Wieland Wagner
| Wieland Wagner | |
|---|---|
| Born |
5 January 1917 Bayreuth, Germany |
| Died | 17 October 1966 (aged 49) Munich, Germany |
| Cause of death | Lung cancer |
| Residence | Haus Wahnfried, Bayreuth |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | Opera director |
| Known for | Member of Wagner family and Opera director |
| Children | Iris, Wolf-Siegfried, Nike and Daphne |
| Parent(s) | Siegfried Wagner and Winifred Wagner |
| Relatives | Richard Wagner, Friedelind Wagner, Wolfgang Wagner, Verena Wagner |
Wieland Wagner (5 January 1917 – 17 October 1966) was a German opera director.
Wieland Wagner was the elder of two sons of Siegfried and Winifred Wagner, grandson of composer Richard Wagner, and great-grandson of composer Franz Liszt through Wieland's paternal grandmother.
In 1941, he married the dancer and choreographer Gertrud Reissinger. They had four children: Iris (b. 1942), Wolf Siegfried (b. 1943), Nike (b. 1945) and Daphne (b. 1946). Their son Wolf married Marie Eleanore von Lehndorff-Steinort, sister of fashion model Veruschka, whose father was involved in the July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler.
Late in his life, Wieland had a love affair with the much younger Anja Silja, one of the singers he had recruited for Bayreuth.
In 1965, he was awarded the Pour le Mérite.
He died of lung cancer in October 1966.
Wieland Wagner is credited as an initiator of Regietheater through ushering in a new modern style to Wagnerian opera as a stage director and designer, substituting a symbolic for a naturalist staging and focusing on the psychology of the drama.
Wieland began his directorial career before World War II, working on operas by his father and grandfather. His innovative approach did not become clear until after the war. His design for the 1937 Bayreuth production of Parsifal, for example, was conservative, though it did have film projections during the transformation scenes.
When the Bayreuth Festival reopened after the war in 1951, Wieland and his brother Wolfgang became festival directors in place of their mother, whose association with Adolf Hitler had made her unacceptable. (Wieland's own past was, however, suppressed.) The revolutionary productions evoked extreme views both for and against.
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