BERLIN, Sept 22, 2007 (AFP) - The great-granddaughter of German composer Richard Wagner put herself forward Saturday to co-organise the Bayreuth festival dedicated to his works with German conductor Christian Thielemann.

Katharina Wagner, 29, has long been the favourite to succeed her father Wolfgang Wagner, who has run the festival since 1951, although other members of the Wagner clan hotly contest her claims.

BAYREUTH, Germany, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - Christoph Schlingensief's exasperating production of 'Parsifal', being revived for its final time this year, was loudly booed here on Thursday as it rounded off the glitzy premiere week of the Bayreuth Festival.

Schlingensief's wilfully oblique production, which has polarised Bayreuth audiences since it was first unveiled in 2004, again drew cat-calls and whistles this year even at the end of each of the first two acts.

BAYREUTH, Germany, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) - German tenor Endrik Wottrich will not sing the role of Siegmund in the next performance of 'Die Walkuere' (The Valkyrie) here on Sunday, the organisers of the Bayreuth Festival announced on Thursday.

Wottrich is ill and will be replaced by US tenor Robert Dean Smith, at least for Sunday's performance, and it is still unclear whether he resume the role during the remainder of the season, a festival spokeswoman told AFP.

BAYREUTH, Germany, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) - German playwright Tankred Dorst and his production team were loudly booed here on Wednesday night when the curtain came down on 'Twilight of the Gods', the final instalment of Dorst's banal and vapid production of Wagner's 'Ring'.

While the singers received rapturous applause from the audience in Bayreuth's legendary 'Festspielhaus', and conductor Christian Thielemann was greeted with standing ovations, a storm of enraged boos and whistles was let loose when Dorst and his team took their bows.

BAYREUTH, Germany, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) - 'You have to be a bit of a Wagner nut to work here. After all, you're sacrificing your entire summer holiday. But for me, it's like walking in paradise. It's something special,' says Jan Ruedisueli, make-up artist at this year's Bayreuth Festival.

Ruedisueli, a 62-year-old Dutchman who worked at the Amsterdam opera for 30 years where he was the personal make-up artist and wig-maker of stars such as Joan Sutherland, has worked for the annual Richard Wagner Festspiele, the world's oldest summer music festival, for the past three years.

BAYREUTH, Germany, Aug 1, 2007 (AFP) - Sebastian Wittiber, first flautist in the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, says it as a 'great honour' to play at the world-famous Richard Wagner Festspiele, the month-long summer music festival dedicated exclusively to the composer's works.

But the 39-year-old flautist from Frankfurt says that the rehearsals, five hours a day, can be tough and exhausting.

BAYREUTH, Germany, July 31, 2007 (AFP) - Tankred Dorst's uninspiring production of Richard Wagner's four-part 'Ring' cycle, being revived here for the first time, continued here on Monday with a performance of 'Siegfried' that was marred by patchy singing.

While German maestro Christian Thielemann continued to work magic in the unseen pit with the glorious Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, the singing onstage was anything but world-class.

BAYREUTH, Germany, July 29, 2007 (AFP) - The first week of the 96th Bayreuth Festival reached its halfway mark here on Saturday with a musically satisfying performance of 'Die Walkuere' (The Valkyrie).

Canadia's Adrianne Pieczonka stole the show with her rich, gleaming mezzo and gripping portrayal as the unhappy Sieglinde, who falls in love with her long-lost brother Siegmund.

BAYREUTH, Germany, July 27, 2007 (AFP) - The 96th Bayreuth Festival continued here with the first revival of Tankred Dorst's much-derided production of Richard Wagner's massive four-part 'Ring' cycle.

German star conductor Christian Thielemann, long seen as the Bayreuther Festspiele's secret GMD (general music director), received standing ovations at the end of the first instalment of the tetralogy, 'Das Rheingold' (The Rhinegold).

It is set to continue Saturday, with the second part, 'Die Walkuere' (The Valkyrie).

BAYREUTH, Germany, July 27, 2007 (AFP) - On the second day of this year's Bayreuth Festival, Philippe Arlaud's well-loved production of 'Tannhaeuser' received tumultuous applause.

A day after 29-year-old Katharina Wagner was booed off the stage for her production of 'The Mastersingers of Nuremberg', Thursday's audience was much better disposed to Arlaud's reading of Richard Wagner's romantic opera.

His production, which dates back to 2002, is being revived for the very last time this year after a year-long break in 2006.

BAYREUTH, Germany, July 25, 2007 (AFP) - Katharina Wagner, the 29-year-old great-granddaughter of composer Richard Wagner, was loudly booed at her directorial debut at the opening of this year`s Bayreuth Festival on Wednesday.

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.

BAYREUTH, Germany, July 25, 2007 (AFP) - The 96th Richard Wagner Festival was set to open here Wednesday with the premiere of a brand-new staging of the composer`s controversial opera, 'The Mastersingers of Nuremberg', directed by his 29-year-old great-granddaughter, Katharina.

BAYREUTH, Germany, July 24, 2007 (AFP) - When the curtain rises on this year`s Bayreuth Festival, the director of the opening production -- a brand new staging of of Richard Wagner`s most controversial opera, 'The Mastersingers of Nuremberg' -- will be nowhere to be seen.

Or that, at least, is what the director -- the composer`s 29-year-old great-granddaughter, Katharina -- claims.

'The excitement is simply too much. I`m worried that the singers will pick up on my nervousness,' the willowy blonde said in one of countless newspaper interviews recently.

BAYREUTH, Germany, July 23, 2007 (AFP) - The Bayreuth Festival, the annual month-long summer music fest dedicated to Richard Wagner (1813-1883), is staging seven different operas this year.

The 96th Richard Wagner Festspiele, opening July 25 and running until August 28, includes a new production of the composer's only 'comic' opera, 'The Mastersingers of Nuremberg', in an eagerly awaited staging by Wagner's 29-year-old great-granddaughter, Katharina.

BAYREUTH, Germany, July 23, 2007 (AFP) - Many roads lead to the Bayreuth Festival, the prestigious annual month-long summer music fest celebrating the works of Richard Wagner.

But whichever the path, entry to the legendary 'Festspielhaus' on Bayreuth`s famed 'Green Hill' remains one of the hardest-to-come-by tickets on the opera and classical music scene today.

Unfortunately, the simplest most obvious way -- application by post -- is perhaps also the longest and the one requiring most stamina.