(L-R) Gudrun, Katharina and Wolfgang Wagner
© AFP/DDP Timm SchambergerBAYREUTH, Germany (AFP) - The first-night audience of the 96th Bayreuther Festspiele, which began with Katharina's eagerly anticipated new reading of "The Mastersingers of Nuremberg", jeered and whistled when the willowy blonde took her bows after the final curtain came down.
While the applause had been fairly friendly after each of the first two acts of Wagner's only "comic" opera, the political and social elite attending the glitzy opening night were outraged by the third and final act, with its depictions of nudity and sexuality, showing Nuremberg's guild of singers, or "Meistersinger", romping around the stage with outsized penises.
"It had absolutely nothing to do with 'Meistersinger'," raged Herbert H., 64. "It was all so gratuitous. It wasn't true to the text at all."
Earlier, some audience members had gushed with enthusiasm.
"Fantastic," said one American woman as she emerged from the hallowed "Festspielhaus" theatre following the first act.
"Surprisingly good," enthused Carl Julius Brabant, an octogenarian who said he has been coming to Bayreuth since 1951. "It's really got oomph."
Angela Merkel (R) and her husband Joachim Sauer
© AFP/DDP Timm SchambergerThe production came under particularly close scrutiny because it marked Katharina Wagner's debut on Bayreuth's famed "Green Hill" and could make or break her chances of taking over the running of the world's oldest and most prestigious summer music festival, which Wagner himself set up 131 years ago.
Katharina is the youngest-ever director in the Festspielhaus and the only woman ever to be entrusted with a complete staging.
The battle for control of the festival has pitted the different branches of the warring Wagner clan against each other for decades.
Bayreuth is currently run by Wolfgang Wagner, the composer's 87-year-old grandson, in charge since 1951. He wants Katharina, his daughter by his second marriage, to take over when he steps down.
But Katharina's half-sister Eva Wagner-Pasquier and her cousin Nike Wagner, both 62, also lay claim to the Bayreuth throne. Eva is Wolfgang's daughter by his first marriage, while Nike is the daughter of Wolfgang's brother Wieland, who died in 1966.
Achim Barth, from Frankfurt, dismissed Katharina's interpretation of "Meistersinger" as unnecessarily gimmicky.
"It's runs completely contrary to the text. It's just nonsense. Modern for the sake of being modern."
Roger Alier, a Spanish opera critic, was similarly damning.
"Just horrible," was his verdict. "I hear what they're singing and it has nothing to do with what's going on on stage. I don't see where she's going with this."
Musically, too, the production failed to impress.
German conductor Sebastian Weigle, making his Bayreuth debut, "has absolutely no grasp of the score. It's extremely messy," said Lorenz Tomerius, a Berlin-based critic, who added: "The singing's not up to scratch, either."
Katharina Wagner
© AFP/DDP Timm SchambergerAlmost all of the cast, uncharacteristically young by Bayreuth's standards, were performing in the legendary Festspielhaus for the first time.
German baritone Franz Hawlata was booed in the role of Hans Sachs, as were the two female characters, Eva and Magdalene, taken by American soprano Amanda Mace and Carola Guber of Germany.
Only Michael Volle as Sixtus Beckmesser and Klaus Florian Vogt as Walther von Stolzing were warmly applauded.
Bayreuth's glitzy opening night is traditionally a red-carpet affair, attended by Europe's political and social elite.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in an elegant purple two-piece, chatted amiably with EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso on the lawn in front of the Festspielhaus during the interval.
A number of colourful figures from the German entertainment scene were also in attendance, including TV showmaster Thomas Gottschalk, crooner Roberto Blanco, and Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis.
The 96th Bayreuth Festival was set to continue Thursday with a revival of Philippe Arlaud's "Tannhaeuser", last seen here in 2005.
©AFP