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.