(MENAFN- AFP) The curtain rose Friday on the world-famous Bayreuth Festival, the month-long summer opera extravaganza dedicated to the works of Richard Wagner, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel conspicuously absent for the first time in years.
Spectators lined the avenue leading up to Bayreuth's fabled Festspielhaus, the theatre built to Wagner's own designs, to watch Germany's political and social elite arrive in limousines for the opening gala performance of "Tannhaeuser".
Some onlookers jostled with photographers and camera crews to catch a glimpse of VIPs in their ballgowns and tuxedos as they were welcomed by the festival chiefs, the composer's great-granddaughters, Katharina Wagner and Eva Wagner-Pasquier.
A "diary clash" was the official reason for Merkel's absence - she is an ardent Wagnerian and has attended the festival in the southern German town regularly since before she became chancellor in 2005.
Festival spokesman Peter Emmerich insisted she would turn up for a couple of performances next week.
"It's a shame Merkel isn't here this year. We come every year just to watch the opening," said a Bayreuth local who identified himself only as Horst, accompanied by his wife Ute.
Following last year's Wagner Bicentenary, when a highly controversial new production of the four-opera "Ring" cycle was unveiled by the iconoclastic German director, Frank Castorf, no new productions are scheduled this year.
Instead, the opening night production of "Tannhaeuser" by another German director, Sebastian Baumgarten, dates back to 2011 and is deeply unpopular with audiences and critics alike.
It sets Wagner's tale of the wandering knight-minstrel in a modern bio-gas plant.
The start was delayed after technical problems on stage prompted the audience, which had already taken its seats, to be escorted outside. The curtain finally went up more than an hour after the scheduled time.
This will be the production's final year, to be replaced in 2015 by a new staging of "Tristan and Isolde" by Katharina herself.
Striking it lucky
While tickets for the festival are notoriously difficult to come by, with waiting lists of 10 years and more, there is growing disaffection with the artistic choices made by half-sisters Katharina and Eva.
The highbrow daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung recently complained the festival is suffering from "artistic arteriosclerosis" and was "about as exciting as stale beer".
Only a handful of hopefuls stood holding "ticket wanted" notices at the box office.
"I know this 'Tannhaeuser' isn't supposed to be very good. But I'd still love to get in, just to say I've been here. Perhaps I'll strike it lucky and someone will give me their ticket after the first interval," said Peter Gruenbaum, who said he had travelled down from Cologne especially.
Last year audiences booed, whistled and jeered Castorf's "Ring" for more than 15 minutes after its premiere.
The bizarre staging set Wagner's story in faraway places such as Baku, Azerbaijan, and featured prostitutes, gangsters, Kalashnikov rifles and copulating crocodiles.
While the festival chiefs stood firmly behind Castorf last year, the outspoken director lashed out at Katharina and Eva in a magazine interview this week.
He accused them of treating him like an "idiot" and ruling over the festival with an atmosphere of fear and intimidation familiar from communist East Germany where he grew up.
This is the last year in which Katharina and Eva will be jointly in charge of the festival.
Eva is retiring at the end of this year's event, leaving Katharina in sole charge.
The Bayreuth Festival runs until August 28, with a total 30 performances of seven different operas - "Tannhaeuser", "The Flying Dutchman", "Lohengrin" and the "Ring" comprising "Rhinegold", "The Valkyrie", "Siegfried" and "Twilight of the Gods".
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