baker says:

    what a stupid crack from the editor. particularly after a severe illness that nearly ended her life.

  • Mock Mahler says:

    This is the most purely irresponsible post I have seen on SD. The shark is jumped.

  • Barry Guerrero says:

    Norman, at the risk of getting kicked off of SD, slow down! Like everyone else, you need to think in terms of quality over quantity. In recent times, you’ve even printed glaring inaccuracies in regards to one of your allegedly favorite composers. It appears that you’re just jumping from one idea to the next. You’re always concerned about where people are from – (I guess that makes sense, being trapped on an island) – but look at the bizarre and hateful comments that often times attracts. Just slow down and think more. I think it would be to your benefit to stop being the ‘old’ Howard Stern of classical music. The ‘shock jock’ thing is old and tiresome.

  • MMcGrath says:

    To answer the question. NO! Many Germans remain paranoid about the virus. You can still see them wearing surgical gloves in the gym and supermarket!

    • FD says:

      Absolute nonsense. There are almost no regulations anymore, except in the medical field. And most of the people don’t wear a mask or wear any gloves. Greetings from Germany.

  • Doc Martin says:

    A recent Cochrane systematic review concluded face masks were useless against Sars-cov-2. However another critical study made the observation that the Cochrane review itself was flawed by using Meta analysis. Effectively comparing apples and oranges (masks in clinical and non clinical settings etc). I wore N95 masks and clinical respirators in 2020-21 and avoided Cov-19 100%, without a shot at all.

    Once it converted via a HIV patient in South Africa to Omicron, the risk factor was substantially reduced.

    If I attended Bayreuth for say the Ring or Parsifal, I could not wear a mask for 5 hours eg for Siegfried! I have so far avoided hospitals EDs and resuscitation.

  • Ernest says:

    Here in the Far East, it is quite common to wear masks to protect others from your own germs and not the other way round …

  • Genius Repairman says:

    There are about 100 deaths from COVID per day in Germany and about 1500 people are in a critical condition right now. I think that mask wearing by vulnerable and anxious people is perfectly reasonable going forward and it helps protect against influenza too. A mask does not stop a virus from entering the body but it does cut down the number of virions that attempt infection. A smaller number entering increases the chances of the body successfully responding before any illness.

  • Player says:

    She is well known for having been paranoid about Covid, long before she was ill with a separate condition.

    I do think she should have more pressing things to worry about, like the quality of the Bayreuth festival and her own role there.

    • Jason says:

      Why can’t she be concerned about Covid, wear a mask, and worry about the quality of the Bayreuth Festival all at the same time?

  • Doc Martin says:

    Those who attend Bayreuth regularly I understand have a high risk of developing haemorrhoids or at the very least exacerbating them! Wagner himself suffered from them quite badly which explains why he had so many trips to Spas! Epsom salts helps to soothe them. They did not have Bismuth creams in the 19th century only herbal remedies.

  • Doc Martin says:

    Have they installed HEPA air conditioning in that fire hazard of a place I wonder. Or is the air the same since 1876, full of dandruff, skin cells, dust TB, etc. I understand it was used to house US GIs in 1945, who made off with the bespoke Steer horns used in Gotterdammerung.

  • Doc Martin says:

    Here is a copy of the Cochrane Systematic Review by Jefferson et al concerning preventative measures against Cov-19 – face masks.

    The problem I have with it is that they used meta analysis pooling the data from dissimilar RCTs and dissimilar situations. During the early stage of the pandemic in 2020, the Wuhan, alpha variants were the main cause of admissions. As Sars-cov-2 mutated rapidly it seems to have become more infectious, but to some extent less virulent (pathogenic). Since vaccination did not begin much before early 2021, if you managed to avoid it in 2020 you had a better chance of avoiding ventilation/ resuscitation etc, the game changer occurred when it converted into Omicron by mutating in HIV patients in Jo’burg. This resulted in a change in its aetiology, instead of targeting the lower respiratory tract (lungs), it went for the ENT.

    Masks in my opinion did at least slow its transmission to some extent, in the crucial early stage, unlike the vaccine which as studies in NEJM show, exhibit gradual immune evasion, even after boosting.

    https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6/epdf/full

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