Edward A. Bortnichak, Bayreuth Masterclass in the Dynamics of Change: An Appreciation of Katharina Wagner’s Production of ‘Die Meistersinger’

Courage is a rare commodity. For a theatre artist, it can be defined as the willingness to bring to the stage something new and important, even if your audience is likely to resist embracing it. It is the courage to drive changes in how the rest of us see art and, ultimately, life. Richard Wagner clearly had courage; so also does his great-granddaughter Katharina, as evidenced by her profoundly important production of Die Meistersinger, currently before a largely unappreciative public at the Bayreuth Festival.